Calamity Jane Would Have : Upholstered Cowhide Antique Chair: A Family Heirloom

Monday, August 1, 2016

Upholstered Cowhide Antique Chair: A Family Heirloom

My Grandma Mary was a God loving woman who was known for her foot rubs. My Grandma Mary spoiled the heck out of my brother and I when we were young. I have two cherished moments that I remember of my Grandma Mary; one was that whenever we prayed in a family circle, she would have one of my hands for prayer and she would squeeze my hand in different patterns throughout the prayer. I miss her hand squeezes. Next was the one time she went to make us milk shakes in the blender. My Grandma Mary forgot to close the lid correctly, nor did she place her hand on the top of the blender because once it started, chocolate ice cream and milk went flying all over her clean wooden cabinets, her perfect black curls and all over her shiny kitchen floors. I will never forget the image of milkshake all over her while she laughed her heart out.

She loved us so much. I wish I would have appreciated her more when I was young, and I wish I could have known her as an adult.

When I moved out of my parents house, my mother asked me if I wanted to have my Grandma Mary's antique chair. Without hesitation, I said YES! I was honored to have a piece of my Grandma Mary with me, a family heirloom to call mine. And I love anything that is an antique. So this delicate chair traveled with me all the way to Santa Barbara to my first apartment, and then to almost every other location I moved to after that. It even made the trek to Nashville and back in one piece! Although I was able to place this chair in all my living quarters and make great use of it, it never really fit into my decorating style, and sometimes stuck out like a sore thumb having been upholstered in an old green, red and white floral pattern. While I cherish the strong and sturdy floral fabric that protected the chair for many years, a fabric that my Grandma Mary obviously loved, I knew that if I wanted my Grandma Mary's chair to find its true place in my home, I needed to give it a face lift. So, in January of 2013 I set off to reupholster the chair myself. I had seen the steps listed online and it seemed easy enough.

Well. Fast forward to January of 2015 and it still wasn't complete. I had successfully removed the old fabric from the chair (with some dings in the chair mind you... I'm not a skilled fabric remover) but that was as far as I had got. Reupholstering a chair IS NOT EASY. It takes extreme precision, patience and skill which are three things that I must not possess (like I had previously thought). I knew that measuring and cutting the cowhide to precisely fit the chair was not going to be easy and I only had one cowhide to use, so I couldn't make a mistake.

So what did we do? We took my fabric-less chair and my cowhide to a professional.

And guess what? My heirloom chair is perfectly put together and it is gOrGeouS! I get compliments on it every day and I proudly boast that it was my Grandma Mary's. All the time, sweat, panic and investment put into this chair was worth it, because now not only does it have sentimental value, it is a staple decor piece in my home that will last forever and hopefully be passed on for generations to come.