Reupholstering Project: Channel Back Chair

A few years ago a friend and I were eyeing an awesomely pink channel back chair that someone abandoned in the hallway of her apartment building in the French Quarter.  She waited to see if anyone claimed it and then moved it into her living room, only to find out how uncomfortable it was!  So it went back out into the hallway.  Months later, I brought it back to my own apartment, vowing to one day make it beautiful and comfortable and, more importantly, mine.  So it sat in my living room, moved to my bedroom, my workroom, back out to the living room, and as of about two months ago it has been living back in my workroom. 

I did a bit of research on what all is involved in reupholstering a channel back chair and then practiced by reupholstering the seats on these kitchen chairs:

So, I recently tried removing the current fabric on the channel back chair.  It's much more difficult than I thought.  Since the chair is so old, the tacks are rusty and were breaking off instead of coming out with ease, so I had to use pliers to pull each one out.  I took a break while in the middle of removing the fabric on the back of the chair, so the fabric was flopped over with all of the tacks and nails and staples facing out.  That evening, I was getting ready for a date, ran into my workroom to grab something from the closet and carelessly brushed my arm against the chair's metal "teeth."  My date was obviously relieved to see that I survived an attack from a vicious tiger cub and managed to get away with just a bloody arm.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll get another chance to tackle this project, but seek comfort in knowing you will be among the first to know.