learning to fly: chairs!

the last 7 days have been absolutely nuts! my parents and i moved all my things into the apartment, assembled a few pieces of furniture, made lots of walmart/target/Ace shopping trips, and then hit the projects. the week has been a huge learning experience for me as i helped (and mostly watched) my dad drill hooks galore into my outdoor storage closet, bathroom, and other various places. my mom and i are good at disassembling, putting things away, and my mom rocks the shelf liner. he, on the other hand, anchored my bookshelf and (still empty) wine bottle rack into the walls, and was much appreciated for every job he managed this week.

most notably, he and i reupholstered the chairs i brought from home. these chairs are part of a dinette set that was in my great-grandma's house in western new york. my parents have had these pieces in their home since they were married, and although i don't exactly remember when, i began eyeing them and was promised the set for my first place. as you may expect, the table and chairs were a little grungy. the chairs, in particular, were covered with a blue vinyl that had begun tearing and fading. it only made sense to re-cover them.

i'll spare you all the diy details, but in a nutshell, we removed the seats and backs, cleaned the chrome, added two extra layers of batting to the cushions, and covered them. the most interesting part of this project was an internal battle between my dad and me as to whose project these chairs were. i like to think that i was in charge of the artistic end of things (and the staple gun), but my dad certainly handled the majority of the labor and assembly. i'm pretty sure my mom got a big kick watching her two favorite type-A perfectionists perform this task, but our personality types kicked butt in the end, if i may say so myself.