Dining Delight

I am happy and proud and excited to annouce.......that I have finished the ten dining room chairs I had been working on for a client!!!!! Yes, TEN chairs.  It was a big undertaking that spanned over several weeks, two chairs at a time.

Eight of the ten chairs were seats only.  Pretty simple, but still required time.  The two head chairs were fully upholstered, legs and everything.  They required a lot more work and time....and patience!

Here is what the eight side chairs looked like before:

And after:

It was very simple, very elegant gray/silver fabric.  There was a slight stripe to it and when the light hits it, you can see a faint silver fleck.  Very classic.  A far cry from the floral pattern originally on them.

Side note:  does our grass appear to be super green in these shots??  No camera effects either.  Just the beautiful brilliance of springtime :)

The head chairs, or Parsons chairs as they are officially called, were completely upholstered.  There was way more to it than removing the existing seat fabric and slapping a new piece on.  Most of the time I alotted for each chair was due to removing the existing fabric.  Staple by staple.  It was a nightmare.  But the actual upholstering of the chairs was fun!

Parsons chairs before:

When I first met with the client to consider fabric choices, she had her heart set on a very beautiful, but very expensive patterned fabric.  My suggestion??  Cover the two head chairs in the patterned fabric, and use a less expensive and simpler fabric for the other eight chairs.  This not only gave her the material she loved, but it helped her budget and allowed the patterned fabric to really stand out against the other chairs in the room.

See what I mean??

I'm really proud of these guys, as I'm sure you can imagine why....they were alotta work!!

The fancy pleating:

The fully upholstered back:

I was a proud upholsterer today :)

It's not often that I get to photograph my work in its new home - it's usually in the dark dirty basement or out in the driveway where I do most of my work.  But I was really excited to take a ton of shots inside her house, especially since I helped her pick out all the paint colors during our color consultation and my company had just finished a complete flooring remodel for her.

In fact, on another quick note, I helped her design the new kitchen backsplash as well:

Can you believe those cabinets used to be oak??? Oh, the power of paint and glaze.  She had herself one hell of a painter, that's all I can say!

Well, that bout sums it up.  Ten chairs later, she has a brand new formal dining room.  And, because there was leftover fabric, we are in the process of discussing a table runner or placemats to finish it off.  Fun, fun!