Rural Chic Designs: Borrowed Time

Here is one of my first projects. This was my mother in laws favorite chair. When she passed away this was the only thing my husband wanted of hers

Really, it still looks beautiful but over the years the material had cracked and it was time for some TLC. We had a dog at one point as well that thought it would be fun to chew off the front of the feet. So I had to do a little repair

So what I used were these files for the repair. So for us woman think of it as filing your nails. Work in one direction. Start off with the heavier grit. As you get the shape you want move to a lower grit. This helps with a smoother finish

I finished it off by trying to match up the stain.Voilà

Next I took an upholstery course. I had to make sure that this was perfect. It was such a special thing to my husband that it had to remain special. The other bonus to the course was that I was tought the tricks of the trade.

Once I got the old material off we discovered the it was full of horse hair. This is something we wanted to keep. The 'guts' were in amazing shape that they should be left that way

When working with materials, location of the pattern is key. The new fabric I choose had a large floral print to it. I wanted to make sure that the large flower was centred on the seat but as well on the back of the chair. This step is to be considered before you cut your fabric.