4 the love of wood: TOILE UPHOLSTERY - french country wooden chairs

When the weather is nice I run ragged working outside getting all sorts of projects painted. Unfortunately not all of them get finished in order but I

have managed to get some Toile chairs finished to share with you.

A little birdy dropped off these 4 pretty chairs asking if I thought I could make them over and have someone love them again. I said ... "I think I can!"

I just adore the warm patina worn into the wood
so of course I wanted to work with them.

I sprayed them blackish using AS Graphite, sanded them

smooth with a bit of distressing, and finished them with

some wax. I kept some of the beauty of the wood showing

by not painting the seats.

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I removed any old wood, upholstery, and all the nails.

I started to replace the seat upholstery with drop cloth stapled in place.

I added cotton padding/wadding for a soft

landing, then covered that with a heavy layer of vinyl.

The thickness of the vinyl will smooth out any lumps in

the cotton and be a strong layer to hold everything in place.

I chose a red toile for the finished look.

I cut and stapled the fabric in place.

And lastly, hot gluing trim to conceal the staples.

I thought you might like to read a bit about TOILE fabric:

Toile de Jouy, sometimes abbreviated to simply "toile", is a type of decorating pattern consisting of a usually white or off-white background on which a repeated pattern depicting a fairly complex scene, generally of a pastoral theme such as (for example) a couple having a picnic by a lake. Toiles also often consist of an arrangement of flowers. The pattern portion consists of a single color, most often black, dark red, or blue. Greens, browns, and magenta toile patterns are less common, but not unheard of. Toile is most associated with fabrics (curtains and upholstery in particular), though toile wallpaper is also popular. Toile can also be used on teapots, beddings, clothing, etc. In upper-class (primarily American, but also northern European) society, toile is often seen on dresses or aprons used at such events as country-themed garden parties or tea parties.

Toile de Jouy originated in France in the late 18th century. In the French language, the phrase literally means "cloth from Jouy-en-Josas", a town of north-central France. Although it has been continuously produced since then, it experienced a marked upsurge in popularity around the year 2000. Previously only a decorating design, designers have been recently experimenting with toile-patterned apparel as well, although toile-patterned shirts were widely worn in the 1970s.

You can always follow along on INSTAGRAM @4_the_love_of_wood

where you get sneak peaks of what I am up to.

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vintage hardware we have available for your next project.