New Life for an Old Sofa

According to my mother, this was one of my grandmother's first (and favorite) furniture purchases when she married in 1926. From Mom's childhood perspective, it was originally upholstered in brown "horsehair" that was itchy to sit on. All of my memories of the piece had a skirt covering the legs. For the last 25-30 years I have tried to talk my mother into exposing these great legs! So she gave me the sofa and I did it. 

And this is what I received. Fitting for Halloween - orange and scary. 

My mother had it upholstered in an indestructible orange fabric in 1968. Fur from every dog my parents ever owned was embedded in the fibers. That gray shading on the left is dog fur. Yuck. 

As I stripped off the fabric, I found small toys, game pieces, 37 cents in change, a TicTac, and an M&M - I microcosm of Grandmom and Grandad's life. I also found thread from the original greenish-brown velvet upholstery.

The wood was originally stained dark brown, but I forgot to take a picture. I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White, used clear wax and dark wax, then distressed it with sandpaper. The final touch was gilding wax.

 I remember this teal colored fabric from my childhood. My grandmother also used linen slipcovers in the summer, which I remember. 

The small samples are from Fabricguru. Selection and prices are good, and my order arrived in just a few days. I had to pay for the samples, but they gave me a discount code that more than covered what I paid for the samples. I will use them again.

If you look closely, you can see the gilding. The speckles on the wood are original to the piece - I guess their version of distressing. The blue fabric was what an earlier upholsterer used in lieu of burlap. You can also see how dark the original stain was.

I did my first upholstery shortly after college with help from a library book. Now I use Youtube.

My favorites are a series of 7 videos beginning here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YskrFzNoPKg

He is restoring a sofa the same age as mine. This is how the professionals do it!

A professional would have had straighter lines, but that would easily have been $1000.

I ended up finishing the edge with the same fabric I used for the upholstery - not nailhead trim or gimp. I felt like the sofa would be too busy. I like how it turned out.

I can hardy wait for my living room to be finished.  I will be refinishing(and sharing) some chairs from my other grandmother to create a room with a French cottage feel.

I bought the needlepoint pillows at Marshalls or TJMAXX many years ago  and would love to find more. I found a few on ebay, but they cost more than what I paid for them brand new! Any suggestions??