Woman in Real Life

Last month, I embarked on a #12MonthsofDIY project with 11 other Canadian bloggers. Each month we all create projects using a given material. Last month was mason jars - my project was mason jar toy snow globes. This month our material is fabric - a selection that's open to so many fun possibilities! I decided it was a great opportunity to reupholster an antique chair that my sister gave us.



The chair had been floating around the house without a proper place. It was sitting in the spare bedroom for a while until we bought my daughter a new desk and were looking for a chair to go with it. We moved the chair into her bedroom and found it was the perfect size for her desk. My little gal liked the floral design on the seat, however it was a bit tired and stained. Fortunately our sponsor for #FebruaryFabric is OnlineFabricStore. They have a number of beautiful upholstery fabrics to choose from. Read on to hear more about my fabric selection.


But first, we set to work removing the old fabric from the chair. I recruited my husband to "help" while I snapped some pics. Here, he removes the old tacks from the fabric trim. Then it was simply a matter of removing the staples and the old fabric. The chair padding underneath was in good shape so we opted not to replace it.


Before discarding the old fabric we used it as a rough template to cut a square from the new fabric (cutting it slightly larger just in case).
 Then we used a staple gun to staple the new fabric directly to the chair (as that was the way it was previously upholstered), pulling the fabric tightly. The corners required some trimming of the fabric and careful folding to minimize creases. Then we covered the staples with upholstery trim and hammered in the tacks, each about a thumb's width from the last. We re-used the old tacks because we are thrifty like that, but my husband found that they tended to bend and go in crookedly when hammered. He managed to fix them up so they looked pretty nice though.


The fabric my daughter and I selected for her chair is Swavelle / Mill Creek Crazy Ol Bird Sunrise Fabric. I wanted something whimsical since she is only 11 years old. But the fabric will work into the teen years as well. I did make a rookie error - looking at the sample picture on the OnlineFabricStore site, I thought the birds were small and I imagined there would be many birds on the chair. No worries though - we just used a portion of the fabric that has what we are calling a "mother" and a "daughter" bird on it. I think it's pretty sweet.


I picked out a gold upholstery trim to provide a burst of colour and contrast. I had originally wanted to paint the wood on the chair a fun colour too, but my daughter liked it as is. Once we were done the upholstery though, she said she wanted to paint the chair. I'm hoping she forgets at this point...


The reupholstering of this antique chair fits in nicely with the other changes we have been gradually making to our preteen's bedroom. When you enter her room you are faced with a wall that doesn't really serve any purpose. She really likes to write so we decided it would be fun to have a chalkboard wall of sorts. My husband painted a sheet of masonite with chalkboard paint and framed it with 1x4 strips of pine, which he had painted white. My little gal likes to write down thoughts and inspirational quotes.


Her bed and dresser are from IKEA and I have been looking to add some vintage and rustic touches to her room because I don't want everything to look brand new.


I found this wooden shelving unit/seat for the foot of her bed at a basket warehouse sale. We may put some cushions on it one day.



My favourite change to her room is this accessorized wall. It's a rather long wall with no furniture on it, and, given her tendency to acquire lots of stuff, I thought it would be a good idea to make the wall useful. I had seen a wall styled in a similar way on the IKEA website. We bought small hooks for hats and large hooks for other items, like purses and one of her old ballet costumes. I bought the dress-shaped hanger for scarves and placed an ornate gold heart-shaped mirror that I thrifted above it. I figured a large mirror is a necessity for a preteen. We have had this gold frame lying around for years (and years!). When I was growing up, it was above the sideboard in our dining room with a giant "English romantic" landscape in it.  We repurposed it by having a mirror cut to fit (for about $50).



The maroon coloured footstool came with the antique chair and I'm considering reupholstering it as well. But I kind of like the beaten and saggy look of it.


A great deal of clean-up was required to get my preteen girl's bedroom ready for picture taking, I'll tell you! I still have boxes of random items (hair bows, books, bobby pins, pens, paper, chalk, toys, clothes) waiting to find more discreet homes than the centre of the floor. I'll enjoy saying goodnight to my gal in this room for the next few days (or as long as the cleanliness lasts).


Hopefully her newly reupholstered chair will provide her with the inspiration needed to maintain a clean and organized room.



I enjoyed the satisfaction of getting this small diy project and my daughter's room done. I look forward to joining with my Canadian blogger friends again next month. You can join us by following along on Instagram. Each month we pick our favourite project shared by readers to feature on all of our accounts.

Have you done any fabric crafts recently?

11 Other Fabric Craft Projects To Check Out 

Be sure to have a look at these DIY fabric project ideas from my talented Canadian blogging friends. From the top left, they are:

A Reading Pillow from Bette Creek

Fabric Banner from Brooklyn Berry Designs

Reupholstered Bedroom Chair from Woman in Real Life

DIY Linen Napkins and Nautical Napkin Rings from Sustain My Craft Habit

DIY Baby Bandana Bib from Mommyzoid

Bunny Treat Bag from Life Is A Party

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board from The DIY Mommy

DIY Chenille Blanket with Pom-Poms from Vin'yet Etc.

Alligator Vinyl Pouf from PMQ For Two

Upcycled Commode Chair from New House New Home

DIY Infinity Scarf from Fresh Crush

Coffee Table Runner Easy Sewing Tutorial from Time with Thea

Follow Along on Instagram to See More Fabric DIYs

Follow along with the hashtag #FebruaryFabric on Instagram to see the fabric diys that others are sharing. Join in and share your new or old fabric diy too!

Visit OnlineFabricStore

My thanks to OnlineFabricStore for the lovely fabric. Visit them on social media for inspirational ideas:

OnlineFabricStore on Facebook
OnlineFabricStore on Instagram
OnlineFabricStore on Twitter