Reupholstery Madness!

I think I probably talked about reupholstering the two love seats I have in the living room for a couple a years before I actually did anything about it.  There is nothing like having people over to get you motivated!

BEFORE

When my Bunco group started back up last September I got the fever to redo my living room.   My goal was to finish before my turn to have Bunco, which just happened to be in November!  As you can see from the picture the fabric was very faded and rather threadbare on the seat.  After I got into the project I realized that this furniture was 10 years old!  We had gotten a lot of use out of it but the frames were still in very good shape.

I had never upholstered furniture before, but I figured if worse came to worse I would gather up all the parts and pieces and take it to a professional and let them finish the job for me!!

Luckily I have two identical love seats.  I started taking one apart, leaving the other intact for reference.  I took a lot of pictures as I went.  I carefully removed the fabric, saving it for my pattern and labeling it with a sharpie as I took it off the love seat.

I cut out my sections, being careful to get the design going the correct way.  There is a tiny little tulip on the new fabric.

Then I started stapling the new fabric back on the frame.  There was very little sewing involved besides the cording until I got to the seat cushions.  The cushions are attached and the love seats are recliners, so that section had to be sewn and fitted to the cushion.  There were very few options as to where the fabric could be stapled to the frame and since I was working with a partially assembled piece of furniture I basically did the best I could. 

If you think you might want to try to upholster a piece of furniture there are a few tools I would recommend.  First if you have a pneumatic staple gun or can borrow one from a friend I highly recommend it.  Then you will need a hammer, a flat blade screw driver (great for helping pull staples), needle nose pliers (also great for pulling staples), possibly a glue gun (I used mine to glue on the cording where the fabric was too thick to staple it securely) and of course scissors to cut out your fabric.  As you get into the project you will figure out what kind of wrenches you will need, if any.  Go to YouTube and watch videos before you get started, do your research.  Finally, make sure you have a good assistant.

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of ALL the staples I took out of these love seats!  If you decide to tackle a project like this let me warn you, you will be pulling a lot of staples!

AFTER

Thanks to Vicky for her moral support when I bought fabric and to Patti for traveling down this road first!