A Vintage Chair Rescue With an Unexpected Twist!

by DIY Passion

I have a confession. We bought this chair TWO YEARS ago for $10 and I never really liked it. It had been sitting in some dude's garage shop and literally had paint overspray and rips and nasty stuff all over it. BUT, my husband really liked the scale of the chair and the cool woodwork on the arms - so we brought it home.

a vintage chair rescue with an unexpected twist , home decor, reupholster

It looked like this. I finally got fed up with always covering it up with a blanket and decided to try to bring it back to its former vintage glory using....leather! I wanted it to still feel a bit masculine and because it's actually a small-ish chair, I figured a commanding and heavier type fabric like leather wouldn't feel too overbearing.

I ordered some caramel colour leather online (it's gorgeous btw!) and got to work. I took my chair apart and measured the back and seat, and then traced enough leather to go over each part using a faint chalk line on my leather. I did this on the wrong side so as not to damage the nice side of the fabric.

Then it was as simple as pulling, tucking, folding, stapling and tacking the leather cover over the chair. (I took the yucky vinyl off by the way and it was just plain black vinyl underneath which was ugly, but in great shape!)

Put the chair back together, accessorized with a neutral but sparkly pillow, my DIY log table and some peonies... and now, I must say, I like this chair a lot more and I'm glad we kept it!

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2 questions

Jade on Jul 18, 2016
Did you do anything to the wood?

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Laurie Kilts on Jul 19, 2016
2 questions - #1: When buying leather, is it measured by the yard or piece? Approx. cost of the leather? #2: My chair has a ton of decorative nail heads - any good trick/suggestions on how to remove them easily? Thank you in advance :)

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Barbarajkarr on Sep 12, 2016
Terrific job.

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Linda Cann on Jan 30, 2017
Another idea. Try the op shops for old leather coats or jackets for recovering the chair. You could also use different leathers and make it a patch work style. And I'm also seeing a lot of old fur coats in the op shops,you could cut and use as well.

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