DIY: recliner reupholstery

The old brown recliner had just the right amount of creek in its rock. It was soft and gushy. And it was free. How could we resist? 

Some friends of ours didn't have room in their new apartment for the chair, and we were the lucky ones chosen to be its new owners. My friend originally had a darker blue, more "boy-ish" slip cover on it, and for a while I thought we would use it, too, until we decided to be industriously creative: Ryan and I decided to reupholster that old recliner ourselves.

(P.S. We weren't in school, it would save us some money, we wanted a good, gender-neutral rocker for little babe, etc):

I researched how to reupholster furniture beforehand to get an idea of where to begin. YouTube was helpful for tutorials, and of course, I turned to Pinterest with this search: "diy recliner reupholster." That led to me this tutorial, which was helpful, but I thought I would document our experience and put it to its own DIY tune.

*Disclaimer: this project takes A LOT of time. It isn't too hard to do - it will take a ton of pulling out staples, pulling fabric into place, holding fabric in place, and stapling x1000 - but it takes time. And I HIGHLY recommend working on it with someone else, especially your strong husband. We spent about 30 hours total over a month-long period (summer vacays got in the way, and the Olympics, and other things that sounded more fun...), so give yourself some time to work this baby out.

Introducing, the tutorial!

Step 1: Gather materials

- staple gun (with a pack of at least 1000 staples - we really did use all 1,000!)
- hot glue gun (used for those tricky places where staples can't/shouldn't be seen)
- measuring tape
- at least 6 yards of sturdy fabric (we used just under 6 yards of a duck cloth canvas so that stretching and stapling would be easier)
- pliers for pulling off the old fabric and for pulling out old nails
- a 12 inch needle - or an old hanger, snapped in half! - for threading buttons back into your chair (if necessary)
- endurance, motivation, lots of desire, time time time, an amazing, handy-man husband - I would have not been able to do this without my Ryan

Step 2: Take pictures of the original chair
...of every part of the original chair. Do this throughout the entire process of taking it apart and putting it back together. You need the pictures as guidelines when putting the new fabric on and the parts back together.

Step 3: Tear that chair apart! 
Start by removing the back. Save any original hardware from the chair (screws, nails, etc.) and label the hardware parts both on the original chair, if possible, and on a sticky note that will stay with the piece of hardware until you put the chair back together. As you take the chair apart, remove the old fabric - remember, taking pictures of everything along the way!

Important note: Save the old fabric! Now please see Step 4.

Step 4: Cut fabric pieces out of new fabric
You should have "naked" pieces of the old chair all over your living room which is a good thing - you're half-way there! Use the old fabric pieces as patterns for the new pieces: just place the old fabric on the new, trace, and cut. It is quite easy, actually, to tell how to reupholster the chair and put it back together when it is in pieces - never fear! (P.S. be sure to iron your new fabric pieces before reupholstering them).

Step 5: Recover the chair pieces with the new fabric
If you're not-so-awesome like us, pull, stretch, and staple your fabric around the chair pieces. If you are so awesome like someone else out there, you will probably sew your fabric pieces together to, literally, fit the chair like a glove.

As first-timers (and because I'm not an awesome seamstress), we pulled, stretched, and stapled our fabric, and man we had a blast doing it! This project was hard, but it was so much fun to work on something together. Hard, sweaty work done with your husband is oh so good.

*I won't post our pics of every part of the process...that would make this tutorial way too long and very boring

the chair back, all wrapped up like a present

 the corner pleats on the chair back

one of the arms

Step 5.5 : Install buttons (only follow if needed, of course)

Cover the old buttons with your new fabric. Reattach the back of the chair to the seat. Using your needle, or homemade hanger-needle, push and pull the buttons through the back cushion. I found this tutorial to be helpful here (skip to 3:00). 

Here's our clothes-hanger-reupholstery needle. You can also buy the real thing, but we're cheap, remember? :) 

Step 7: Wipe the sweat from your brow...

High-five your man, then kiss him, sigh with relief, and have a seat. Now rock back and forth, back and forth...

The bill: 

Fabric (purchased on sale at Joann's) - $35

Pack of 1000 super-duty staples - $4

Package of hot glue - $4

Package of cushion stuffing, just to puff up the beauty a little more - $7

Reupholstery success, accomplished with your best friend - priceless, right?
Enjoy!

apartment therapy: living room

With summer in full swing and Olivia's arrival getting closer, Ryan and I are finally giving some attention to our house. Our first session of apartment therapy was with the living room: we rearranged furniture, built a new piece of furniture, and we finally hung up pictures. 

