A Morris Chair of My Very Own!.. Part 2

So a quick recap...I bought an old amazing chair, that took me over a year to find, stripped it all down, stained it and put a semi-gloss on it. Now I'm going to explain how I finished it up by creating a new seat for it, cutting cushions and covering them. If you didn't see how it all started check out Part 1.


The Seat...
As you remember I had to remove the old canvas seat due to mold. So I started by tracing out a new one on a piece of cardboard. I did this by holding up the cardboard to the bottom of the open seat cavity and having my Pop trace the outline of the seat onto the cardboard. I cut out the cardboard design, traced that onto wood and cut it out. I placed the wood seat on the brackets that the chair already had and it fit like a glove! I stained and sealed the wood seat so it would match the chair. Things were looking good! I was almost there!!!

The last piece to the puzzle was...

The Cushions...
Sadly I will not have info about cushion covers as I took no photos during this time and to be honest I was flying by the seat of my pant.

I can however give you a quick explanation on the cushion cutting. I had measured the original cushions. I purchases some foam of the correct height (or thickness as it were) and marked the length and width with a yard stick and t-square. I then cut it out slowly with a serrated knife...this was a mistake always use an electric knife if you don't have one buy one! I wish I had but I was too cheap and let me tell you it created a mess! using a regular serrated knife made the foam all bumpy around the edges and it adds more work of me trying to smooth it all out. An electric knife makes it much less messy and gritty on the edges. (Also I ran across one about a month later at a yard sale for $5.00 I should have just looked around!) Any way....Once it was all done I was ready to cover them.  

 

I purchased fabric I liked (about 4 yards for this project) and got to work on the covers. I chose to do a white cover first. I did this just to protect the foam little more. These white covers were made out of muslin which I got cheap at $1.99/yard and it was a good way for me to do a mock model before I started with the $9.99/yard fabric. Again I'm sorry there is no full tutorial on the cushion covers. I don't even remember how I went about doing them because at the time I did not document it or even know what I was doing! I do remember Googling a lot of YouTube videos on upholstery though lol.

The End Result!!!!
3 long months later, after staining, putting a finish on, cutting, sewing and to be honest lots of swearing...I had finished! I had my very own Morris chair just like the one I had loved so much in college and it turned out just as I had designed it in my head. I could not have been happier! But this one I love more because I put my own elbow grease into it and made it personal. I do lots of great thinking and reading in this chair and the 3 months of labor and year of hunting was so worth it! And if I do say so myself it came out pretty darn good!

This was a huge project to convey to you guys so thanks for reading all of it. I hope you learned a few tips here or at least became inspired. Until next time...

 

Creatively Yours,

Christina Marie