The Stapling Maniac!

Bradenton, FL       High:   85         Low:   74

Sparky is turning into a domestic diva! HA!  (But she's not cooking much yet, clarifies E.) Sparky is still battling whatever it is that ails her and is still on medication, so the appetite is not up to par nor is her usual bustling energy level, but Eldo going to be the grill master, so he'll pick up the slack for a bit!

Don't worry, Sparky is not going to be blogging all about colors, fabrics, and painting for very long. She has to move from one project to another or she's going to get bored. Sparky got worn out from painting the den...so she's tackling a different project at the moment--the dining room chairs and table. This is an interesting set that came with the house..It's sort of a whitewashed finish, peachy in color, with a whitewash overcast. The style is 90's Florida---rattan and beachy looking. At first, Sparky didn't like the table and chairs at all, then they started to grow on her, especially after pricing dining room sets! Once we got the dining/great room area painted, the beachy pink color kinda looks nice, although the table and chairs need to be repainted sometime down the road. So, Sparky thought she would first redo the chair covers which are badly stained. Does Sparky know anything about upholstering chairs? Nope! But she can sew, and she can staple like a maniac, so she should be ok.

Off to Joann Fabrics to check out upholstery fabric samples. You can check out the strip books for a 25.00 deposit, and keep them for five days while you decide which fabric you think might look best on whatever it is you are going to cover. Return the fabric swatch book, get your 25.00 back. Heck, Sparky doesn't need five days! She had her decision in minutes! She's going to go with a Tommy Bahama cool blue map print for the chair cushions. (Now, she could easily change her mind in a heartbeat. Are you sure, Sparky?) YEP!

Now, to get the seat chair cushions off...one at a time. There are six chairs, and Sparky started on chair #1. Sparky unscrewed the chair cushion and went to work. It has a rounded corded edge, nice touch, but stapled up the wazoo. Whoever did these chair covers went absolutely NUTS with a staple gun!

It took a LONG time to get the corded edge off. Sparky did think about just covering over the existing fabric, but there were so many staples in there, it would have been difficult to staple over the existing staples. After getting the corded edge off, here's what remained...Yet ANOTHER row of staples for the cushion part.

Sparky had to take a slotted screwdriver and pry up the staples, which caused many of them to break in half because they were so old. Pry up a staple, grab the pliers, pull out the staple bits---ONE AT A TIME. Sparky counted over 200 staples in this one chair cushion! UGH! At this rate, she thinks she will be doing one chair a week.

The construction of this chair cushion was really something! Under all that fabric is a smaller foam center piece in the very middle of the chair to give it some height and extra cush for your tush.

Then there's a SECOND piece of foam that's the same size as the wooden base that fits over the smaller foam. Looks like good quality and a great idea, except for the stapling maniac who did that awful stapling job! (An exercise in patience, my dear, says E.) Hm-m-m--mmmm...maybe Sparky will put Eldo on staple removal duty this week.....Eldy?  ELDY? Where are you? Now, where did that man go?

At any rate, Sparky has the first chair cushion disasembled and the fabric ordered...On to something else until the fabric arrives...Like unpack some more boxes.....Or take a nap.... :-)

See you later......