A year ago, almost to the day, I posted about the chairs in our living room that I was planning on reupholstering.
These chairs. That were free.
Six months later- in August to be exact, I posted about what a nightmare my chair makeover was turning out to be.
Seriously, this has been the worst DIY project I have ever tackled.
It makes my desk refinishing project look like a cake walk.
EVERYTHING went wrong. The slipcover pattern I bought didn’t fit the back of the chairs.
So with the help of my mom, we made a new pattern out of some old sheets.
Tweaked it like 5 times till it fit perfectly.
Cut out the chair fabric, sewed it together, then realized that the stinking sheet material had stretched.
The slipcover didn’t fit.
Cussing, crying, and a bucketload of seam-ripping.
Sewed the whole thing together again.
Still didn’t fit right and the pleats would NOT work.
I took the slipcover off and made sewing adjustments at least a dozen times.
Even tried hand sewing them together in spots. No success.
By this time I was ready to throw the dang chairs through the window.
So I decided to set them aside and work on something else.
Fast forward about three months.
I pulled the chairs out and started again. After a few hours of tedious work I realized that there was no way on earth I could sew these slipcovers together and make them work.
So I did what any crafter would do.
I pulled out my hot glue gun.
Yes I did.
And after pulling, tucking, and gluing, I managed to hide all the raw edges.
But the pleats still wouldn’t lie flat and looked plain awful.
By this time all I wanted to do was spit on the stupid chairs. It was like the dumb things were mocking me.
So to get back at them I just left them with the pleats looking wonky. Served them right!
This week I decided it was time to either finish the chairs (or set fire to them), so I tackled them again.
Took an iron to them-with the slipcovers still on because they’re glued in place.
And I hot glued the pleats so they would lie flat. Bwaahahaha. Take that you dumb chairs!
So now my chairs are finally finished. And they were such a pain in the hiney that I don’t even like them anymore.
But I’m hoping that I will be able to forgive and forget and grow to not hate love them.
Want to see the little spawns of Satan? Here’s one of them:
I figure that each chair took me over 20 hours. So if I had been making minimum wage, I would have earned at least $290. And the fabric was 60 bucks. So that’s $350. Holey crap.
I think next time I’ll just buy some stinkin’ chairs!!
Have you ever had a DIY project take so darn long that by the time you finished you wished you’d never started? I sure hope I’m not the only one.
Yes, unfortunately, I started and got 85% of the way through a “puff quilt” for my then unborn baby boy, and ended up throwing it away. I couldn’t even LOOK at the thing, it made me so mad! Hate that! I’m glad you finished yours though, I have regrets about throwing mine away! You should do a “1(+) years later – how I feel about the chairs now” post haha!
http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2011/08/before-and-after-party-buh-bye-pleather.html
Try this out. seems pretty easy. 🙂
I laughed and laughed. Been there done that bought the t-shirt. I had some similar chairs, finally stuck on the fabric with fabric glue and quilting tacker gun. Made it through 2 — bought some crappy slips for the other four. Then I gave them to my son who took them to California. He gave them to a family of immigrants when he moved house. I would wager they might be in a landfill by now.
Haha! At least they were well used. 🙂
Oh, I most certainly have! To the extreme of the extreme. I took on a creating a public playground project that was custom built for our community of WJ. Thousands of hours of time, hundreds of thousands of dollars donated, and thousands of volunteers to find. We did it- but man, what was I thinking? I was super naive about all it would entail or I would NEVER have taken it on. C-R-A-Z-Y! It’s a cool playground but it took years before I could visit it without feeling intense stress!
And yes, I’ve had those projects around my house that went that way too!
That’s right. I remember reading about your park project. My parents live in WJ, so I need to check it out!
Yep, nearly as bad – the red ruffled skirt I made my daughter for Valentines Day – I feel your pain. I quit 100 times but then I’d rise up and say This Thing Is Not Going To Overcome Me. So Sunday she went to church with fabric fraying and leaving little red pieces of fabric and thread all over the pews 🙂 You can read it at my blog http://www.redo101.blogspot.com/2012/02/red-ruffled-skirt.html – but your chair looks really beautiful 🙂 Hugs ~ Mary
I am so happy that you are truthful and shared even your problem crafts. It makes all of feel so much better when goof.. Thanks for posting.
Oh Kara! I’m sorry! They look good now and so much better than before! Honestly, it seems that all my DIY projects go the way that these did for you but I dont tell the story as well:)
Having worked on both – years ago, mind you – I have found that slip covers can be much harder to do than a complete reupholster. Congratulations on sticking with it and finally having a finished project! They turned out looking good, by the way.
Ha. I can’t tell you how often this happens to me! But so glad you finished–that’s a feat all on its own! I LOVE your new look Kara!
Thanks so much Alison! We’re still tweaking a few things, but I am liking it so far as well. 🙂
Oh my gosh! How crazy.
So impressive that you did stick in there and they do look awesome! Maybe you should sell them? I would LOVE for you to share this awesome mommy solution in my Mommy Club link up! Or any other ideas. Stop over! http://www.crystalandcomp.com/2012/02/the-mommy-club-share-your-resources-and-solutions-31/
Crystal
Thanks so much for the invite Crystal! I decided to link up my crepe paper flower tutorial instead. Thought it might be better to share something quick and easy that actually turned out. LOL!
Kara
Sorry your chairs were such a pain, lol, I’m glad you survived the makeover! 🙂 It looks good and I love the fabric!
I refinished my living room tables last year. It took me months to finally figure out how to finish them so they didn’t look worse than when I started (which was pretty bad). They turned out okay in the end, but were such a pain I haven’t been able to bring myself to even write a post about them. I know now why there are always unfinished projects at thrift stores–someone was trying to maintain their sanity. 🙂
Haha, that is so true! I’ve never thought of it that way before, but I’m sure I’ve purchased items that other people just got sick of trying to work with. LOL!
I really really should not laugh (even though your post is darn funny!). Instead I will just learn from you and since I can’t sew I will never attempt to make chair covers. I don’t know how old you are, but back in the day on Bewitched, there used to be a possessed chair who was an uncle or something. The chair leg would kick Darrin. Maybe that’s why they were free…..
~Bliss~