Making and Installing new slings for Homecrest Style Patio Chairs

Disclaimer:  This project may cause considerable tension in a marriage.  Just sayin’…..  : )

This is how it all started.  Our neighbor was throwing out two perfectly good Homecrest style patio chairs that just need a paint job and new covers.  He said he had looked all over the Internet and couldn’t find replacement slings for them.  So, of course, since I just love getting something for nothing and seeing what I can do with it, we took those chairs.  We’ve been using them as is and they are ohhhh, so comfortable.  However, they really needed an update to go with our newly updated deck.  

I started researching and I did find replacement slings, but they are really expensive.    Here’s the link I found for replacing the slings on these chairs:  http://www.homecrest.com/Replacements/

We have since figured out why replacements are so expensive.  You have  to spread the bars apart to stretch the fabric and the replacement slings come with a tool to do that.  If you try to purchase the tool by itself, it is around $60.  We didn’t want to spend that much for replacements and didn’t want to buy the tool, either.  That might have been our first mistake.  : )

I found fabric online for about $6.00 per chair and ordered it.  I ordered about 2 1/2 yards of fabric (54″ wide) on clearance from:  http://www.fabricguru.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=141  I ordered outdoor sling chair fabric.

I used this site to determine how to measure so I would know how to cut the fabric.  I added enough on every side to allow for stitching.  https://www.chaircarepatio.com/p-3510-how-to-measure-patio-chair-slings.aspx

Installing Homecrest style slings:

Youtube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yD6wqOFVdc

PDF file:  http://www.homecrest.com/Documents/replacementInstructions.pdf

It all looked so easy!  Ha!

I really didn’t have too much trouble cutting the fabric and sewing it.  I was even able to use the old trim and that saved a lot of time and trouble.  The hard part came trying to put it back together.  We quickly found out that spreader tool was very important and that’s when we found out to purchase one was about $60.  Danny, my husband, was able to spread the first bar with my help with some mechanical tool he had, but it bent that tool beyond repair and wouldn’t budge the second bar that needed spreading.  This is where the marital tension started.  : )

The chair lay in pieces on my newly updated deck for weeks.  This is where the marital tension escalated.

We finally spent most of one day going to hardware stores looking for something that might work.  We finally found it at Ace Hardware.  I don’t know what name of the thing is, but we found it in the lamp department and it is a long, hollow metal rod of some kind with the right diameter (to fit over the screw) he was looking for.  I think i’s purpose is for lamps. We bought it for a couple of dollars and he went home and bent it in the shape he needed.  And that’s where everything stayed for another couple of weeks.  Marital tension escalated yet another level.  My newly updated deck was still covered in chair parts.

Finally, this weekend he was able to have our son, Trevor, help him with the man power requirements needed to bend the second bar.  At that point, he thought he was finished spreading and Trevor went home.  Unfortunately, marital tension mounted again when I realized there was another bar that had needed spreading.  He tried to go it alone without success.  I agreed to try helping and believe it or not, we got it in place.  He was able to put everything back together correctly (after one false attempt, which caused yet another marital tension escalation).

For $6 in fabric, a can of black spray paint, less than $2 for a lamp part turned spreader tool, and a good supply of marital tension, we now have a newly updated sling on one spring/swivel patio chair (Homecrest style) that looks better and is still very, very comfortable.  I’ve rocked myself to sleep in it several times.

The question now is:  Will our marriage survive the second chair????