Office space DIY part two: Recovering the Chair

So as part of my office space DIY I was really keen to find some cool fabric to recover the chair with. I was all set to head off to spotlight until I looked in my stash and found some perfect fabric.

I had already used it once when I recovered Tamas office chairs and I  realised it would be just the thing for my new motivational space.

It really was the quickest DIY ever, literally 10 minutes!!!! All you need is:

• An old chair in need of a makeover
• Some fabric (I used upholstery fabric so I know it will wear well)
• Gun stapler
• Sewing scissors
• A screw driver

So here's the chair before I began. Pretty ugly old fabric but the chair it's self is in pretty good condition. The first thing to do is too unscrew the top from the frame. Pretty easy and would be easier if you had a drill rather than an old fashioned screw driver.

The next job is to lay the seat on your fabric and cut around it. Make sure you leave enough fabric to put up and staple. Once you have done that you just gun staple all the way around and boom you are done.

Screw the top back on the chair base and your DIY is complete!!!

I am stoked with the results and cant wait for the rest of my DIY office space to be completed.

Arohanui Mim

Office space DIY part one: The thinking and planning

So unfortunately we do not have an office. We live in a house with six people, a cat a dog and only one living space and no spare bedrooms. Every small bit of space is taken up with something. I have got pretty good at over the years utilising our space well. I will admit I think I do however frustrate my husband when I come home with yet another cool find and have to find a home for it.

When you walk into our backdoor we have a small tiled space with a chair and tiny dumping ground desk :) This is the space I have decided to do some DIY on, and I am excited about it!!!!

This year I am going back to the books, in-between work and family, and doing some more study. I haven't started it yet and I think one of the reasons is I just have no where to actually set stuff up and begin! I actually began to get depressed just thinking about the tiny desk and wondering how on earth I was going to make room for my books, computer, notes etc.

So after having a bit of think and talking to tama we have decided to clean the space out and I am going to DIY that puppy over.

We are checking out an old desk of my grandfathers, I am on the hunt for some inspiring fabric to recover the chair, pinboard, fancy stationary, storage boxes or baskets and maybe some art work.

Stay tuned for hopefully what will become the space that inspires me as I begin my somewhat unknown venture into my masters.

I would love to see some of your work spaces you have set up that inspire you to work, be it study, sewing, craft or kitchen.

Arohanui mim

Recovering old chairs part 2

Ta da, i actually have the photos to put up!!!! usually i say i will and i don't... but not today people, today I DO.

So when i set about to recover these 4 chairs for Tamas new work space I had to actually find fabric cheap enough to make it worth while. I can't believe how expensive cool funky upholstery fabric is!!!!! right, does anyone in New Zealand have a good source for me apart from Spotlight???

So off to spotlight it was. I really could (and actually do) spend hours looking and trying to choose fabric, but it was made easier in that a couple of us had already worked out the colour scheme in the rooms and had picked the wall paper so I had some colour perimeters to work with.

I chose a cool black and white/cream spotted, kind of giraffe/leopard spots, for the admin office reception area, and a nice green for the lounge.

When recovering them i had a few issues. The first was actually unscrewing the arms to get the old fabric off. Some were ok but on some the screws had lost their thread and Tama had to help. The second thing was is was not just a straight forward staple gun round the edges. I had to create a pattern and sew the back as slip cover and then staple the bottom. It was all good but took a little longer. The third thing was after two chairs my hands were SO SORE trying to use the staple gun. I really must be weak and would totally love a air compressed gun as once again I had to call on my trusty husband to get those staples in securely.

But I am totally happy with how they turned out, yay.

The admin office has a really nice yellow and a rich choc brown as colours with white walls so the spotted chairs looked great in there.

The green looks great with the wallpaper.

In total the fabric didn't even cost $30!!!! so I was really happy to get four chairs done for less that $10 each. A total saving. Can't wait for my next project.

Recovering old chairs Part 1

So Tama and a whole lot of helpers and trades people have been building and doing up the work space over at epic. It has been quite a long process....as in all this year but the results are fantastic. 

How many of you have ever done up an old house and then tried to make it into office space???? Not quite as easy as we first thought... ok so not quite as easy as I first thought. Tama said he knew it would come with complications.

As epic were doing it on a budget they couldn't afford to do it all...like re piling. So in places if you put a ball on the ground it just rolls right to the other side of the room ha ha. I should pop some before after pics up, they really have done a fab job. 

They also have built two new office spaces which is just great and look super flash but totally tie into the existing building which is great.

Due to the lack of funds I decided to save a bit of $$$ and re do some old chairs. The frames were sweet as so all they needed was re covering. 

It was a bit more complex than a first thought, isn't it always, but the end result is fab, i love them :) At the moment we have no camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! apart from tamas iphone so i will only put up the 'before' pics and then pop the others up later in the week. 

As you can see from the pics the arms and legs are in great condition but the terrible red faded ripped covers not so much. There were four chairs in total so not too much to do.

Stay tuned for the big reveal (ha ha love that cheesy statement)