About a year ago, I wandered into a thrift store and saw "them". A pair of slouchy, stodgy, old club chairs from the eighties. They were awful! The upholstery was in great condition, but it was just soooo ugly. I had to have them. A quick peak at the label under the cushion confirmed they were old Drexel Heritage chairs. *Nothing* sits like a Drexel. I turned the chairs over and pulled back a little bit of the dust cover to make sure they had eight-way, hand tied springs. Then I sat in them. They were fabulous. Fabulously ugly, that is. I loaded them up into my mini-van, and never said a word to husband about them--just drove around with them in the back of the car for a couple of months. I kept my fingers crossed that he would just assume they belonged to a client!When a local fabric supplier had their semi-annual warehouse sale, I bought twelve yards of fabric at the ridiculous price of
five dollars a yard! Then I called our upholsterer and faxed him some sketches. I had him rebuild the chair backs so they were about seven inches taller, beef up the rolled arms slightly, ditch the frumpy skirt, and trim out the backs and arms with beautiful bronze tacks. Voila! "New" designer chairs at a fraction of the cost of buying the same quality new! Reupholstering is definitely not inexpensive, but it can be a great value if you are redoing a quality piece.This post is linked to a blog party at Thrifty Decor Chick. Come see lots of great ideas here. We've also linked to the furniture project blog party over at Mustard Seed Creations. Stop by here for some inspiration.