Those of you on FB saw my finished settee, but thought I would share the details of the project.

Just a refresher, here was the piece when I bought it for $18.

 

After I stripped off the 3 layers of upholstery, I had the original piece.

 

Then I spent a good amount of time stripping and repairing the wood as best as I could. There were so many tack and nail holes, as well as splits in the wood that it was never going to look new.  I can’t understand why someone would cover up the wood in the first place.  Kind of like people who put carpet over perfectly good hardwood floors.  And if any of you have done that, please don’t tell me.  😉

The seat was stuffed with hay!  Icky.

 

Upholstery books say to keep the stuffing of furniture if you can, but there was no way I was keeping this.

All the old springs.  Instead of being attached to the webbing, they are actually attached with metal – which meant I could keep them and just retie them into place.

 

After stripping and patching what I could, I realized that it wasn’t going to look good just stained, so I opted to paint it. I used 2 cans of rustoleum black glossy enamel spray paint, which allowed all the wood detail to come out.

It still has dings and scratches in it, but it’s an old piece – so we will give it a break.

Then I had to tie down the springs. The idea is to make the springs even in the shape of the seat.  I read a few books and websites about tying down the springs.  Of course, since my springs were attached to a metal frame, it was different than the books showed, so I had to wing it a little bit.

This was about 3/4 of the way through tying. I did more because I was paranoid LOL!

Then time for the good stuff.  A layer of muslin over the springs as a cover.  Then I used the old seat to cut a form for the padding:

I was so glad to throw out that nasty old seat once I traced it. Nas-tay.

Then I put a layer of batting on top and held it all in place with another layer of muslin.

Now I could work on it inside since it was clean and the messy stuff was done.  I ended up using upholstery tacks to attach everything but the dust cover on the bottom. The wood was very hard and it was too hard to get staples to go through the cloth and the wood.

Then I did the pretty fabric.  No pictures of this because I was busy with both hands. I took a long time putting the fabric on because I would put in a few tacks, ponder the piece, put in a few more, make sure I was going straight, etc. The hardest part was going around the front corners and keeping the fabric tight.

And done!

 

I adore this fabric so much!  I bought it online at Brick House Fabric.  They have really unique fabrics there.

I was thinking I would get some trim to cover the tack line, but I kind of like it. The original piece had the tacks showing and maybe I will just leave it.  It will get left until I get another coupon from JoAnn Fabrics and see if I want to buy any trim.  Always on the hunt for a bargain.  The total cost of the piece was $72 and change, which includes the $18 that the settee cost in the first place.  The most expensive thing was the fabric at $24 a yard (plus $5 shipping).  I got almost everything else half price at JoAnn’s with sales and coupons – so that made me happy!

The piece isn’t perfect, but it is pretty comfy, I have to say. I think for my first upholstery project, this was a pretty good one to do and probably better that I didn’t have as much actual fabric coverage to do as I first was expecting when I got the piece.

Next upholstery project? 

Although not for a while LOL!