Deconstructed Chairs

My deconstructed chair

Source 

Marcy of Antique Chase blog~ her deconstructed chair.

This pretty little white washed french chair started getting a makeover by Marcy

and she ran out of steam.  This chair sparked a conversation on Facebook which you can read at the source.  Marcy's chair is partially covered in a vintage shabby chic couture fabric with exposed modern staples~Question is, what do you think of the staples exposed look? Is it bad that they are new staples?  Must they be antique tacks?  I like how it looks like this, and think she should continue on with the back of the chair.  Of course it would be simple to finish if off with one more step of gluing on some gimp to cover the raw edges. What would you do?  Are you a slave to society?

Which led me back to thinking of my french chair and what I was going to do with it.

The story of the deconstruction starts here~

this was like getting a history lesson as I took apart the upholstery.

A hundred little spider nests cuddled together in a corner 

A section of broken jute webbing showed the straw stuffing used in this antique chair.

I was so busy taking off the seat cover I didn't take a photo 

until I had removed the outer layer of the tapestry and the following layer of muslin.

  Then under the muslin was soft cotton batting laid 

over the burlap I could see peeking through underneath.

Inside the burlap you can see the staw.  

Also note the holes from the removed iron tacs.

 The burlap had long running stitches of heavy string 

that held straw and cotton batting  that made up the cushion. 

In retrospect I wished I had stopped at this point.  

At the time my intention was to totally reupholster this chair. 

 The front of the seat had caved in and needed rebuilding of the underlayers.

There is something very pretty about the simplicity 

of the chair in this state. The gilding and the raw burlap

 together~there is rustic romance to it~

I plowed ahead and removed the burlap with its matt of straw 

which you can see on the floor.  Next came another layer of 

burlap which was to cover the coiled springs.  

But as you can see they had burst through the burlap.

This was really messy and dirty.  A big black trash bag 

was at the ready to contain the discards.

The coiled springs are tied off and nailed to the frame 

and it all sat on top of criss crossed jute webbing that

 had purple and pink colored stripes! 

How perfectly Maison Decor!

Many of the strings had broken and come loose from their tethers. 

So I pulled it all off and removed the rest of the tacks with it.

Onto the back part.  Here is the little tool I bought at Joanne' Fabrics 

to remove the tacks and the nailheads. 

I put a piece of cardboard underneath as not to damage the gilded frame.

The layer of muslin is revealed underneath the tapestry.

Ah! Why didn't I leave this part like this??? 

It looks so pretty to me~but I can't cry over spilt milk.

One last look~see all the tiny tacks holding the muslin in place?

Then under the muslin is the staw and then the burlap

 which has the same stuff the bottom had,

so we won't need to look at that~

The antique coverings were sold in a heartbeat on my etsy shop.

source

 This chair is very similar in decoration to my chair.  

I only wish my tapestry had my colors of the soft pink, 

lilac and green on cream that this beauty has. 

When you are finished reading this and would like to 

see more deconstructed chairs, like the one above, 

click on the source above to take you to a great post on the topic.

source

My original plan, which still remains, 

is to upholster the chair to resemble this one at Annette Tatum's home. 

 I would like to do it in pale pink linen, not cream.

For now my deconstructed chair sits in its naked state~

pretty to look at even so.