Rocking Chair Reupholstery Part II

So far, the chair looks good from the front.

But the back is not finished.

Finishing things up proved to be the most challenging part so far.

The first challenge was that I was using a manual staple gun and not getting the staples all the way into the wood. I debated buying a 'real' upholstery staple gun (pneumatic or electric) but that would cost $150+ dollars. Not very frugal!

So I put off finishing the chair for about 5 months!

My dad suggested trying to hammer in tacks to the wood. I tried that and it worked well! It took forever, but it was worth saving money.

The first thing I hammered in was the trim for the back.

The next thing I used was ply-grip. Here's a great how-to video about ply-grip. Ply-grip is the metal stuff at the edge that allows you to finish an upholstery project without any staples showing and with all raw edges tucked in.

You need ply-grip on three sides. On the fourth side, you can tack (or staple) the fabric down.

This is how you'd tack it down:

Then the opposite side should get tucked into the ply-grip. I waited until the very end to use the mallet to bump it into place (see the video, I can't quite get the point across in pictures).

This is what the back looks like after pulling all four sides tight under the ply-grip:

Closer view of the back:

This is the bottom. I used the same technique to attach the solid navy fabric to the bottom. However, I did have to fold it a bit around the legs of the chair so it isn't as tight.