Reader DIY project.

After posting a few of my do-it-yourself (DIY) projects the other day I received some great e-mails from readers with photos of their own projects. One of those readers, Ralna, recently purchased her first home. Striving to decorate on a budget, she reupholstered two club chairs purchased at a local auction for $15 each.

before:
after:
Impressive! Here's what she had to say:

I just stripped all the old pieces off one at a time and used them as a pattern on my new fabric. The most time consuming part of the whole project was taking out the hundreds of staples holding it together! Then when I was done cutting the new pieces, I slowly put it back together. Most of it was done with a staple gun. There was minimal sewing other than the two cushions and putting on the piping. I stopped by my local upholstery shop when I got to the backs and they gave me a short tutorial on using the tacking strips down the back seams of the chairs and sold me some for a few dollars - totally worth every penny! The fabric I chose is called "Cream Chenille" - a heavy upholstery fabric - costing me around $45 for each chair when all was said and done. It was definitely labor intensive but saved us a lot of money in the end and totally left me with a feeling of accomplishment!

I love that she created classic pieces for her home at such a low cost. You can head over to Ralna's blog to follow her progress and check out her latest projects.