An Appetizing Area

Slowly but surely our dining room is coming together. When I first moved in with Mr. B, the dining room was more than a little sad. It was still the dark brown the previous inhabitants had it, save for a few fixes to the walls. The chandelier was hideous. The space wasn't very inviting. 

Please note the football on the table. 

When I moved in, we got right to re-creating the dining room, starting with a fresh coat of a lovely pale green called Camouflage that Mr. B saw at a friend's home. Then a new chandelier in a mid-century modern style that appeals to the Dick Draper in him.

Fuzzy. No matter how many pictures I took.  

We swapped out a rug from another room and mixed in some of my furniture and wall hangings and drapes (you know, things girls own). Now we have plenty of seating: for reading after dinner or for when family and friends come over. All my cookbooks live there on my Aunt Catherine's old bookcase. And there's a midcentury glass-doored bar cabinet that my mother had from her single days. The result is a room that's relaxed and inviting.

But there was one last project that needed to be addressed. We never liked the original tan and white mattress stripe on the ladder-back dining chairs. Thanks again to a remnant from an event Mr. B had produced, we ended up with a lovely medium-weight natural linen that was clearly of very good quality (i.e. very expensive). Besides the frugality factor, I love that we are being green in using product that would have just been thrown away otherwise.

I am a firm believer in the power of fabric. And recovering a dining room chair is something anyone can do. Small project, big transformation. And the only thing standing between you and new dining chairs are a few staples.

Seat Recovering in Ten Easy Steps:

1. Flip your chair over and unscrew the seat from the legs. 
2. Remove the old fabric. 
3. Cut a square of fabric a few inches larger on each side than your seat. 
4. Place the fabric face-down and put the seat over it. (Be sure to center it if it has a pattern.)
5. Pull fabric tightly on one side and staple in the center with a staple-gun. 
6. Repeat on the opposite side to secure fabric, then on the other two sides. 
7. Space staples about an inch apart along each side, being sure to pull fabric taut each time. 
8. Finally on each corner pull the fabric in very tightly and cut off excess. 
9. Gather the corners and staple underneath, keeping gathers as neat as possible. 
10. Re-attach seat to chair. 

Viola!

So much better. Don't you think?

Now we have a brighter more put-together space that we both really love and want to entertain in.