Midwinter Break Part II Le Couch

Okay, so this part of my midwinter break has nothing to do with the wedding, other than it has been looming on my "to do" list for ages and I wanted it done before the wedding when everyone wants to see our house. Before I begin the journey, however, I must apologize for the poor quality of pictures. They're so grainy. I must have had the settings to low quality...not sure.When I lived in Salt Lake, I lived with my dear high school family friend, Jennie. Jennie used to go running in the Avenues every morning and would often come home with some sort of great piece of furniture she found left on the street corner for people to pick up. She got this beauty on one of her runs. The original fabric was the turquoise you see peeking out under the tan cotton that she used as a slipcover for the couch. It was a well-loved couch in our house and took Jennie into marriage. Upon moving from SLC and graduating to "real" married furniture (aka. actually buying it from a store--I'm not there yet, hopefully some day) she bequeathed her beloved couch onto me. This couch sat for two years in Micah's and my little house on the prairie in our "TV watching room." The cushion on it soon became so lumpy and mishapen that when I put this beloved piece into storage, the cushion didn't make it. The couch then sat in storage for six months while I awaited my wedding. And now it was ready for a makeover. How I love furniture makeovers.

Removal of the slipcover reveals the original fabric. Beautiful fabric, but very worn out. The shape of this couch, however, is so elegant and unique!

My next step is to remove the fabric from the couch. This is an important step because I use the old fabric as a pattern for the new fabric. This also gives me a chance to work backward and see how the couch was put together. Let me say, they definitely made QUALITY couches back in the day. This couch was incredibly well put-together which meant that it was a bit of a beast to take apart. (Sidenote: I had to add this picture of me so you can see what a scrub I am when I'm working on my projects. I'm surprised that Bartek still wants to marry me. He gets to see me after days of not showering or changing out of my pajamas. Good man, that Bartek).
Removal of the fabric covering reveals the fatty insides of the couch. This can always be a bit scary, because when foam gets old and dried out, it is gross! It literally crumbles when you touch it. Luckily, this couch was in great condition! The foam is a little discolored, but that's the nature of foam--new foam can look that way when exposed to light. I was grateful that everything looked good underneath.

From here it's the fun part. Now I work backward and start adding my new fabric in the opposite order that I removed it from the couch. As I said before, I use the old fabric pieces as patterns for the new fabric.
Once the couch itself was covered, I bought foam cushions fromt the fabric store and covered them.
Voila! Mission accomplished! I'm in love with this couch. I got the fabric from Hancocks on the upholstery flat fold section where they sell designer bolt ends. I got 12 yards of this on sale for $4 a yard. $48 baby! The foam cushions were the most expensive part at about $70 on sale 50% off, and with piping and thread, I came in with a brand spaking new couch at under $150 and about 20 hours of work. Not too shabby.