A Tale of Two Chairs

It seems like ages ago that I scooped up two chairs that were in need of a little TLC.  I found them on Craigslist for C-H-E-A-P.  This picture isn't great, but you get the gist, cute chairs, comfy, great modern, thin lines that don't take up a lot of visual space in my tiny apartment....in a word, perfect.

Except for the cushion covers.  Sure, white is fine, but as they had a previous owner the covers were in bad shape.  I washed them, but still they weren't lookin' great.  I'm afraid of bleach, and since what I really had in mind was getting new cushion covers for them, I decided to head down the upholstery route.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with them.  Neutrals are great because they give you more flexibility with the rest of the space, and you can always add a pop of color with a throw pillow.  However, these were white to begin with, so where's the fun in that?

As far as color goes in my apartment, the only thing I really had going on was a sage green wall that came with the apartment (wish I had found out I could have asked the landlord to change the paint before I moved in, and not last week!), and some vintage reproduction posters with blues, reds and yellows.  If you're unsure of a color scheme, a great way to narrow it down is to pull colors from something you already love, whether it be a scarf, quilt, or in this case, art that was already in the room.

I went for blues with the throw pillows on my couch, so I thought it might be nice to go for a blue with the chairs to help unify the room.  I found this fabric from Amy Karyn Home.  They have amazing fabrics that are all hand printed on linens and raw silks.  This one to me has sort of a teak feel, and almost makes me think a little asian, and who doesn't need a little teak asian influence in their home??

The original cushion covers were just straight covers with nothing fancy about them.  I wanted to do piping for the new ones, and was debating on either cream or blue, and in the end went with cream for a lighter look that's a little more subtle.  So off everything went to the sewers, and hence commenced the waiting game.

Ominous, no?  Not really my style, I couldn't bear waiting, so why make you! So here is the final product:

I just so happened to have a set of 20x20 cream pillows with blue piping that wound up working with them perfectly.  Complete and total happenstance, but it works for me!

What do you think?