I promised I would share all of the details of my living room makeover, so here is the second installment.
This sofa was given to me by my awesome Aunt and Uncle. They brought me a truck load of furniture in May including the corner cabinets in my dining room, a great chandelier that's in Wild Rose and this sofa. It belonged to my Uncle's mother and it's got some good age to it. It was damaged in a fire, though, but was professionally restored, so it was in outstanding condition. The foam and upholstery were in perfect shape, as was the wood frame. Here's the rub. Although the upholstery fabric wasn't bad, it wasn't going to work with my curtains. So, I did what any self-respecting DIYer on a budget would do...I slipcovered it in drop cloths. My father-in-law gasped at my covering up the beautiful upholstery, but even he agreed it would clash with the curtains.
I make all of my slipcovers using a pin fitting method. No measuring, no patterns, just pin and sew.
The nice thing about drop cloths (or white cotton twill, canvas or linen) is that there isn't a pattern that needs to be matched up. That can be a pain and expensive, because you have to buy lots of extra fabric to match up the pattern.
With a solid fabric, you can just cut what you need and use every little bit you can. This sofa took about two 4 x 15' drop cloths, but there was plenty left over.
I always start with the inside, since that's the trickiest part. Pinning it all together and then trimming the excess makes it easy to see that the pinning is tight and fitted to the furniture.
I left the wood frame on the back exposed by tying the fabric together with ribbons.
Ok. Here's the deal. I know I've been promising a slipcover tutorial for...well...a long time...like forever. I always start out strong on a project, taking pictures, making notes and then I realize I just wing it with every piece and I give up. There's not one way to do something. So, after much pondering, I've decided the best route to go is to make a video tutorial series on slipcovering. I'm going to take you through the techniques I use to (hopefully) show you how to make your own, no matter what the furniture style is. Sound good? That's coming in January. I've already hired my film crew (aka husband) and I have some subjects to slipcover - a wing chair, two Parsons chairs and an ottoman.
Back to the sofa. The drop cloth gives it a brighter, more relaxed look and hides some of the "too formal" details like the empire legs.
Click here to see my French chair transformation, here to see the trumeau mirror makeover, here to read about the chandeliers and here for a full curtain tutorial.
What's to come...
How to achieve the paint finish on the chairs and mirror
Upholstery basics
Tied grain sack pillow tutorial
Price breakdown of the room
Living room before and after pictures
Interested in learning more about anything else in the room? Just ask in the comments.
