Charleston: Joggling Boards

One of my favorite things about Charleston is the joggling boards that adorn most porches and gardens all over town. If you are unfamiliar with what a "joggling board" is, it is basically a long bench that bends and bounces when you sit on it. At the end of a long board are two rockers to support the weight of the bending board. These things are so much fun to sit on! I have one on my porch and love sitting bouncing on it when the weather is nice. One of the most common places to spot a joggling board is in front of Hyman's Seafood, as several joggling boards line the entrance to the restaurant.

Joggling Boards became popular in the 1800's around the lowcountry and in 1970 the Old Charleston Joggling Board Company was formed. Check out their website for more history and information. Happy joggling!

Old Blue Chair

Today I wanted to share with you a chair that I recovered for less than $50 dollars. Yep, I said fifty. I bought this chair on one my trips home a couple months ago for only $23 dollars!! I immediately fell in love with the white shabby chic details in the arms and legs. The fabric, not so much. I stripped off all the fabric and much to my surprise, found that the chair was stuffed with horse hair and hay. Ahh! I'm pretty sure this makes it an antique.

Step 1: I bought a few yards of blue fabric from the upholstery remnants table at the fabric store ($8) and some upholstery tacks ($16). Unfortunately, I do not have a "before" picture with the old fabric. Trust me, it was a sight to see! I won't go into detail about how I recovered the seat part because it was trial and error on my part. I simply tucked, tightened, and stapled the fabric up under the chair and then nailed in tacks all the way around the bottom. 

Here's the back of the chair before I recovered. This presented a dilemma because I've never done anything like this and so it sat for a few months like this while I pondered.

Step 2: Eureka! I got a poster board, traced the shape of the back of the chair, and cut it out. I covered the poster board with fabric and glued the edges down around the back. Next, I covered about 2.5 yards of very thick cording ($1.50). I used a hot glue gun to secure the cording around the poster board.

Step 3: To secure the covered poster board to the back of the chair, I used a staple gun and forcefully stapled between the crease of the cording and edge of the chair. I made sure to staple far enough down in the crease so that the cording would hide the staples. After that, I went around and used the hot glue gun to glue any unsecured places between the chair and poster board. You cannot even tell hot glue was involved in this process. See the finished product above and below.

Ta da! I usually use my little coral monogrammed pillow in the chair, but wanted to show you a picture with and without. I'll be the first to admit that this chair is by no means of professional re-upholstering quality. But for less than $50 bucks I can't complain. And besides, I was going for the shabby chic look. What do you think?!?

Distressed

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Bar none, my favorite furniture is the distressed, shabby chic look. Isn't this chest to die for? I love the way it looks with the white-washed wood floors and antique lamps. I've done some "distressing" of my own furniture in the past and would love to share with you the results. This week has been tres busy with work, so once I find a minute I'll post some furniture re-creations of my own. Don't be afraid to paint with colors and brighten up your room! Happy hump day!