Does this not look wonky?

Well, it totally does, right? Gaaah! I tried to do the stretched canvas approach, whereby I streched the fabric across the opening on the back and stapled it in place, and used the gimp trim to cover up the staples. Bad idea. 

So, I cast that chair aside (for now) and focused my attentions on my pretty distressed gray chair of the set. Yes, this one chair is different from the rest of the set. I was in an experimenting mood. Don't judge me! 

I love how this gray chair turned out. The patina is just too pretty for me to paint over to just plain white. So I kept it. And decided to try another method for upholstering the back since the caned back was busted through. 

Oh, hey, what's that? Yeah. Totally looks like a chair. An awesome chair. Woot woot.

It's not trimmed, but is this not so much better? Forget what I said about using cardboard to upholster over a caned back. Well, no, don't forget it. You could still use it for simple shapes, but this is WAY easier when you have a fancy shape that you need to get exactly freaking right or else it just looks like it belongs on the short bus. Like this guy: 

Blerg. Anyone know how to remove trim that's been hot glued on? Anyone?

I'm working on the full tutorial on how to make your upholstered caned back NOT suck, but the gist of it is: 

You need batting,  your fabric, scissors and a glue gun and that is it. 

If you've got spray adhesive it makes things that much easier for you. I used staples at first. no. don't do that. Not necessary. Glue gets it so much more precise every. single. time.

P.S. The wonk-ified chair is the back to my ikat upholstered french chairs! I'm totally gonna do it, you guys. I have 3 of 4 chairs in various states of non-matching-ness, so I really ought to quit typing and start upholstering.

Toodles!

xo,
Margaret