Wingback....

 Twelve years ago, when we first moved to Pittsburgh, we drove across the country in a small moving truck which held our few possessions -  a bed, a hand-me-down dresser, and an old rocking chair that we rescued from our old landlord's dusty garage.  Needless to say, when we got to our new house we were in need of some additional furniture.  We were on a student budget at the time, so we didn't want to spend a lot of money on new stuff, but we soon discovered that Pittsburgh was overflowing with estate sales.  These are like garage/yard sales except that it usually involved things from an entire home - usually of someone who had passed away.  Well, we started a tradition of Saturday morning estate sales and soon had a house full of awesome old furniture.

One of my favorite purchases was an old wingback chair (we made a deal to get a couch and chair together for a good price).  The upholstery was in reasonable shape, but not the best, and I always had planned to get it redone.  When we moved to Connecticut, The upholstery got a little damaged in the truck, so I got a quote to get it reupholstered professionally - $1000.00.  Seriously?!?  That was not going to happen, so we lived for five more years with the old fabric in place.

Well, about four months ago, the fabric on the armrests became threadbare, and there was even a small hole in one that was a magnet for little two-year-old fingers to pick at.  So I began the frustrating search for upholstery fabric that I liked and finally found some at a reasonable price.  The fabric came just before Christmas, so I started pulling the chair apart then.  I had to put the project aside through the holidays, but pulled it out again two weeks ago and jumped in with both feet.  I am happy to report that I finished the chair this week, and it is back in use next to the fireplace.

It was a lot of work, but I am pleased with the results.

Before

After

Before

After

I love projects where you can see the results, they are so satisfying.