Re-upholster with me!

If you live in the Salt Lake Utah area, and would like to purchase your own Utah State Legislature Chairs to re-upholster, here is the link to the seller.

Each chair is $5.00.  They are being stored in an indoor horse arena in Sandy, UT and you get to see a baby reindeer in there when you pick them up. 

I will be showing the basic steps as I re-upholster, so you'll have my mistakes to avoid when you start your own. 

I purchased mine about a month ago, and he had over 200 chairs, I guess the entire legislature's worth so if you are in the area, you could get your own!

It does take a long time to take all the tacks and staples out, so not a quick project, but here's a little teaser of how mine are coming along, and for me it's been worth it!

Wondering if you have the skills for this?
You do!
I'm just winging this and so far it's turning out great.  Anyone can dig out tacks, anyone can spray paint legs, and anyone can staple.  I've become more accurate with the stapling as I go, so the 2nd chair will be better than the first.
At the end there will be some basic sewing to cover your double welt with your fabric.  Just sewing a straight line, rolling fabric, and sewing a straight line again.  Then you just hot glue the double welt on top of your staples.
IF I CAN, YOU CAN DO THIS!

Here's some supplies you'll need to see if you're ready to dive into it!
FABRIC: 2.25 yards per chair
 Hancock Fabrics is having outdoor/ upholstery fabric on sale now, or soon, you could check at their website.
I bought 3 yards for my 2  chairs, and it may not be enough, I'll let you know if I can swing it, but I would say to get 2 yards of the 54" wide upholstery/ drapery/ outdoor fabric for each of these chairs.  I actually bought the fabric before the chairs.

DOUBLE WELT: 6 yards per chair
I bought mine at Hancocks.  Double welt is 2 cords sewn together, you'll find it by the yard in the upholstery section.  They had 100% cotton for $0.79/ yd, but I bought the nylon for $0.24/ yd. The cotton is for washable things like pillows I guess. **I haven't made the welt, so 4 yards was my estimate.

STAPLE GUN:
you'll want the shortest staples for your staple gun.  The wood is really hard, so the shorter the "legs" of the staple, the better, to jam them in.  I was using taller staples and they'd always squish to one side.  I'm just using the cheapest staple gun from Walmart, I think it was $10.00

PADDING: 1" thick foam
I bought a big package from Walmart of the 1" thick x 24" wide x 96" long piece rolled up.  It's by the other batting, in a big package and was $13.00.  I'm going to cut it close on these chairs, probably have to piece the back of the second chair.  I think you can get 2 chairs out of one roll, I could have cut it differently and had it work without piecing the foam

BATTING: polyfill
You could keep the original batting that fills the space in the back of the chair, but I'd thrown it away.  I'm going to fill the back with the fluffy batting, also bought at Walmart.  I snagged a huge 10lb box for $15.00, I will have a ton left over for other projects.

So far I've calculated my chairs will total $30.00 each, and my fabric was $9.00 a yard, which is probably the biggest area you could go up or down.  I didn't include the price for the staple gun since I had one already.

If anyone is really going to get some of these, please let me know because I'll put more details in the tutorial if I know someone will actually be using them.  I had just planned to show a few ideas, since upholstery is unique to each chair. But it would be fun to make some chairs together if you live in Utah or know someone who does to snag you some chairs until you'll be through the area.