refreshing and refinishing

Zachariah is 6. He also only weighs 36 pounds and is 45" tall. He has been using a booster seat FOREVER. While on vacation, we didn't bring his seat. It is very portable but we decided not to schlep it around. Well, one of the advantages is that he keeps his elbows off the table.

About six months ago, Dave and I were in Joann's. He puts fake trees and plants in his classroom and Joann's had a huge sale plus a 20% discount on the entire purchase, including sales items. We found upholstery fabric that we thought would be perfect for our dining room set. As it turns out, the pattern is almost identical to the fabric on the chair in our family room, except that the family room chair is a white background and the new stuff is a beige background. The fabric was expensive but with the discount it was semi-reasonable. The goal being that after Zachariah is not using the booster seat, we would redo the dining room chairs.

We bought the dining room set at an antique store 25 years ago. The original seats (when we got the set), had white on white satin seats. When Sarah was three, she drew pictures in ballpoint blue pen on some of the seats. I was a lot calmer then and surprisingly enough did not blow up. We recovered those seats with a very sturdy upholstery fabric. It had small flowers on it and was more or less like a tapestry fabric.

Anyway, we spent Sunday, which was hideously rainy, reupholstering our dining room chairs. Because we didn't know when we were going to do them, we hadn't bought any of the foam or batting. I sent Dave to Joann's yesterday morning to get the foam. The advantage of sending him is that I would have bought cheaper foam. He will always go for the higher end stuff on most things because he thinks that is what I would want. Cute guy. He bought the high-density foam. He also bought new coasters for the bottoms of all the chairs. We started on the chairs around 11:00 a.m. and finished the last one just before 5:00.

The girls were out for the day. Zachariah helped lots. He is a stern task master. He and I took the seats apart . . . I loosened the nails, he pulled them out. He then would clean the frame, while I cut batting and such to wrap around the foam. Dave tooks the chairs apart, cut the foam and also, tightened screws, added glue, replaced some bolts, etc., and then after the seat was covered, he put them back together. Phew.

The chairs look lovely. I'm not sure how long this fabric will hold up. We shall see. It is surely not as sturdy as the tapestry. I forgot to take a picture but will post one eventually.