Peter always dreads it when I say those words.  Like when I found this chair on Craigslist for $30.

“It’s sooo perfect for Alethea’s room!” I said.

“But it’s orange!” Peter replied.

“I’ll just reupholster it,” I told him.  “It’s just the seat.  How hard could it really be?”

First I popped off the gold nail head trim.  Piece of cake!

Then I did some measuring and bought a yard of some gorgeous teal velvet.

I showed my mom the fabric.

“You’re planning on taking off the orange leather for a pattern?” she asked.

“No,” I told her, “I think I’ll just wrap the velvet over the other fabric.  The velvet is a bit thin, so it might be good to have another layer.  I mean, it can’t be that hard, right?”

Turns out thin velvet rips when it’s stretched too tight.  Also turns out it is hard to cut fabric for a seat without a pattern.

Lessons learned.  Always listen to your mother!  I purchased new fabric (a pink brushed twill) from the upholstery section of the fabric store.  Then I pulled off the orange leather for a pattern.

While the chair was already pretty comfortable, I took the opportunity to add some additional foam to the front edge for a touch more padding.

Then I closed her up…

… and cut out the fabric for the new seat.

After I cut the fabric out using my *ahem* pattern, I stretched, stapled, smoothed, trimmed, stapled, stretched and stapled some more.  After several hours (yup, even with a pattern, it was harder than I thought it would be) I had this:

Then I nailed in a couple hundred upholstery nails, which actually wasn’t that bad.  (Finally, something goes smoothly!)  And here is the ‘new’ chair in Alethea’s room:

And fabric lovers, never fear.  I salvaged a big chunk of the teal velvet and finished the bottom of the chair.  I wasn’t originally planning on doing the chair’s underside, but with fabric already in hand and the thought that Alethea is as likely to end up under the chair as she is to be sitting on it, it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

So, it was harder than I thought it would be, but I think the results were totally worth it!

I almost want to tackle another upholstery project again soon.  But not quite.