I’ve been so busy moving upholstery supplies from my basement studio to my new, above ground studio, I’m a day late on my Sofa Rescue posts.
Eighteen years ago I started my own upholstery business so I could quit my full time job as a litigation paralegal. I worked in the garage with a tiny space heater hanging high on the wall. My husband built a gigantic work table for me. I covered it in vinyl and there I was, in business. When I think about how difficult it was to run that type of business from home, I’m amazed I stuck with it. But I did, and now I’m getting the payback- my very own beautiful studio in a lively area of town with lots of revitalization going on. Perfect for my niche.
I turned to teaching upholstery 2 1/2 years ago and that was also difficult to do at home in my low ceiling, basement studio. I thank all the ladies and gents who, like troopers, marched down my basement steps to learn how to reupholster their secondhand castoffs.
OK, enough already, let’s move on to the subject at hand–petrified (as in hardened) sofa cushions and squishy “I can feel the rails on my butt” seat cushions. Before we get to fabric cutting and sewing, we need to see what we’re up against.
The the first photo is one of two sofas that were purchased in 1961, authentic Scandinavian designs that are even more beautiful in person. That photo is a fooler. It looks like a perfectly fine modern sofa, but only if you don’t need to actually use it. Bad back cushions, seat cushions, baggy fabric and fabric coming loose on the back.
Here’s the beginning of this segment of our Sofa Rescue:
It gets worse. At this point I thought “This isn’t bad at all. The staples just pop right out” until I discovered this-
Still, even at this point I thought I could easily pull the old foam right off that back piece of wood.
Wait! Do I see a chisel?
That’s right, I had to chisel the hardened foam off the wood back.
Well, I wasn’t expecting that. After wrestling and chiseling, I finally had this:
I knew I was going to have to make a Lowes run to get an extra large trash can for disposing of my crunchy mess.
The squishy seat cushions were not nearly as exciting. I opened up the zippered cover and found a floral print around a way too soft and squishy piece of seat foam.
Tomorrow’s task is to take the cushion covers apart, press the fabric, lay it out on the new fabric and cut out the pieces for sewing. Then we’ll cut new foam. This, you’ve got to see. Happy Wednesday!