Regular Random: five minutes with some upholstery materials

/ Su Leslie
Shot of armchair seat with cover removed, and assorted materials to re-upholster. Hessian, platform cloth, cover fabric, needles, scissors and tape measure. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Getting started. The seat of my $5 project chair — ready to be re-up-holstered. Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Last week the Big T and I deconstructed our $5 charity shop armchair, removing the old upholstery and stripping layers of yellowing varnish off the wood frame.

Yesterday, I began the process of re-staining and varnishing the wood; and collected the upholstery materials together. I plan to start with practice on the chair seat. It detaches, and because the whole wooden frame will be fabric-covered, it doesn’t need to be varnished.

Wish me luck!

Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Image: Su Leslie, 2018

Five Minutes of Random (the #RegularRandom challenge) is hosted by Desley Jane at Musings of a Frequently Flying Scientist. Her latest post captures beauty in decay through a delicate pink peony. The images are stunning, so do pop over and take a look.

If you’d like to join in:

  • choose a subject or a scene
  • spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
  • try to see it from many angles, look through something at it, change the light that’s hitting it
  • tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to Desley’s post
  • have fun!

36 thoughts on “Regular Random: five minutes with some upholstery materials”

  3. Oh these are gorgeous. Love the pops of colour. And that tape measure! I’m in love with photos of tape measures for some reason. I covered a few foot stools before but haven’t stripped back wood or anything. I have a chair from the 60s that was my grandmothers and I want to do it up. I was going to take it to an upholsterer but maybe I shouldn’t be so lazy?

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  8. Well this 5 mins is a very creative start, Su. What a striking gallery. Am v. impressed by your ingenuity. A good reminder, too, to take pleasure in our tools and materials and preparations – before the main work begins. Look forward to seeing the finished chair.

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  9. The upholstery needles look up to the task; very sharp. My great uncle did upholstery for a living. My mother said she used to love watching him work because he kept the tacks in his mouth. Not sure why he did that. But he spat them out when needed. Of course, mother was ever hopeful he might swallow a tack. She was curious to know what would happen if he did. Happily he didn’t swallow a single one.

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    • Ouch. Swallowing a tack would be pretty painful, but I guess quite entertaining for a child.
      I have to confess, that despite deconstructing the upholstery carefully, I’m not really sure what I’m doing. I have put the calico base layer on the seat and that looks ok, so I’m psyching myself up to tackle the actual cover fabric. Luckily I bought extra material 🙂

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    • Yes; the fabric is a sort of melange of graffiti and pop art images; Bogey and Marilyn Monroe mainly. I like the colours; the boys love the design.
      I haven’t seen We’re No Angels; I’ll look out for it 🙂 xxxxxxx

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