I remember thinking
what a steal the loveseat was when we first got it. I saw it on Craigslist when
I was about to leave work, contacted the seller on the way to the subway, talked
her down to $30 and we picked it up that night. Although with time, my love for it tapered, as
I thought it was a bit too ornate. But it was the perfect size for the room and
the husband actually told me he still really liked it a lot.
To make it modern, I decided
on oil-based paint from Rustoleum in glossy grey. I only had a small sample can on hand, it was
barely enough to cover the loveseat in one coat; a second coat would give it a
complete coverage. But I decided on not getting more paint because I liked the
imperfect finish, letting some of the old cream paint showing through, highlighting
the details a bit and giving the chair character.
The cushions were spring-based;
it was bouncy but very hard and heavy. I didn’t want to tackle sewing the
cushions since they were a unique shape, which with my sewing skills would
take me a while to do! I even considered bringing it to the local dry cleaner
that also do clothe adjustments to see if they were willing to sew them for me. BTW, if I had gone the detachable cushion way, I would
have just made it into one long cushion and not two. Anyway, so we decided on 4-inch foam for the seat and
2-inch foam for the back. We kept the
existing foam on the arms but replaced all the batting.
For the fabric, I got
this velvet-like grey fabric with a bit of sheen from the local fabric store
for $5/yard. I think we used about 5
yards. I also didn’t want to take out
the machine to sew the cording, so I just got some beige cording from the store
also. We got 10 yards at about
$1.30/yard. We should have gotten 11
yards, as we were a bit short; so a small portion of the back still is without
cording…hopefully I will remember the next time I am there…probably not.
We think it turned out
great, it’s not perfect but it’s super comfy and good enough for some rookies!
