Sunday 27 March 2011

Getting butterfly chair covers made

I've taken a leaf from Jason's book and will not put off spending what I can spend today.

We have two butterfly chairs which need to be refurbished. It has been on the to-do list for quite a while. There was never the right time to organise it...until now.

I have two chair frames which are slightly different in size (probably DIY backyard jobs from the 1960s).

You can buy ready-made butterfly chair covers at quite a few places. I've done the maths and sadly, as our chairs are not standard sizes, the covers need to be tailored to the frame. This is a job for someone other than me!

My friend Chris said that he would help me make a pattern. Yesterday, he came around with one of his butterfly chair covers which fitted quite well on one of our frames. He's kindly going to lend it to us for a while so it can be used as a template.

Butterfly chairs
Chris' cover is made from thick, super heavy-duty outdoor canvas. I will probably use a similar quality canvas so we can use the chairs outdoors.

I haven't decided on the colours yet, although I am leaning towards a mod orange or sunny yellow with a contrasting white trim.

Chris also made adjustments on the old green chair cover. It was never a perfect fit on the frame as it had sagged and stretched over time. With the magic of a few pins, masking tape and carefully marked instructions, we have another good template to take to the upholsterer.

The butterfly chair frames will also need attention, but I can certainly do that myself. It is nothing that a little steel wool, elbow grease and a few cans of metal spray paint can't handle.

I'll keep you posted on our butterfly chair progress!

13 comments:

  1. I think some bright yellow covers will look fantastic, good luck with them. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are going to look sensational.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep, sounds like the right time to get these jobs done! They will look amazing.

    Pam x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good on you!

    Go the orange. Not that I'm obsessed with it or anything.

    TDM x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent. I like the idea of orange, sounds fab! Although I have always liked that green colour are you going to do the baby one too?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Orange'd look good especially with that German planter sitting next to it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Orange or yellow will look hot -can't wait to see the new covers x

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oooo, good luck with that project! Either orange or yellow will look so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You'll get a lot of those made for the price of a new car (or bathroom Reno)
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. How funny, last week I dropped off my two butterfly chairs to be given new covers. We are going for cowhide as they will be inside. I had them powder coated at PJ Powder Coatings first - they guarantee they won't rust and at only $60 per chair I thought this was a great investment as I am not too good at the scrapping and cleaning thing (they had a bit of rust). Will do a post on mine when they return. Can't wait to see how yours turn out. Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  11. Orange or yellow would be perfect for your house.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Luffly. Nice work with the new suit too Jase. Mr FF prefers Canali. x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh FF. Don't encourage him! Give him a taste of high-end designer and he'll never go back to off-the-rack at DJs. One day I saw him researching where he could get a tailor made suit in Brisbane...Ha!

    ReplyDelete

Love to read your comments

Related Posts with Thumbnails