First up, our $1 mid-century French Provencal couch. To make a long story short, the wife and I went to an auction, she went to the bathroom, I felt bad for this cat-clawed marmalade mess and bought it for a buck while she was in the loo. Look at it. Can you blame me? It had great bones and a great price! :)
The wife, not surprised at my impulse purchase, went along with it and soon fell in love with the couch, too. We found out it was made by Homer's Furniture out of Chicago. The company was made up of five Russian brothers who moved to America and made mighty fine furniture. Unfortunately, Homer Bros. went out of business in 1992, but their furniture holds up against the times beautifully... even if after a cat attack.
In our quest for new furniture for the new home, we went to big name store after store after store looking for just the right piece, but learned quickly most of these overpriced mega furniture stores offered nothing but pure crap. The couches had very little personality and we had no choice in fabrics or even in the thickness of the cushions.
We swirled around fantasy ideas of refurbishing the $1 couch ourselves, complete with piping and zippered seat cushions. The problem is, we had no idea what to do and we had a short amount of time before moving into our new home. So we took the easy, nay, smart way and took the couch to a local company to be reupholstered. (It's good karma to support local peeps, btw!)
Before the upholstery place picked up the couch, we hand-sanded the woodwork with 220 grit paper. We then painted the woodwork with Behr's paint/primer ($17) with two coats of the "Stealth Jet" color in semi-gloss. (Don't let the name of the paint fool you, it has a lot of nice ashy-brown undertones.) We finished our part by giving the paint two coats of Minwax's water-based Polycrylic Protective Finish. ($15) We have plenty of paint and polycrylic leftover that we can use in other projects!
For our couch material, we picked out natural linen, which really brought out the brown and deep gray undertones of the woodwork's paint. Instead of having the upholstery people make back cushions, we chose to fill the back with feather pillows, also covered in natural linen, and a french relief pattern for the bolsters.
ARE YOU READY FOR IT? ARE YOU READY FOR THIS AWESOMENESS? YESSSS!
The pictures above were taken in our old home. Below was the couch's first placement in our new home but now is it against the front windows as you will see below.
Initially we tried to keep the dogs off of the couch but decided, like everything else we own, our items are to be used and enjoyed. Otherwise, what is the use of having stuff? Here we see the boys making sure the couch is comfy enough for all.
We loved this so much, we salvaged an old wing back chair my wife's parents purchased many years ago. It was covered in a weird faux blue leather and brass grommets so we had it reupholstered in the same linen material as the bolsters on the couch:
Technically, our couch cost $551 + $32 for supplies, but it all started with a good feeling and one dollar. We had the choice to purchase some generic low quality, overstuffed couch for $800+ whose color and material we would have had to just deal with, or spend $583 plus $1 and have this truly awesome, sturdy piece that's been around since the 1950s and will be around long after the $800+ couch has fallen apart.
The point here, I guess, is to not forget the artisans in your home town. Instead of throwing away that shirt that has a small hole, take it to your local seamstress. Instead of buying a brand new pair of shoes because your heel is worn, take your shoes to the local cobbler and have them replace your heel. Instead of buying a newly-made piece of furniture, ask your local upholstery place to spruce up that vintage yard sale find!
It is the local people who will take care of you and your items. They aren't a faceless company that won't have to answer to your concerns, they are your neighbors who would love nothing more than to do right by you and the community you live in. Hooray!
Now - move over, pups. It's time for mamma #1 to take a nap on that great looking couch!
No comments:
Post a Comment