DIY

I think anyone who knows me would say that I'm not the DIY type. I'm not the type of person who sees things for sale and goes "I could make that at home!" I'm not the kind of person who wants a new deck or bathroom and just goes and builds it (theoretically, that is, I don't yet own my own deck or bathroom). I've used putty once in my life, and the only thing I've ever painted was my brother's garage.

So, it came as a surprise to me when I accepted my Aunt's offer of a DIY upholstery project. I own an antique chair that used to belong to my grandparents and hasn't been reupholstered in decades. She also has a chair that needs new fabric and thought it would be a good project for us to do together.

She's a total DIYer, so I figured I'd be in good hands. She's never actually upholstered anything, though, so as we dismantled the chairs we documented it meticulously. You can see the progression here as I go from this:

To this:

All that canvas has been removed and now it's completely naked. I've started to sand down the wood. At some point we will actually attempt to cover it up. Or we'll just give up and take to to a professional.

Kind of cool: I found a 1988 loonie deep in the folds of the old, green upholstery. That was the year of my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.