The Loveseat

 

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.

 

 

 

 

So he volunteered to strip the fabric down, after that it needed a bit reinforcing in the structure; one of the wood supports on one arm was broken and also some of the joints were  coming apart (nothing a bit of wood glue wouldn’t fix).  I sanded it lightly and gave it a good wipe down and vacuumed after that.

 

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!