Reconstructive Upholstery

When setting eyes on this sofa for the first time, one might think what's with the army fatigue corduroy? I was that someone, but despite my pre-judgments I squinted my eyes to sort of imagine what this sofa really wanted to look like. And then I was ready to go all the way. My husband and I cheerfully paid the sellers (I LOVE Craigslist!) and we were off to see the wizard.

First and foremost, the upholstery had to go! Where this piece would look acceptable I couldn't begin to contemplate, so I stopped right there. Onto new fabric...what this sofa needed was something refined, subtly modern with a smooth pattern (if any at all). Then came the work! I won't lie, Julien did the manual labor and loved every minute of it (at least that's what I told myself), while I put in my hours with the design details.

Bye bye separate seat cushion!

After pretty much gutting the thing, the rejuvenation process started with a mild but potent frame exfoliation (aka wood stripping) followed by staining with an espresso finish, giving the suggestively curvy frame a deep and luxurious lustre. Re-cushioning the sofa back, the seat and arms came next.

Oh my, we can see your under wires!

We decided on this great over-sized hounds tooth upholstery in light cream/sable. The contrast with the newly esspresso'd frame was just what I had pictured!

On it's way to perfection...

The edges have been cleaned up, now it's time for some embellishments!

Nail head tacs to clean up the lines...

And of course we wouldn't want to forget tuft buttons!

And just to reflect on the journey this couch has made, here's The Before:

Et voila! The After

C'est fini