Back to School for Mama

For the next eight weeks, I will be heading off on Tuesday evenings all by myself to take an upholstery class at a local Jamaica Plain craft school. While at first I was apprehensive about committing to something for 3 hours a week in the evenings (read: bedtime for Maceo) I realized that it would be a great opportunity to 1) learn a practical skill, 2) have some quality time by myself, 3) create space for something creative and productive to happen weekly, and 4) give Craig and Maceo some solo time.

We went on a mission in early April to find the raw material for this class. I found a late 1800's mahogany rocking chair for $30 that was in need of some serious TLC. I had fantasies about finding a Victorian ladies dressing chair with a full skirt, or even a mid-century Eames inspired chair, but no such luck. One of the challenges was finding a chair that was small enough to fit into our place. We don't need any new furniture, and perhaps more critically don't have the space, so the compact size was essential. I am still unclear where this chair will actually go when it is done, but at least if we have to store it somewhere it will not take up tons of precious storage space.

Despite multiple post-its and reminders to myself, I failed to take a photo of the chair before the first class. How idiotic. As a result, the before and after pics are going to be much less dramatic than I had hoped. Just to give you a visual picture, it is (technically, was) a narrow rocking chair with a fully upholstered seat and high upholstered back. The frame was a lovely deep red and the upholstery was a nondescript and mildewy heavy red canvas type material with two of the very large and dangerous looking springs protruding form the seat.

I also failed to take photos of perhaps the most impressive part of the project which was ripping off the old upholstery. Last night was the first class, and the main objective was to rip off all the old fabric and stuffing and get things "down to the studs" so that we could do any repair/reinforcements to the wood. The photo below (again, poor quality with the blackberry) is the chair taken down to the skeleton.

I was somewhat skeptical of the time-dating of the chair when I first bought it: labeling if from the late 1800's seemed like it might just be a ploy to make it more attractive (read: vintage) to the buyer. However, that dating was confirmed when I started ripping off the old seat and back. I discovered that the chair had been reupholstered once before, so much like stripping wall paper you could see the various life spans of the chair as reflected in the fabric choices. The original fabric was a mustard yellow with small blue and red bouquets embroidered into the fabric. Sweet. When I got down to the original stuffing, it was hay! Seriously. And as if that was not Little House on the Prairie enough, the primary nails that were used in the construction of the frame were square. The instructor said that they were essentially tiny railroad ties. Wow. There were also several sections where the frame had been constructed with wood notches at the corners so that each of the sections fit like puzzle pieces.

Unfortunately, the authenticity of the dating was also confirmed by the terrible condition of the wood. Once I got everything off, one full corner of the frame was splintering and almost rotting away. I made a joke about needing to post a weight limit on the chair, but the instructor seemed convinced that some wood-fill and furniture glue was going to be sufficient to hold things together. And so we re-glued all the joints, recreated about a 4 inch section of the frame, and got everything into vices to dry for the week. Next week will be all about re-tying the springs in the seat, removing all the tacks, and beginning to build the frame back up.

I plan to add future posts over the next couple months to show the progress of the chair. I must admit that I had a touch of chair envy as there is a guy in the class with the mid-century chair I had been dreaming of, as well as a few other groovy pieces. However, my project is by the far the oldest and has the potential to be the most transformed. Stay tuned.