Before and After Back to School Blues

Happy August! But what I really feel is “Doggone it! Summer’s almost over!” Now that we’re being honest, I might as well tell you that Spring and Summer are really the only seasons I like. Fall has that ‘Sunday night feeling’, you know, when you feel kind of blue because the weekend’s over. And Winter, forget it! I might as well hibernate. There’s really not one thing I like about winter. Anyway, it’s the hot and humid Dog Days of Summer (I do like saying that), and I’m having a resurgence of Back to School creativity.

But apply that thrill to upholstery and interior design and your excitement starts with finding a new look in textiles, fabrics, color palettes, textures, and more.

First up is the Brilliant Blue Before and After done by London upholsterer, Georgie Elliott from The Elliott Chair Company.

We don’t have the Before for this one, but the Afters make up for it. Georgie used a vibrant blue denim on the front and…

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a kilim fabric from Linwood on the back. Smashing Georgie!

Kilim upholstered chair

My online and real life friend, upholsterer, upholstery teacher and author Vicky Grubb, owner of Something Fine Upholstery in Bournemouth, UK sent student, Hannah, home with this chair, only it was all stripped down.

Before Wingback chairSomethingfine.co.uk to learn more about Vicky’s classes, her book and her work.

And the final bit of Back to School Blues was handily turned out by Jennifer Vedder, owner of Antweaked Upholstery in Ontario, Canada. A blue channel back, no less! With those perfect channels, who needs a fabric pattern? All blue.

The Before is that basic old tired out mauve velvet. (Get a load of Grateful Dead Rd!) These chairs used to be fairly inexpensive since nobody wanted to mess with them. They’re currently having a ‘moment’.

BeforeandAfterBacktoSchoolBlues6a

And after Jennifer waved her magic staple gun- Voila’

Blue channel back chair

As you all know, none of these chairs can be knocked out in a day. And you never know what you’ll find under the covers.

Vision, patience and perseverance serve one well in these endeavors and the final reward is a brand new piece of furniture, only better because it’s not new, it’s been around. We here at Upholstery Club like that a lot!