Reduce, reuse, recycle, reupholster

I’ve reupholstered every piece of furniture that I own several times over on account of the nasty clawing creature I live with (Mr. Fisher). One of my more recent projects involved the painting and reupholstery of four dining room chairs in silk damask. Silk is NOT a traditional upholstery fabric – its not long wearing and is easily and irreparably stained by moisture and oils. But its so pretty – so even knowing this I decided to use it.
The chairs were purchased on Kijiji and unfortunately were from the home of a chain smoker. I will never ever buy chairs that have been around smoke in this way again – it took tons of cleaning with TSP and multiple layers of paint to get rid of the smell and still the residue will seep through the paint job.
For any upholstery job you will need foam, sometimes cotton batting, upholstery needles (curved) depending on the project, a staple gun, hammer and upholstery nails, material and cotton backing (depending on the project). I find that foam is rather expensive in Canada – but really high quality foam will last for ages and can be used over and over again for different projects.
The chairs were hideously ugly when we first bought them – but after some love I find them much cuter and we’ve managed to save ourselves from buying expensive chairs, made who knows where, shipped from across the world and probably containing fire retardant chemicals. After initial interest from Mr. Fisher, he has since given up on destroying this particular piece of furniture and so they are actually standing up rather well.
Also, here is a picture of a chair and foot rest that I recovered in fabric that I thought looked like a pebble beach – but once on the furniture it looks more like the hide of strange animal. As you can see, Mr. Fisher approves. Him and the furniture animal do regular battle and I foresee more upholstery projects in my future.