One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure

I was driving through my neighborhood some time back and found this Queen Anne Sofa in the ditch for the garbage collectors to pick up.  I knocked on the door and asked the owner if I could salvage it to try my hand at upholstering.  I've always wanted to try this and I needed something to practice on. I hauled it home and had a couple of neighborhood guys carry it up the stairs for me. Sadly, when my computer crashed, I lost the original photos I had taken so I'll have to start this post with the stripped version.

I re-stained the legs that were badly scratched and added some extra cotton batting to make it more 'cushy'.

Since I didn't want to put a lot of money in this effort, and I wanted something that was durable, an idea popped in to my head to use canvas.  I went to Lowe's and checked out the paint department and came up with a very inexpensive idea.  I bought some very cheap, heavy-duty painter's canvases and used them to re-upholster the sofa.  The fabric was a very neutral color, and I ended up only having to purchase 3 canvases.  Total: $66.  I carefully removed a billion staples from the original upholstery and used the discarded pieces as patterns to cut the new pieces. This turned out to be much easier than I ever dreamed of and I'm very happy with the end results. It was so fun to do.

Since the sofa was in the upstairs office I just redecorated, I bought another drapery panel like the panels I have on the window, and some cording  to make some pillows.

I found this coordinating flannel afghan at World Market for only $4.99 to drape across the sofa.

I also found this area rug for the office at World Market.  They have such nice, inexpensive items and they always have great discount coupons available.

 

I did cheat and take the cushion to an upholsterer in town to make the cushion for me, but since I had my own fabric and the original cushion, they only charged me $50 to do this for me.  Considering they had to put an extra long zipper and the cording, I think this was a very reasonable price.

Here's the finished sofa:

The office is now complete.

I'm waiting for the weather to get cooler so I can tackle a garage project I've been wanting to do.  It's time to toss stuff. I have lots of leftover paint from previous projects that I plan to donate to Habitat.

Have a nice weekend!