Life as Bridget Knows It...: Twine/Jute chair backs

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Twine/Jute chair backs

I've received many compliments on my chair backs and thought I would do a tutorial on how I did it.

Here was my inspiration:

Source: bhg.com via Bridget on Pinterest

I loved this when I found it but could note find a tutorial on how they did it (I didn't look really hard either). It seemed pretty simple to do.

Supplies used:

The jute twine was purchased from Joann Fabrics (it's in the jewerly making section of the store). I bought 3 and have some left of the 3rd one.

The wood glue was something we already had.

Now, I'm not going to lie...I don't have very many pictures of the process on how I did this, but I am going to try really hard to explain it to you all!

Step 1:

Put glue on the underside of a slate at starting point (on end). Hold jute end to glue and wrap around. Have the jute overlap the starting end to hold into place.

This project can get a little messy has the glue gets all over you :)

Step 2:
Keep wrapping jute around chair slate pressing tightly agaisn't what you have already done and making sure you are tightly wrapping also.

Step 3:

Apply glue in random places as you go along. I would put glue on top about 1 inch in length and then wrap twine around. After I had the twine around and all the glue was covered, I would add about a 1 inch length of glue to the underside and keep repeating until I was finished.

*Need to give big props to my neighbor helper, Mason when starting the jute part of the chair...he was a great help to getting this project started*

Step 4:

At the end, I had noticed in some that I did that it wasn't coming across even. I would then have to adjust by moving the twine a bit (if the glue hadn't dried yet) or at the end if the bottom had a gap yet but the top was done, I would overlap.

As you can see, the very end has an 'overlap' of twine so that I fit it all. You can't tell far away at all.

Step 5:

After it's all done, I then cut the twine in the appropriate spot (to make it end under the slate or on the backside). I then put some glue on the end of the twine and pressed it into where it ended. Sometimes it ended underneath, sometimes it was on the backside. I made sure it never ended on top or in the front. I would hold it in place for a good minute to make sure it would stay.

In the picture above, it actually ends halfway up the backside.

Step 6:

Let it dry for a good 24 hours. Then enjoy!!!