Say hello to my last do -the -yourself -project in Zebra -dust. This armchair was in the house of my old grandmother Sara in Värne. She had a library at home where she borrowed books and this was her reading chair. My mother told me that they were not allowed to play in the armchair when she was little because Sara was so afraid of it. She bought it somewhere in the late 50s or early 60s, so it has at least a few years in her neck and this green velvet is the original upholstery. When Sara died, it was then at home with my grandmother Sonia before I got it when I moved to my own apartment in Stockholm 15 years ago. (How can it be 15 years ago?!)
We used the armchair very much and it was also my best breastfeeding armchair when Flora was newborn. Our cat Billie also likes it and it is probably the one who has worn the most on it. She has played with the buttons and unfortunately a lot was cluttered. I explored such a beautiful armchair in the fire station (super beautiful and inspiring interior design store on Hornsgatan in Stockholm by the way) in Zebrastof, so I thought I should try to turn it into a zebra. I definitely have a secret dream to learn more about and who knows, is furniture upholsterer my secret dream profession TBH?! To be added now that I really just have a layman in this, I take everything I write with a big pinch of salt! I previously dressed a pallet that was fairly simple, made my own headboard and new clothing for our bank, which was of course a bit tricky. But everything was pretty angular with clear corners that I thought was easier. The armchair has a curved back and difficult round parts around the armrests, so this was a real challenge. A challenge also if you have a 1-year-old at home and really have zero time for such projects, but I think it’s great that do-it-yourself projects can really make me disappear and think about this and now for a while when I got home. Small moments here and there in the summer when Flora and Joseph were on an adventure, I dressed the armchair.
I have been to the fabric plant on St. Paulgatan on Södermalm, go there if you have not been, an incredibly good fabric store. Very inspiring to look at all the incredible fabrics and they have a lot of dead stock fabrics and beautiful vintage buttons, but also everything you need for furniture upholstery. Nub, nail, hammer and large staplespistool. Important with extra strong wire. In retrospect, I came in a hundred different ways that I would do instead, but can bring it for the next time.
Started by trying to eliminate as much as possible of the original upholstery as I could use as a template, but did not dare to remove everything on the backrest so that the old fabric stays underneath. It is far from perfect and will certainly not last as long as the original upholstery, but hopefully we can still enjoy the armchair for a few years before we have to change it again and perhaps also have to change filling. It was so nice to be able to call grandma and tell us that the armchair is now a Zebrahair, it is convinced that she had laughed well and thought it was all festive! Miss her so much.
#armchair #secret #dream #profession #September