My holidays were filled with organising the cabin build, shopping for the cabin build, making changes to the cabin build, working on projects relating to the cabin build and cursing the cabin build. So good thing it was holiday time! We’re getting there – we have a deck, a roof, half walls and windows. It’s exciting to see it nearer completion every day – mostly because for the first time ever I’m totally excited about being able to laundry! Oh the fun we’ve had with all the rain or the sprinklers because of the heat and Zak toilet training and NO LAUNDRY. Ugh. I have a stack of pics to show you once my laptop is brought back to life as that is where most of the images are saved. But in the meantime, I can show you what I got up to.

I bought this chair from Vinnies for $40 a while back. Loved the shape of it and it’s super comfy. I originally sanded back the wood and stained them with Scandinavian oil and covered in a beige fabric. I liked it for about three weeks and then Layla arrived and I banished it to another room in favour of my mum’s rocking chair. I’d put it on the council clean up pile one time, then took it back inside to “save” it for the cabin. And now I’ve finally covered it, restained the wood and am waiting patiently for it to move into to its new home. Aside from a few dodgy creases and wonky nailwork, I really like the look of it now. But here are some reasons why I will never be hired as an upholsterer…

* I can’t do corners or around legs without them looking saggy, baggy and very creased. I know you’re meant to take the legs off, but these are nailed in tight and the wood has split slightly in places. They don’t look easy to remove and if I could remove them, I think they just might fall apart. So they stayed put and I had to go around.

* I didn’t buy appropriate fabric for recovering an armchair. I bought this fabric on a whim – just thin cotton – and it wasn’t until I got it home I thought “oh, this pattern might look good on a chair”.

* I didn’t buy enough fabric (see point above). So I had to use a plain white on the back of the chair. It looks ok though.

* I can’t nail in those little bulleted nails (at the front on the bottom) straight or without bunching up the fabric. And I don’t have enough patience or care factor to redo it.

* I don’t know what those little bulleted nails are called.

* I bought the wrong-sized staples for the staple gun and had to hammer them in after stapling because they stuck out too far.

* I didn’t bother covering the underseat so if you got down low on the floor you’d see the excess fabric sticking out and possibly some too-long staples I didn’t nail in.

But other than all that, I like it! Steve wants me to do my nana’s chairs in the same fabric but I’m not convinced it’ll last. Might do a trial and error with this chair first… What do you think?

FYI: the lamp is from Freedom, the wooden blocks are Muji’s New York City in a Bag from MomaStore and the cushion is by Pony Rider. I will try and remember to post credits from now on things I think you might be interested in. I know how annoying it is to not have that info immediately!

{images by me}