Reupholstering the Antique Winged Chair: Inside arms

In between working on the seat and back. I found time to wrap webbing around the inside arms. This adds stability and strengthens the arms for the new layers that will be added to it.


A foam layer was added next, I cut two-piece for each side. One piece was for the arm (armrest height to the seat) and the wing section (area above armrest. This was stapled into place and trimmed to size. Cotton was use to fill in the gaps/dents where the two pieces meet. The cotton batting was the last layer to cover the arms and wings. The cotton batting was also wrapped beyond the blue foam and covered the wooden arm post in front.

As show for the seat and back muslin is used to hold all the layers together and makes a smooth surface to put the upholstery fabric over. After all this work, preparing the surface I finally can start putting on the good stuff. I am saving that for the next time.

Reupholstering the Antique Winged Chair: Inside arms, back and seat

As stated in previous post I will be showing you how I built the inside arms, back and seat for the upholstery fabric. The next step in putting together my chair was to build up the padding on it before covering it with fabric. Faux horsehair was attached to the back; giving the chair better support and another layer between the cotton padding and the springs. The horsehair was stapled to chair's frame left and right sides so it would not slip out of place. Cotton batting was used to cover the back following with a layer of muslin. The muslin was temporary tack in place to allow me to make any alteration before stapling it into place.


Once the muslin covered the back, I could concentrate working on the seat. The springs were covered with burlap followed by bonded polyester. The polyester layer was sewed to the burlap and springs. The brown tube covering part of the seat's edge is call an edge roll, the edge roll is attached along the edge to left and right arm by sewing it in place. The roll help keeps the cushion from pushing forward on the chair. Again, all of this is covered in cotton batting this include the wood section below the edge roll followed with muslin fabric.

Before I could tack the muslin in place, I sew the fabric along the back of the edge roll. Once I completed the sewing it in place, the fabric was stretched, tacked, and stapled in place. This is where I should end today, next posting will show how to finish the inside arms for the upholstery fabric.

Reupholstering the Antique Winged Chair: Tying Back and Seat Springs

In the blog named the “Anatomy of a Chair” I showed how I took apart my winged chair. It took just a month to tear it apart in the three hour classes held once a week at the technical college. Then I took the chair home over the holidays to clean it up so it would be ready for the next classes. Due to problems at the technique college; the upholstery classes were being discontinued for the winter semester but I am now taking private classes with my teacher, Elaine Barr. I spent approximately 8 working hours every Saturday from January to early April working on the chair. After the last April class I spent another month and half still finishing it off on a Tuesday night for 3 hours.

The first thing I did in was to stretch and tack a single piece of webbing on the on the back of the chair. Then I removed the back springs attached to the old webbing but left the strings still in place. The springs were centered in place on the new backing. Now, I traced where each spring would be place on the webbing with a marker. Once this was finished the old twine could be removed from the springs. The springs were attached to the new webbing with what I would refer to as a giant stapler. The stapler must be centered over springs to ensure the staples wrap around them and needs to be stapled in each quarter section. I tried this on the back but I had some of the ends sticking straight out and needed to bend them over. Springs may also be sewed on instead. I did sew on the seat springs and liked the finished product much better. Now that the springs are attached it time to start tying the springs together and attaching them to the chair frame. I tied the springs horizontally and vertically to the back chair’s frame. To finish it off, the springs are covered with burlap.

The seat springs are very similar but instead of using a single piece of webbing, webbing strips are used and they are weaved together to add strength. The springs that came with the chair were sewed into a cloth covering and they were in bad shape. So after a discussion with Elaine, we decide the better route would be to order 16 new springs and hand tie them into the seat frame. While waiting for the springs order to be delivered, I went back to working on the inside back of the chair. I placed some faux horsehair over the burlap and springs and then cover it with cotton batting. After the cotton batting is smooth out, it is covered with muslin. The muslin is first temporary tacked in place so if there is a need to straighten or pull the fabric tighter it can be easily done before it is permanently stapled. It is a lot easier to remove tacks then it is staples.

The seat springs came in the next week and it took me nearly the eight hours to sewing the springs in place and to tie them to the seat’s frame. Before the day ended, I did get the springs covered with burlap. Tying springs are hard on the hands but if you take the time to make sure they are tight, your seat will slay firm for a long time.

Next time the inside arms, back and seat are prepared for putting on the upholstery fabric.

My Sister's Wedding

Debbie and Randall were married at noon on 10/19/2010 at the Viroqua County Courthouse. The wedding party was small Renee (Randall's sister), Ramon (Randall's Dad), Mom and I. Renee and I were the witnesses for the couple. Sorry, I do not remember the judge's name who married them. After the ceremony we, took pictures on the courthouse steps and left for lunch at the Viking Inn in downtown Viroqua.




When we finished celebrating at the restaurant, we meet back at Newlyweds' house. Debbie set a very pretty table with carrot cake and an apple & cranberry pie.

Congratulation, Debbie and Randall!

Finished Painting the Wall

Well, I am done painting the house exterior for this year. The one wall I have been working on since August is done. I am using Benjamin Moore paint colors: clapboard = Brookline beige, window trim = Tarrytown green and the window = Hodley red.

