Supersize It

This is the saga of trying to find a right sized chair and failing. Xtra large furniture is a pet peeve of mine....bear with me if I've ranted about this previously.

This fall I set out to acquire an upholstered chair for Kit's room. I use the term "acquire" because my first and main hope was to find one -like a curb cast off, which aren't as rare as you might think, especially around the end of the month in the city. 

Ok, I admit this sounds gross but I promise you that this type of free-cycling can be done without dragging someone else's bedbugs into your house and can result in a good thing. Like really good, because old chairs are usually way better built and much nicer in size -namely smaller. The trick with upholstered street finds is to treat for pests in the garage(Borax), strip off nasty old fabric if necessary, replace seat (and back) cushion(s) and reupholster or make a slipcover. Because I had a specific fabric that I wanted to use, I was going to be making a custom slip cover for any chair I got, bought or free. 

Well I looked and looked to no avail. Then I turned to Craigslist and Goodwill and then Chairish. No luck. Weird but true. Finally I got impatient and lazy.   

I bought this clunker online from Pottery Barn. It's their Carlisle Armchair with a white twill slipcover. I bought it without ever seeing it in real life (from the woman who mocks up potential light fixtures and seating areas), I don't know what I was thinking -of course I knew this was going to be huge, like everything else PB makes. 

Despite all my negativity, what this chair does have going for it are echoes of English armchair styling, a hardwood frame and a slipcover that I could deconstruct to use as a pattern for a new one. In truth, I shouldn't complain, I mean, IRL, I recognize the luxury.

Most of the slip-covering was pretty straight forward but I always find getting around a setback arm to be a bit tricky.

 

I ordered 8 meters of this fabric thinking I was erring on the safe side. I used almost every last bit, even with some clever piecing of scrap for under the cushion.  The pattern repeat coincided pretty nicely with my chair dimensions and I did align my pattern as much as was possible -that being said, a two sided box cushion's boxing will inevitably be upside down one way or another.

The fabric -oh that lovely fabric, is from St Jude's in the UK. They make the most beautiful printed fabrics and wallpaper.

As my be evident in these photos, I also this fall repainted Kit's room -walls, trim, doors and ceiling and added a bit of art to his room. And that patched carpet that bounces around the house landed in his room. 

Finally, to return to the subject of this post, I do think this chair looks nice in this room, mostly because of its fabric, and it is functional, but I do regret that it is so large and wish that I had had the patience to stick to my convictions. Lesson learned.

Be well and chime in if you wish.