Finally!

Almost 7 months after finding this floral settee on craigslist it's done!  And not a minute too soon.  Really, I would have loved to have refinished it right away, but I get easily distracted.  I'll walk you through what I did now.


Pull off the trim that covers the staples and can you guess what's next?  You got it, remove 1,000,000 staples.
 

Now that the frame is all stripped, I primed and painted it.  Pretty simple, I just used spray paint.  I wanted to highlight the details of the frame so I glazed it using a graphite latex paint and a glazing medium.  It turned out, pretty cool.




Now to get it all back together.  The foam was in great shape when I removed the pastel camouflage (to be undetectable on the set of Golden Girls?) so all I needed was new fabric.  I used a small 18 gauge stapler to attach my fabric.  I started on the back of the seat and stapled mostly across the whole back.  Then moved to the front and just pulled the fabric taught and stapled along the grove where the old fabric was attached.



I appliquéd a fleur de lis onto the fabric that would cover the back rest. You can check that out here.  The back is completely open, it's kind of like a foam sandwich stapled into a frame.  Fabric, foam, fabric.  I laid the settee on it's back and stapled the entire back layer first, then put the foam and my front fabric on top.  Do the same for the arm pads and you're almost done.




To finish the ugly staples off I made double welt cording.  Having never made double welt cording before I turned to my friend Google.  This one and this one are really great, but this one and this one helped because I didn't want to buy the special foot for my sewing machine ($30) and Joann's didn't have double cording so I had to use single cording.  I think it seams more confusing than it needs to be, I found it pretty simple once I was actually doing it.



Finally I used a hot glue gun to apply the cording to cover the staples.  I worked in short lengths of about 4-5 inches at a time and used pins to hold the cord in place while the glue cooled.  (That last part is probably a little over kill.)


Can you believe this is my first real re-upholstery project??  I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  Even Barbara loves it, just look at her face.


What have you upholstered lately or ever?  I hope I can inspire even one person to give this a try, because there's nothing like having a piece of furniture that you made just what you wanted it to be.

Now onto a new project!!!

I've linked up to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday Party, Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-up Party, The CSI Project, and Under the Table and Dreaming's Sunday Showcase Party.

My settee has also been featured on West Furniture Revival's Revival Monday Features #19

UPDATE:  I found a listing at Anthropologie's site for the settee that was my inspiration here.  I guess I saved myself at least $2,300!

This weekend I decided to get to work on my settee.  (Matt may or may not have suggested that I abstain from new projects until it is finished.)  Motives aside, you may remember back in July I found a settee on craigslist that was near identical to the inspiration piece I had spotted in Anthropologie.

                             mine                                                                      inspiration


All I needed to do is rip of the hideous pastel camouflage, paint the frame, and reupholster.  Easy Peasy!!  Ripping of the fabric wasn't too bad, but then it sat.  And sat. And sat.  For probably 3-4 months.  I guess I hadn't decided what I wanted it to look like when it was finished.  Sure, I could copy the original, but who wants to do that?  About a week ago I had decided what I wanted to do.  First up was to paint and glaze the frame.  I used some Krylon silver spray paint on top of a spray primer (can't remember what kind).  Then I mixed up some glaze.  I have seen many tutorials on glazing, and I felt somewhat confident that my first attempt would be successful.  I had no idea how good it would turn out though (not to toot my own horn).  Even Matt was impressed.  Not that he doesn't believe in me but I'm always doing something and rarely finish things.  But back to the topic at hand, I love how it turned out, it looks like tarnished silver.  Take a look see! (I also sprayed a matte clear coat for protection.)



I also figured out what to do with the fabric.  I even went to the fabric store and bought it.


Mostly grey with a yellow fleur de lis off center on the back rest.  I laid out the yellow and using a tracing wheel I transfered a design I liked onto the yellow fabric.  Then pin the yellow fabric onto the grey piece that will cover the back rest and sew it on.



In hind sight using white to transfer the design onto yellow fabric was not the best choice.  I could barely see it and had to wear a head lamp while sewing to see it.  I probably looked really crazy or something.  Anyway, after I sewed the design I just cut around all the shapes, and washed the fabric again.


Now comes the reupholstering part right?  Wrong!  I don't have the right stapler.  All those home decorating shows have lied to me.  My flimsy hand powered stapler is not doing the trick here.  It is leaving the staples sticking halfway out.  I even tried to hammer them in further and they just crumple and the hammer is making the fabric look kinda shiny and unevenly colored.


So until I go get a new stapler it will sit in my studio unfinished.  I'm also not looking forward to learning how to make double welt cording.  Anyway I hope I can ride my current state of motivation.

So, what unfinished projects do you have yet to finish?  Do you put them off for as long as I do?

P.S.  anyone know a good tutorial or youtube video on how to make double welt cording?

I am super excited about this old floral settee that I found earlier this week.

When I emailed the seller about it I was sure that it would have already been sold.  I found the listing on the 17th and they had posted it on the 13th. But to my excitement it was still available.  However, when I returned the email to arrange when I could meet with them to pick it up I got no response.  Three whole days have gone by.  My excitement, fading.  For sure someone else must have scooped up my find.  Or did they see a better value selling it to an antiques dealer?

Nope!  I finally got an email this morning.  By Saturday afternoon it will be mine. And what do I plan to do with it?  Well I have plans to reupholster it.  I was inspired by this lovely one that I saw while at Anthropology.
I just love the texture of the rough edges that they left and the simplicity of it.  Who knows how long this will take me to figure it all out but sooner or (more likely) later it will be lovely.

-Nikki

P.S. to see more about this settee click here, and here.