The red line running along the side of the house is my property line but there is a 20 foot grass alley running between the neighbor's property and mine. The reason why I marked it is I am taking a 6 week landscaping course at MATC and the instructor's assignment was to draw out my current landscape on graph paper. It was easier to mark the lines with paint and then start measuring it out. Only I did not buy enough paint to mark all the lines so I ended up tying string up to each corner stake to outline the property.

Now back to the house, next year I plan on staining the deck in the colors matching the front porch except the white will become Brookline beige. The next wall to be stripped will be the wall with the electric meter on it. The sooner I can stop sitting on the roof and trying to keep my balance while removing paint the better. I worn out two pairs of sweatpants and ended up with a roof burn on my rear end this year but the finished job was worth it.

My Arts & Crafts Chair is finished

I found this chair for free on Craig's List and finished reupholstering it yesterday. See post "A Free Craig's List Find" for the before picture. I removed the velvet sit covering, old padding and webbing from the chair. New webbing was weaved and tacked into place. New foam padding was put on next; I staple the foam along the bottom to keep it in place. The foam was then covered with a thin layer of polyester filling.


I made leather cording to wrap around the leather seat covering and the next step was the staple down the cording around the seat cushion. After doing all of the above I could finally start putting the leather over the cushion. To ensure I evenly spaced the tacks I put down paint's tape and marked one inch spaces around the chair. The leather was stretch and temporarily tacked in place.

The project was finished off with decorative tacks and here it is.

Gardening will be ending soon.

Last Saturdays was the first of three nights where we had frost. The weatherman was warning us all week that we would be getting frost on October 2, so I took the time in the morning hours to start tearing down my garden. This allows the dew to dry before I starting working on the house. Friday was the big push to get as much done as possible. I picked all 13 tomato vines and removing them all by 7:00 PM that evening. The one remaining cucumber vine and zucchini plant were removed. Five of six eggplants were picked; the remaining one was covered. I left all the green pepper plant in the ground, they were also covered. I had been so busy that I just left the coverings in place until I got home from work Thursday evening. I now have about 50 lbs of tomatoes sitting on a table in the basement.


I just finished cleaning up the area on my first day of vacation because I hired an electrician to update the wiring. He will be putting 220 in the house and fixing the back porch light which has never worked since I owned the place. I also need more outlets in the kitchen. He will also be adding an outdoor outlet near the grill so I will no long need to run an extension cord out the window to use the rotisserie. Here is a before picture of the area. It is bit embarrassing to show this mess.


I moved the mess into my craft room until the electrician and I are done working in the area. I did do some sorting while I moved it and now have a growing pile for the Salvation Army. The east and the unfinished section along the south wall will be water proofed and repainted this winter. When I finish working on the wall I brought shelving to put some order to it.

This weekend I will pull the sweet pepper plants. Emptying and putting all hanging baskets into storage. Washing all the windows and replacing the screens with the storm window. The weather this Saturday will be in the upper 70's and they are forecasting 80 on Sunday but it will not last long. So it is time to winterize the place.

Progress on Painting the House

I did get most of the wall done over my vacation. The only thing which was not completed is the window. I started working on Sunday, September 26, by sanding the house with the oscillating sander. Monday, I sanded all the area which the oscillating sander could not reach with a detail sander and/or hand sanding it. On Tuesday, I could finally started priming the bare wood with an oil primer and let it dry until the next day.


Wednesday, I pulled out the caulk and got to work caulking all the cracks on the primed wood. There is a wall area which can only be reached on the north side of the three-season porch roof. The only way to work on this section is to lay down on the roof and try to work in an 8 inch space between the bardgeboard and the roof. The photo below shows just how hard it was.


I made the decision not to use the heat gun in that area since the chances of badly burning myself or the house was pretty good. So I only scraped and sanded as much paint off as I could. This area was primed using an acyclic primer instead of the oil. I primed this area on Wednesday because I want to let the oil primer dry first before I apply the acrylic primer because the edges would overlapped.

Finally on Thursday I could apply the first coat color on the house but before I could start I need to finish caulking the area on the north side of the roof. The caulk only required 1 hour curing before it could be painted. So I caulked that section first and painted it last. This allowed the caulking to cure 4 hours before it was painted. The second coat was applied on Friday. I am waiting to take a picture until I finish fixing the rotten window sill.

Saturday, I took the day off and visited my mother in Gays Mills. We stop by the Viroqua Farmer Market to see my sister, Debbie, and her soon to be husband, Randall, selling their produce. There is a large community of Amish around Viroqua and several families sell at the market too. Almost every time I visit this farmer market I buy one their beautiful baskets. After farmer market, Mom and I stopped at my sister's house and helped them unpack the van and truck. Once they finished, Randall was nice enough to pull out his table saw and make the cuts needed to replace my sill. I only have a miter and circular saw and the cuts could only be done on a table saw. He did a great job for me. Thanks again, Randall.

Sunday, I spend several hours working on putting in the front sill section. Earlier in the week I applied a wood harder and an epoxy to it. I wish I would not have applied the epoxy until I was ready to install the sill because I chived most of it off. The front piece would not line up even with the window until I removed almost all of it. Once I got everything aliened I mixed up more epoxy filled in the areas again. Put glue on the wood section and the replacement sill then clamped the sill front to window frame before the epoxy harden. Screwed the sill in placed and remove the excess epoxy. Later this week I will sand it, prime, caulk and paint it. I do have a wooden storm window the paint but I can finish painting that in the basement.