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Valient Viewers of Braver Homes and Gardens

Monday, April 19, 2010

Appalling to Appealing

How's this for UGLY? 


I found this beast at a thrift store for only $9.  I've been wanting to replace my huge, couches for a long time with one smaller couch and some armchairs.  Although ugly, this one had a nice sturdy frame.  My friend Catherine does upholstery and I've heard her, on more than one occassion, talk about how horrifying it is to have to replace the springs on a chair.  Springs are what gives a chair it's bounce and allows for the sink-into-it vs. hold-you-up factor.  This chair had excellent springs.  So I snatched it up.

First I took off the old upholstery and found an even uglier layer underneath:
I don't know which print is more horrid...

While I hated the old upholstery, I think my pochka finds it quite lovely.

It matches her fur perfectly.

I haven't upholstered in a while so I was a bit irked to find out that my local JoAnn's will no longer cut foam to order.  If your fabric store is just as paranoid about a lawsuit, you can cut it like I did using a drywall knife.  I also used "high density" foam.  It costs more, but it's so much more durable and I think you can tell the difference when you sit on it. 


Both the back and seat cushions are removable with a wood frame underneath.  Didn't think to take a picture of that, but the point is, I needed to make the cushions fitted so I started with the sides by making a strip, slitting down the center and sewing a zipper onto it.  Then I attached the side strip to the front and back. 

I also painted the entire frame of the chair white.  And this is how a chair went from appalling to appealing: 

1 comment:

Caroline said...

That looks really cool! White is always chic.