A Chair Becomes A Lair (That Doesn’t Slide Off)

Okay, you got me…  I confess!  I was just standing at the fridge, squirting Reddi Whip onto my finger and greedily shoving it in my mouth!  Some days you just need to eat something totally worthless and delicious before getting on with the day.  And now, on with the day!

Earlier in this blog’s history, I wrote about how a gaming chair could become a cushy, comfortable reading chair.  I posted pictures of the process, the pinning together of pieces, adding layers, etc.  It looked pretty inviting.  And it slid off every time someone sat in it.  Boo!

I finally got so sick of slipping around and having to fix the thing (even with only one boy enjoying the space so far), that I took it completely apart and started over.  Here is the result:

The fleece layer was too slippery, so it got demoted to the chair lap only and pinned in place around the armrests.

The quilt is the real hero of the lair that welcomes a ready reader.  So I used that to its greatest advantage, opening it up, and pinning it only a couple of times behind like so:

That’s all it took!  The thing has not moved once since I put it on (and believe me, Riley has tested the mettle of this chair makeover already). 

Getting the quilt wrapped tightly around the top seemed to be the winning trick.  And in the end, a pillow was all it needed to become the inviting reading spot I hoped it would be.

A frugal mindset is a creative, determined mindset: I will find a way to use the free things I have instead of spending $$$ I don’t have on what I probably don’t need.  You never know what will come from thinking this way… 

In this case, a redecorated reader’s throne, for which we spent exactly $0.  Yeah!

A Chair Becomes a Lair

I promise I will post some more “artsy” projects soon – but there’s been a problem in my living room, and I had to fix it.  We acquired a nice gaming chair for free.  I love free.  I do not love black, and this is what the chair looks like.

This chair says grab a Dew and a headset!  Not even the addition of book baskets made it inviting to me.

I used to drape a quilt over the back, and that… sort of worked…  But the quilt kept falling down behind me every time I plopped my pregnant butt down (I mean, there’s considerable impact when a chair is so low and a woman carries such momentum).

Right now is not a good time to spend money on upholstery weight fabric.  Someday.  Someday when we’ve filled a swimming pool in our backyard with 20’s, 50’s, and 100’s, I plan to re-cover and redecorate like Suburbian Martha gone wild. 

For now, I have a fleece blanket, a quilt, my husband’s baby blanket (awwwwwwww!) and a packet of safety pins.  Here’s the result:

The fleece blanket seemed to be unevenly cut.  No matter how tightly I pinned it and how hard I tried to get it symmetrical, there was always a lurking bald spot.  This method of overlapping and pinning at the top corners worked the best.

I love drapyness, if that’s a word.  So I left the blanket alone, just pinning twice under each armrest so the thing wouldn’t slip off.  Next I folded the quilt into thirds, so that the underside was showing.  Nothing against the front, where the beautiful design is located, but I’ve been staring at it for years.  It was time for a change.   I pinned the quilt at both ends so that it, too, would behave.  Jon’s baby blanket added a sweet touch.  And…

PRESTO!  A gaming chair becomes a reading lair!  The only thing missing is a funky pillow with some finger-lickin’ texture.  I shall create and post that on a future Studio Tuesday.

The pins are all attached from underneath the fabric and carefully concealed.  The only thing showing is coziness.

Again, someday, a cash-filled pool, a zip line, and pony rides…  Today, a child-filled reading chair, for zippo, and grand rides for the ol’ imagination.  I like today.