"Marian, I think a lot of your readers, including me, would like to know how long it takes you to upholster a chair, such as the one in this post. I have a feeling you work very fast. I fear that if I attempt real upholstering on a real piece of furniture, it would take me a couple months to complete!"
Yes. I work fast and efficient, which sounds great, but it has some down sides. You see, I suffer from SDAS (Short Design Attention Span.) I get bored and impatient if something takes me too long to finish. I will never in my life make a quilt or a cross stitch sampler or anything that is a lengthy labor of love. I will only make things that can be whipped out in a few hours. Maybe something that spans a few days, but that's my limit.
To answer the question directly, an upholstery job takes me about 3-5 hours from before picture to after. A piece of painted furniture can take about 1-4 hours, depending on what kind of repair work it needs, what kind of techniques or finish I use and if I can use my sprayer or not. I can turn out a pillow or a hand painted sign in under an hour.
Don't compare yourself to how I work, though. Work at your own pace and if it takes you a year to finish a piece, that's ok. I have to work fast. I have three retail spaces to feed, I'm writing tutorials for HGTV.com and Cottages and Bungalows (so you're only seeing a fraction of the projects I'm working on right now) and everything else that comes with having a family, little kids, a house, etc. I can't take on projects that are going to suck a bunch of my time and I keep that in mind when I'm buying pieces to work on. Don't think I don't have pieces and projects that sit for a long time, though. But once I decide to pull a piece out of the stash, I finish it quickly.
This leads me to my latest French chair that I shared with you yesterday...
Ta da!
As I mentioned yesterday, it's not perfect, but this was a challenging chair and I am really proud of how it turned out. I know I'll have the upholstery thing perfected in time, but this is at a level I feel comfortable putting my name on.
The frame was painted Aria Ivory (right over the wood), followed by a light coat of Light French Grey. I then distressed the high points with sand paper and antiqued the piece with my special glaze formula. I used a wet brush in this case to keep the glaze light. I did not put a top coat on this chair frame. It's not the kind of piece that is going to take a beating and it's distressed, so any dings will just add to the character.
The cushion is down-filled, so it was a tricky one to cover. It's squishy and doesn't hold its shape very well, so I used a gathered edge to disguise that a bit. The seat cover is removable and machine washable.
Can you tell I love the arms on chairs? I am always taking "arm shots." I just can't resist.
This chair is making the trip to Lucketts tomorrow. I may sniff a little bit, but I know someone will think she's fabulous and will take good care of my little chair.
Are you getting your projects ready for the "Copy Me Challenge"? Well, here's a bit of your competition...
LeAnne from Mossy Rock Interiors shared this sneak peek with me today and I was blown away. That crackled finish was achieved by taking advantage of the old bubbled finish and painting directly over it without sanding. Isn't is perfection? I'm putting together a good prize for the winner, so get to work on those projects!
