laura martin { experiment }

So my home office isn’t really in a place that I can just shut the door and it’s out of sight. My clever self decided that the playroom would be the perfect place to be able to set up shop so that I can work while the kids play. Right? Right? I know, I know…if you’re a mom you’re probably laughing hysterically by now. But I made this space, so now I have to live with it.

Anywho…it’s been set up this way for about 5 years now since we did the addition on our house. This room actually used to be our old family room. Now it’s the playroom which is right next to the open kitchen and also the gateway to the backyard. Needless to say, it gets lots of traffic which meant to have a big bulky office chair just wouldn’t do. So I’ve just been using one of our kitchen chairs which isn’t the most comfy. Then, since I really can’t get any work done in a playroom when being pulled away every minute to play play play with the preschooler, I came across some really pretty chairs online. Namely, these.

Then I scoffed a little at the price. Entertained buying them because I needed a chair for my office as well as my sewing table. But this print would only match my office, not the sewing area. And I didn’t want to spend that much money only to put new fabric on one of them. So I stalked Craigslist for a few weeks. And then I scored the deal of the century. Not only did the guy live just 10 minutes from me, but he had two brand new chairs, new in the box, never been assembled before and was just asking $50. So I ran over there and had no shame to talk him down to $45. Hey, times are rough. I just recently realized how much the set is new though when I found it at Target here. So thank you dude that I can’t remember your name. And sorry?

Now is the best part. Fabric shopping. I knew I wanted something red. And damask. Because I have a little damask infatuation going on lately. I have no idea why. Everything that I found online wasn’t quite right. Or too expensive. So I had a kidless moment and headed to the fabric store. I looked through the upholstery fabrics that were in the sale bin. Nothing was right. Finally went over to the regular wovens. Still nothing special. Then I found this bolt of beautiful red and white floral damask on a canvas type fabric. It was perfect! Then I looked at the price tag and just about squeeled. $2.99/yard. Seriously? I contained myself to just getting 2 yards. It was hard because the price was so good. But I did good. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was the last two yards on the bolt. No. Not that.

Then everything sat for a couple of months. Because that’s how projects happen here. I buy the supplies. And then I think about it for a couple of months. My husband LOVES this approach. /sarcasm.

Long story short, I finally got my act together when I had a day to kill sitting on the floor in the playroom playing with the preschooler. So while he built a lego zoo, I pinned, sewed and stapled away. Then the boy helped me put the chair together. And viola!

The red matches my desk (another already painted Craigslist find) perfectly. And it’s not a bulky eye sore.

Here’s a closeup of the back seams…and a better look of the pretty fabric. It was tricky to figure out the best way to sew this because the top is wider then the bottom of the chair back. So I ended up sewing about 1/3 down the top and had to hand sew the rest of the seam. Not ideal but it was better than just a loose cover.

Now I have one more to cover for my sewing room! Let’s hope that’s not another couple of months….(commence laughing).