Back to work with a headache

Well actually I have been working during the summer but only when I have time between visitors, tennis, oh and family!  But now I have no excuses.  Visitors are finished for a while, the youngest is back at school and the two older ones are off to university at the end of this week.  The house is quiet - although the washing machine seems to be going flat out.

Anyway, back to work proper.  Before the holidays a friend asked me to change the fabric on her three Louis style chairs.  Changing fabric is always a tricky one as you don't know what's underneath until you open it up and by then it's too late!  Still, she's a good friend and recently gave us ten chickens (they are chicken farmers) to replace some that were eaten by goodness knows what, so it seems reasonable to change the fabric on her chairs!

Quite apart from the potential problem of tired, worn out upholstery under the cover, there is the problem of all those upholstery finishing nails - the pretty ones around the edges, ha ha!  Obviously they are all the same size and inevitably they end up going back in where the old one came out - which is fine if you can fill the holes with something (see below).  When I strip a chair down to its bare wood I can do this easily but when there's old, dusty upholstery still there it's a bit more complicated!

Getting the old ones out is a long slog.  Often enough the tops fly off and I end up having to remove the stem with some rather handy bent pliers that I keep in the workshop.  But the reward does come once it has all been replaced.  The nails really do finish off this style of chair better than any passementerie can.

I delivered the first chair (above) on Saturday evening when this lovely friend invited us to dinner.  It turned into a slightly embarassing evening.  I'd played a tennis match in the afternoon and thanks to my total idiocy lost the match (I was leading 5/2 in the third set and then lost the tie-break - durrrr!).  It was quite a long match and as a result of the afternoon I was a) hacked off and b) tired.  As we set off for dinner, chair in the back of the van, my head started pounding.  I took a paracetemol and carried on.  It got worse.  We carried the chair into her sitting room and she was thrilled so something to cheer me up anyway!

Unfortunately the head didn't go away.  I really tried hard to make conversation and even managed to eat something but it just wasn't going to happen so in the end I did the only sensible thing - I went and lay down on the sofa and clutching my head and an adorable 8-week old puppy, fell asleep.  Apparently I was there for two hours when Max finally woke me up and took me home - head still pounding.  The next morning I woke up feeling battered and bruised and with a fragile head but not the pain.

I don't drink very much when we go out in the evening  because that way Max can enjoy his wine and I can drive home;  so it seems doubly unfair that after not having drunk ANYTHING for more than 48 hours I am the one who wakes up with a sore head!

The head thankfully seems to have recovered and is still attached to my shoulders so back to work today to start on chair number two!  Hope you like them.

A NOTE ON REFILLING HOLES:  There are plenty of products on the market for refilling wood but they are expensive and not brilliant if you have to hammer upholstery tacks and/or nails back in.  I use a mixture of fine sawdust, which I sieve to get the big bits out, mixed with an ordinary white wood glue.  I can't give you exact quantities as I do it by sight and feel but basically you are looking for a mixture that resembles tuna fish mayonnaise.  If it's too thick it won't stick and if it's too wet it won't fill the hole.  You'll soon get the idea!  Don't make too much at a time as it does go off quite quickly. 
If you have some left over use it on another piece of furniture.

Comments

[me]

why twice? still got a bad head???