Sunday, October 9, 2011

project: seat covers

 

A little something about me: I enjoy a nice, bold, graphic print. Lately I've been quite drawn to chevrons. I knew I wanted to incorporate this print into our decor somehow, so I decided chair-pad covers for our dining table would be just the place.

Exhibit A: Boring Before.


We bought a 5 piece dining set when we were first married (7 years ago!) from Walmart. The whole set was $100, which I do think was a steal of a deal (especially considering the Provo D.I. is ridiculously overpriced when it comes to furniture). We've had to replace some parts, but overall the chair frames have held up well. However, the boring tan fabric on the chair pads was in definite need of replacement from years of use and abuse. So, I figured the perfect time for this project was when we first arrived in Salt Lake, seeing as how the chairs had already been dissembled for the move. After lots of time in the fabric store (which, PS, can I tell you how wonderful it is to be so close to JoAnn's once again?!) looking for pretty yellow fabric for a decent price, I finally decided to just make my own yellow print with some white and yellow duck cloth that was on sale for 50% off. So, about $15 and a lot of work later...

Exhibit B: The Awesome After!

 


It took some long, hard thinking, experimentation, failure, seam ripping, and frustration with the staple gun, but I finally figured out how to make my own chevron print chair pad covers (I suppose I could have just googled "chevron design" and found instructions on how to make the print here, but that would have been much too easy). The seams aren't perfect and it took a lot longer than I would have liked, but I LOVE the result! The bright pop of color these add to our home is so fun, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I look over and think, "Hey, I made those covers!"

11 comments:

Kristin said...

Those are so cute!!!!!!!!! I'm really jealous!

Bart & Krista said...

CUTE CUTE CUTE!!! LOVE them!

Unknown said...

Awesome, Karla!!! :) I can't see any imperfect seams from here, and you are AMAZING - that's so much work! :) They really do look wonderful, and yes, happy colors ROCK! :)

Angela said...

Oooooo! Aaaaahh! Beautiful!

Stephanie said...

Oh my goodness these are adorable!! :) WOW, I actually like the fabric you made better than anything you could have purchased because you can see the different layers.

simple.beautiful.lady. said...

Wow. I'm impressed. I'm in love with chevron too. Way to go! You should check out my friend Caitlin's blog. She's an interior designer. You might like her work. (caitlinwilsondesign.blogspot.com) And welcome back to SLC! ...well, I'm not in the area anymore, but Welcome Back anyway!

Melissa Tiek said...

Those are seriously amazing Karla! Nice work. :)

jodie said...

LOVE THESE. I keep thinking about them days after you posted this. I am always impressed with and a tad bit jealous of your creativity and downright awesomeness.

Hope you've gotten settled and are enjoying being closer to home again!

Ben and Carrie said...

I love them. Would you please move to Seattle and become my personal interior decorator? :) It is definitely not my area of expertise, but I have always wanted my house to look more decoratively beautiful. You do impressive work. Hope you all are settling in to Utah again and loving it. Happy Harvest!

Tyler Waterfall said...

Karla, these look great! What a fun project--well done.
Amy

Danny and Shalayne said...

so cute. They look amazing! I love the chevron pattern as well. I wish we could still have a craft/sewing/quilting days that we had back at Monaco Court. Those were so fun and I learned a ton!