New Life for and Old Chair

When my husband Marc brought this chair home from the Salvation Army a few years ago I said it was fine as long as it lived in his den, which is where it stayed until his daughter moved in with us last November. We did some major rearranging in the house and the chair ended up in the living room. You know how when you live with something ugly or unfinished long enough you just get used to it? That's what happened with that chair. Last week I got a new futon cover and the chair looked just AWFUL with it - I had to recover it before I got used to it!

I really loved the original fabric from the futon cover so I used it to cover the chair pads. The fabric was really worn out on the top side, but the bottom side had a few spots that looked pretty good - I used those spots for the tops of the pads and the piping, and used the more worn out areas for the sides, and back. I didn't bother putting in zippers or anything like that, I made them like a pillow case and left a big opening on the side that you can't see and sewed them up by hand. If you look closely you can see that they are somewhat amateur, but I try to focus on the overall effect and not obsess over the details, and I think I was pretty successful.

I am starting a new design job next week and I feel like the new improved living room is sort of a metaphor for my life: most of the necessary elements were in place but just needed a little sprucing-up and updating.