Full disclosure, I first found this chair in September 2015 (thank you sequential photo file names!). At the time I knew I wouldn't be able to deal with it right away, but it was just so unusual and usable I couldn't leave it to the garbage fates. So I took it, waiting for time to work on it......
....It is now summer 2016. Things were busy, enough said.
So here she is, sitting patiently in the kitchen, being all stately despite the mish-mash of decorative styles going on.
Having looked at this chair for many months there were many ideas that floated across my mind. It obviously needed a new cushion because the existing one was not at all cushy. I also knew that new fabric would be in order, but what color? Should I paint the frame? What color does one paint a garbage throne? In the end I decided to not paint the frame (less work!) and just change the cushion. I might refinish the frame in the future because it is less-than-perfect, but that's in the future....
My enterprising mother found some dark blue velvety fabric and sent it to me since I don't live near a fabric store, thanks mom! I also had a very very thick couch cushion that I had saved from the discard pile because holy crap FOAM IS EXPENSIVE and there is NOWHERE to buy it around here. I knew I would need it for something.
I unscrewed the seat from the frame and was all ready to strip off the covering when a friend showed up and decided that they wanted a little manual-labor time.
"Here, remove these staples from a piece of wood, that should be satisfying."
"Can I have a screwdriver, hammer, and pliers?"
"ok, guess you've done this before"
"thank you. yes."
And it was. And it was also easier for me. Win win win.
The next step was cutting the foam couch cushion down to size. As you can see it was an L-shaped end cushion.
I had a variety of tools at the ready, scissors, a long knife, and a swiss army knife with a serrated blade. Although the internet suggests using a bread knife with a serrated blade I was able to cut the foam using a combination of a non-serrated blade and scissors. I'm not claiming millimeter precision though.
The foam was very thick, and I thought about trying to cut it in half,
but in the end I decided to keep it super comfy, even if it looks a
little odd. Who cares? It's MY garbage throne, not yours.
Here is the foam cut to the shape of the plywood seat (with the white batting removed), the seat is on top.
I played around with the batting in order to have it wrap around the foam and the bottom of the seat. Eventually I got it all stapled down with my new staple gun.
Some parts of the batting are a little thick, but the blue fabric went over them just fine. I decided to NOT screw the seat back on to the frame just yet, in case I get super motivated to fix up the frame finish anytime soon. Here is the new garbage throne in it's present butt-cushioning state.
The high seat makes the arms seem low, but once you sit on it, trust me, your concerns about armrest proportions will just melt away.
Don't be afraid to change furniture proportions to make something more usable.
Happy freestyling!
