Sometimes thrift flips take time. A LOT of time. I recently recovered a chair that, if I look back, I've been piecing together for about a year now. I didn't even know what each item I gathered would become when I found them, just that I had a gut feeling about them and it totally paid off.
Several months ago, I visited one thrift shop three times in one day. The non-buyers remorse was real and I just had to go back for a few things. One of which was a beautiful set of curtains. They were very sun-faded, but I absolutely loved them! The price was what held me back because my cart was already full that day, but after getting home, I realized they were the color of the day which meant they were half off! I hurried back to the store and they were thankfully still there.
About a year ago, I bought a set of chair off Facebook Marketplace. I thought they'd be fairly easy to reupholster which I attempted a couple months ago and and failed at miserably.
I chose a pretty paisley velvet and an olive green velvet that looked great in the store, but very blah in my house. That coupled with me cutting a few corners when reupholstering, literally and figuratively, led to a horribly failed diy project and a lot of frustration.
I hid the chairs away in my junk room until I was ready to look at them again which took until just this past month.
The velvet vibe was a loss, but those faded, floral curtains kept coming to mind. I did it right this time, pulling off my botched velvet and stripping the chair down to its stuffing.
The rows and rows of staples were such a pain to remove and it took an entire day to get just one chair taken apart!
I deconstructed my curtains and followed the original striped fabric shape when cutting them down to size. Then I replicated how the original fabric had been attached to the chair as best I could (I took lots of pictures and videos to refer back to).
When all the floral fabric was in place, I used the lining from the curtains to finish the bottom of the chair.
The curtains had green plaid tie backs which I thought were so pretty paired with the red floral so I took those apart and turned them into my trim.
I had such a hard time deciding how I was going to trim out the back. Frame the whole thing in green? Just have the green on the sides and bottom and a red strip covering the line of staples at the top? I even asked TikTok what they thought I should do and everyone was pretty split. I ended up going with a strip of red across the top and green down the sides and bottom. I do plan to remove the bottom green piece because that was my original plan (and the option my mom voted for), but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I think any variation would look cute with fabric and patterns this pretty and I've still got extra trim if I change my mind later.
This project completely took over my life for the better part of a weekend, but I am so happy with the results! Happy I went back to Goodwill for the curtains, happy I saw the potential in these Marketplace chairs, and happy the velvet idea didn't pan out. This one, beautiful chair will live at my desk for the time being until I'm brave enough to do it all over again with the second chair (and make a run to the hardware store for more staples). This project was worth the year-long wait and just goes to show you should always trust your gut even if you don't have a full-fledged plan.
