DIY Life

In my humble opinion, upholstered furniture looks better without the anchoring wall of fabric known as the skirt. More often than not, skirts are cut and hemmed too short anyway. Unless the legs are downright hideous, their presence adds an element which becomes a part of the overall design, rather than something attached to it.

Complete removal of a skirt can get tricky, but ReadyMade happened across a chair update project on The Brick House blog that opens up all sorts of vintage chair possibilities.

The blogger transformed this unimpressive gold 1970s chair into a retro gem by altering the skirt in order to show off those modern legs. Find out more after the break.

The Brick House writer photographed and explained her skirt alteration technique wonderfully. Her idea to cut off part of the skirt, pull the remaining length underneath, and attach it to the chair frame makes this look like a professional upholstery project.

Also, she did quite a nifty job of removing the chair legs, cutting out a section of fabric, and then screwing the the legs back on. Legs don't always screw off and on so easily, but this one did.

I'm going to add this technique to my repertoire of tricks of the trade. Skirt removal won't work so well on every style of chair and upholstery, but it was a valuable restyling solution for this vintage chair.

(via ReadyMade)