

It’s so fun to see where people go hunting for furniture — thrift stores, yard sales, the bizarre junk shop you can barely walk around in. There’s treasure to be found everywhere! Wippowillow founder Kate Troyer decided to combine her modern textile designs with a more traditional chair shape. Her friend and colleague Shannon found this gem hiding among the junk, and snagged the piece for only $40. After creating a custom screen-printed fabric and re-upholstering the piece, Shannon and Kate now have a truly gorgeous chair to last them a lifetime. Kate’s pattern is beautiful, and I love the contrast of the bright orange against the dark, classic wood. Beautifully done, ladies! — Kate

If you like the fabric on the chair below, click here to see the full Wippowillow collection including wallpaper, textiles, lighting and pillows.

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Time: 2 days to screen-print and heat-set the fabric, and 7 evenings to complete the upholstery (approximately 18 hours, but many of those hours were spent socializing in class and checking out all the other upholstery projects!)

Cost: Chair: $40; Wippowillow hand-printed fabric: $150; Upholstery instruction class: $175 for a 10-week class. This cost included tools, instruction, studio space and access to upholstery supplies such as foam, cotton, tack strips, etc.

Basic Steps: We decided to maintain the character and patina of an older piece of furniture and pair it with a striking and unexpected fabric, which we found to be a visually stunning dichotomy. After we reupholstered the chair to the point of the muslin layer, we spent time draping Wippowillow fabrics over the chair to find a color and pattern that “popped” next to the dark wood of the chair. The pattern for the “Swoon” fabric was hand-drawn and then hand-silkscreened in Tangerine onto a pearl gray cotton velveteen fabric using eco-friendly water-based pigments. The fabric was then heat set.