Dining Chair - Before and After

I've completed 2 and a half chairs! Enough to show a before and after. After considering a range of fabrics from spoonflower I found a simple, neutral coloured linen in a local shop and went with that. It's slow going but I'm happy with the way they are turning out and at an estimate they'll end up around $50 a chair. 

So, without further ado...

Before

After

Best intentions

Yikes. I had the best intentions of doing the 31 photos in 31 days but I totally fell off the blogging/photographing wagon these last two weeks. Work has been insane and weekends have been dedicated to playing catch up/recovering before diving back into another week of full days plus afternoon/evening work commitments. Ugh. Maybe next time.

In addition, we've created a list of things we really want to get done so spare time has been dedicated to doing little bits and pieces with that. We've even given ourselves deadlines. My chair deadline is, uh, this Sunday. I'm happy to report though that I have now sanded and painted all the legs. They are a simple matte black and they look as good as new. The difficult bit is still to come, remembering how to staple the fabric on!

Given I got the chairs in March I'm determined to make the deadline so we can go out and get ourselves a new dining table! Here is the process so far in photos.

Wish me luck with the rest of the project. I feel that I'm going to need it!

Chair dilemma

So, a while back I posted about the $5 chairs I picked up at Tiny's Green Shed (read - the tip). I was full of excitement at the thought of recovering them and getting myself some awesome and cheap new dining chairs. then we went fabric shopping and our choices were prohibitively expensive - $71 a metre and $158 a metre!!!! - and I would need 8 metres!

Then I found Spoonflower. The prices seem reasonable - about $34ish a metre for the upholstery weight fabric if my maths is correct. Shipping is $12 but will take up to 3-4 weeks. Has anyone used this? Should I get a couple of swatches first or just dive straight in and order the whole 8 metres?

Here are my favourites. Sorry about the dodgy screenshots, you can check them out in all their glory if you follow the link below each one!

Mirror Mirror

Chevron Stripe

Linen Dahlia

Black Dahlia

Here is one of the chairs and this is what the new fabrics might look like. Yes, I'm a bit of a nerd and I'm on holidays!

  If you look past my questionable photoshopping skills which fabric do you like the best? I'm stuck!

Happy days...

Back to that whole idea of stopping to smell the roses, there are some things happening at the moment in good 'ol Canberra that I love.

1. Balloon Festival! I love, love, love seeing the balloons floating through the air as I'm driving to work.

2. Outdoor Art Show - leaves rustling as you wander under the trees and check out the artworks. Such a nice vibe.

3.  Skyfire! Stunning fireworks. I love fireworks, they make me happy. Sorry I didn't take a camera because I can't stand to feel like I'm missing them while I'm trying to take a decent picture!

4. My garden - the plants are growing and I have a 'mohawk' of carrots sprouting. So exciting.

5. Cheap dining chairs as I mentioned last post. Here are the photos...

We've pulled one apart to work out how to fix the sagginess (not a word, I know) and create a pattern for the new covers. Hit a slight bump when we went to check out fabrics. A's choice $158 a metre. Mine, $71. When you need 1 metre per chair, this adds up to, well, I used my maths skills up last post, but the chairs are no longer such a cheap solution. So, still on the hunt for the fabric - know any stores/websites I should check out?

6. Finally, because I can't help but share this with anyone who will listen...a conversation from my classroom last week...

Me: "Ok guys, so next week we're going to start looking at Ancient Greece...blah, blah, blah, make it sound really great..."

Cue massive sigh from girl at the back of the room.

Me: "What's up StudentX?"

StudentX: "Well Miss, it's just that, what is grease apart from the stuff you put in a frying pan?"

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Sometimes I love year 7, they worry me, but they always keep life interesting!

Classic comments from year 7 assignments and a trip to Tiny's Green Shed

Via tvtropes

Here are some classics from my last round of assignment marking that made me giggle...

"He joined the army at 17 so he learnt to fly a plane before he learnt to fly a car."

In response to the question ...Who do you think the people are? How old are they and how do you think they are related to each other?

"The people are my great grandmother and her horse. It's hard to tell how old the horse is but I think my grandmother is about 30."

Sometimes you've got to get your laughs where you can. And everything seems funnier during the deleirum of marking 50ish assignments. They're done now though, just in time for the next lot!

I even had time to visit the tip with A and fit in the obligatory stop at Tiny's Green Shed. Is it a problem if we always seem to come home from the tip with more than we took there?

Leave home - car packed with old microwave and stinky old carpet.
Return home - car packed with 8 dining chairs and a silver and pink BMX*

Could you turn down 8 fairly sturdy dining chairs that just need a touch of paint and re-covering? For a grand total of $40 for the lot? That's $5 a chair**. So even if I spend like, $50 per chair for material, fixing up some of the foam, a bit of paint. That's like $55 a chair*** instead of $150 which seems to be to go at the stores we visited a couple of weeks ago during our "let's buy a new dining table" phase!

Phew. Excited for a new project. Feeling slightly guilty, like I should have finished some of the others off before starting another...I do have some holidays coming up in 4.5 weeks though, need something to do! Any advice on where to get some super awesome fabric would be welcome!

*Apparently it will be useful to go down the shops when you don't want to take your fancy bike. I predict it gets used exactly 0 times in the next year. But I'd just bought 8 chairs, how could I say no?

**Yeah, see how good I am at maths?

***See that again there? I'm on fire. Just don't ask me to do long division!