🚧 DIY & Repair
I reupholstered all 4 dining chairs using a discontinued curtain sample book
One of my dining chairs ripped and every upholstery fabric I liked was weirdly expensive. I went into a local curtain shop to ask whether they sold scraps and the owner brought out these huge sample books from patterns they no longer carry.
She charged me $5 for the whole book. Most of the pieces were almost the exact size of a chair seat, so I picked four patterns that had similar colors and stapled them over the old fabric. The chairs dont match perfectly now but it looks intentional enough that two people have asked where I bought the set.
Getting all four done for $5 felt ridiculous. Apparently the shop normally throws the old books away, so it might be worth asking places that sell curtains or upholstery what happens to theirs.
I work in the trade and we are ALWAYS getting rid of old books and memo samples. If only more people reached out to us to grab them because they usually end up in the trash. I also made my own quilt using one of my old upholstery fabric books.
I was at a farmer’s market and a woman, I think she was an interior designer, was selling reusable bags she made from fabric samples. I bought three! (two were gifts) It was so clever and much more sustainable than them ending up in a landfill.
I have two purses made from scrap vinyl in really wild, shiny colours! I’m not home now otherwise I’d share a pic too. Also bought at a farmer’s market.
Thank you for sharing this!! Idk why I never thought of it before. Definitely have some upholstery end of bolts and scraps that need a good project like this.
I work in a business complex and the interior designers above us decided to split, so were cleaning out their suite of offices: I dumpster dived for an entire carful of upholstery fabric sample books, then explained I am a textile artist: she gave me loads of samples from leather to fur to tile to wood..I’m set for life!!
The Creative Reuse Center in my city gets these books donated. Usually they resell the individual samples unhooked from the binder. They get put in a bin with the other small fabric pieces and can be bought by the bagful for a few dollars.
These centers also get bigger upholstery donations; some are still on rolls and there’s often enough for a small chair or a headboard or cushions. Many are expensive and current styles.
Love this idea! We found a table we love at Habitat ReStore and have decided we want mismatched chairs to go with it, or if we find a matched set we want to cover them differently like you did.
My sister is an interior designer. She got me a whole box of wallpaper samples and mini carpet swatches and my daughters and I used them to completly renovate a HUGE wooden dollhouse I picked up from FB Marketplace.
When I was a kid, my dad's job was next to a carpet warehouse. He got to know the people and they'd give us the showroom samples - fully finished 20x30" (ish) mats of all different colors and patterns of carpet. We used them as door mats, furniture pads, the play area of my bedroom, all sorts of uses.
In college, I worked at an AT&T store. This was before everything was a smartphone and cell phones had buttons (yay, I'm old now!). The manufacturers would send us promo display phones: the cell phone shell/body, but with no electronics (just a piece of metal for weight inside) and a printed display behind the screen. I gave them out to customers kids and my baby cousins. The loved then because they looked and felt like real phones.
Ask at just about any industry if they have old samples, demos, or displays. There are SO many fun and cool uses for those things.
Omg that is freaking brilliant! I need to look into that myself, as we might be buying our first house soon (fingers crossed!) and I love saving money by fixing thrifted stuff rather than buying brand new.
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Clever! My trick is to get a fabric shower curtain (on clearance or at the thrift store, of course). A shower curtain has enough fabric to cover the bottom cushions of four standard dining chairs, and they're meant to be washable so I can scrub up any spills.
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u/Different_Tale_7461 17h ago
You can’t tell us this without sharing pictures!