Ryan has been 100% in favor of giving some quality time to our home improvement projects, for which I am soo grateful; remodeling/re-doing/revamping projects in the home are way more enjoyable to do with someone else. I love that he is just as enthusiastic as I am about taking time to make our house into more of our home.

Mmm, "home" is such a pleasant thought. The word alone is imbued with feeling warm and light for me. I hope our children will feel the same way about "home" from the way that we create a home for them one day. And maybe we'll never build them a brand new house (I kind of feel like every neighborhood in the whole world will be built-in and developed by the time we could build a house), but wherever we'll be together will be home, I hope - a place that's warm and light, colorful and safe. 

Here Ryan is below, a few Saturday nights ago, building our little IKEA storage system/TV unit. We started this project wayy too late in the evening, but we started with the goal to have a clean house by the time the sun came up on Sunday, and reached it! We felt like we lived in a new place when we woke up, even though there wasn't too much that changed. Simple pleasures are real, eh? 

My willingness to post this picture shows how much I value Ryan's ability to put order to things - and I mean every kind of thing - school, work, play, and now even wall collages. The first collage below is the one that I arranged, and when I asked Ryan how he felt about he kindly said, "Um...shouldn't it be a little more organized?" And then he put together the second one. 

 ...leave it to the man to understand principles of design better than me :) 

Cheers to our finished product, which really isn't that impressive, but its personal charm is refreshing to have around (look past the screen saver on the TV, p.s., I forgot to turn off the AppleTV before snapping the pic). 

The little blue bins will take care of Olivia's toys and diaper goods so that we don't have to keep them in the corner of our room. And while they may resemble school room trash cans, I am glad that we have an option to put her little things away quickly.

Here are quick stories behind the items of the collage, some of which are kind of insignificant while others are full of genuine meaning. 

1. This picture and the one next to it (#2) are really just there because I had them from a collage that we hung at our wedding. However, Ryan does say that he loves my hair in this picture, and he's not sure if he wants me to switch it out for one of Olivia when she's born for that reason...I'm sure he'll change his mind when he sees that our little girl will be much more beautiful than my hair.

2. A shot from our engagement photo session with Mikki Platt. We've almost been married for a year. Man time flies!

3. This clock used to hang on the wall right as you walked in to our house, and I've come home to messages written on the clock face from Ryan. The first message he left me was my favorite, which said: "Ryan loves every second of his life with Jeni" in alternating colors of ink - that is so Ryan! He didn't change it for months because I loved it so much.

4. Grandpa Gubler's cattle brand is "A+" but it works perfectly for us Awerkamps. I love my cattle-ranching heritage, even though I'm terrible with those animals. I'm still so proud of my ranching grandpa that taught my dad to work, who in turn taught me the value of real, genuine work.

5. A family friend painted this watercolor of the St. George temple for a wedding gift because we were married there. Isn't it so beautiful? I love having it as the centerpiece.

6. My very own, very impressive original artwork: a finger-paint piece for my History of Creativity class at BYU ;) I was lucky to squeak out an "A" grade on this one. I mean, anyone can stick their pointer finger in paint and push it on canvas. The bright colors do the room some good, though.

7. Ryan saw me drool over this print at the MOA's gift shop after we spent some time at an exhibit there last winter. Being the wonderful one that he is, he picked it up for me and hung it on the wall when I walked in that night. Ironically, that day was one of my most stressful ever of my college career, so of course I bawled my eyes out when I saw it.

8. Mother Susie snapped this picture of us in my parents' kitchen a few days before Ryan left on his mission. I kept it in my apartments all the time he was gone, and I haven't wanted to oust it yet. It's fun to see how we've changed, and yet we're exactly the same as we were three years ago.

9. I once received a letter from Zaragoza, Espana, with those two little dandelions tucked in the envelope. Ryan wrote me that letter from a bench in a beautiful park, and he threw those little flowers in just because he could. I pressed them, put them in that small frame, and have loved them ever since.

10. A genuine Spanish clock, a wedding gift from some of Ryan's Spanish admirers. Every hour showcases a Spanish icon - soo classic. I always want this displayed in our home. Viva Espana!

So at least this one wall can tell stories of our family. And as the years go on - as we put our future houses through more therapy to make them homes - we'll have more stories for our walls to tell. 

This whole family-building, home-creating adventure is turning out to be the sweetest endeavor...and we're just at the beginning!