05.15.2014 || The couch currently known as Prince
Last week I finally finished my reupholstery project that I had been slaving away day and night over for two straight weeks. Three weeks if you include the time I needed to research and psych myself up to actually do the project.
I'm almost embarrassed to share a "before" picture because of how disgusting our old couch looked. I didn't realize how bad it looked until I took pictures of it. We purchased the couch when we first moved in together...which was approx. 6 years ago. Fred and I had been talking for months..maybe years...about getting a new couch but couldn't find one that we loved. He wanted a couch with microfiber foam...and I wanted a purple velvet couch with waterproof foam. When we adopted Sugar, she pretty much defiled our couch numerous time which resulted in a bunch of money spent getting our couch steamed and eventually purchasing our own little steamer.
I had a vision of what I wanted and couldn't find something remotely similar anywhere....so I figured my only two options were to get a custom made couch or to reupholster the current couch that we have now. I emailed numerous places with a description of what I wanted with pictures of the look I was going for along with specific details on the type and density of foam. 10+ email responses later and the conclusion was that a new couch would cost me anywhere between $1,600 - $2,000. (Majority of the cost was associated with labor.)
Anyone with an animal who sometimes pees out of excitement will understand my hesitance on not wanting to drop that kind of money with the possibility of it being ruined from tinkle sprinkles. (I am happy to share though that it's been 2 months since Sugar's last accident in the apt!...FINALLY! She'd always pee at our feet whenever Fred and I came home from being somewhere)
I was then inspired to research DIY upholstery on Pinterest and was wonderfully surprised by all the DIYers out there who aren't reupholster professionals who attempted and executed a reupholstery project. Thanks to (d i y d e s i g n) for the inspiration! I couldn't find any posts by someone who reupholstered a sectional so that inspired me even more to try it myself!
After watching a bunch of videos on YouTube I decided that the fist thing I should do before committing to this project was to examine the skeleton of my couch. This part excited me. I was so fascinated at the the idea of taking it apart and putting it back together in a completely different way. It looked easy enough at the time so I decided to go for it!
I asked Fred if I could borrow his tools for this project and he told me to buy my own. Oh and goggles and gloves to protect my eyes and hands, obviously. Thanks to Smile Amazon Prime for getting my pliers, hammer, staple gun, staples, upholstery thread, heavy duty sewing machine needles and zippers to me so quickly!
Then I researched fabric and foam outlets in downtown LA and found this place. I was so excited to find purple velvet here!
Next I worked on taking the couch apart piece by piece and documenting the process in case I forgot how to put things back together.
All the staples that I pulled out! I call this the "tetanus monster"
I de-threaded and saved all the pieces so I could use them as pattern references.
After I completed dissecting the couch and frame pieces, I realized that the last time I used a sewing machine for any type of project was in the 7th grade. And that was a really long time ago! I started by reading the manual for the sewing machine that I received as a gift a few years ago and then I practiced on the old pieces pictured above. I also googled "how to use a sewing machine for dummies" and watched/ listened to sewing videos while I measured and cut out the pieces that needed to be sewn together.
Butters and Sugar helped by weighing the fabric down.
It took a few days of trial and error runs but it felt gratifying when I started to make some progress.
My least favorite part was using the staple gun to secure the fabric to the bottom of the base.
It took me a week and countless hours...of blood, sweat, tears accompanied by a slight fear that I gave myself arthritis because I had to sleep with my hands and arms soaked in icy hot for 2 nights to finish this portion of the project ....but I finished the base.
I spent a day watching videos on how to sew zippers and looked up tutorials on how to sew boxed cushions. I wanted the new cushions to be a little thicker than the previous and I wanted the couch cushion to be just one big cushion instead of two little ones. I also switched the side the chaise would be on.
It took me 5 days to finish sewing all of the pillows and cushions covers. On the 6th day I drove back to the fabric and foam warehouse with all of my covers so that they could use them for sizing. I thought that they would stuff them for me but turns out they couldn't do that because of liability issues aka they didn't want to be responsible for broken zippers. They did help me stuff everything into my tiny car.
Can you believe we fit all this foam and stuffing into the back of my mini cooper?! Thanks to my friend Jenna for helping me navigate on the freeway and for helping me carry this all up to my apartment!
I was so afraid that all this work was done in vain and that once I put the covers on ....one of my dogs would throw up on it or worse...pee on it!. All I could think about was the quote Fred said to me when I was frustrated... "It's better to sweat in peace, than to bleed in war".
Thinking about that encouraged me to research an alternate to waterproof cushion covers. I couldn't find anything that fit the size and dimension of my cushions so I purchased a king sized waterproof mattress cover. I stuffed all cushions into the cover and then trimmed them to size.
I watched a video that showed an easy way of putting a cushion into a cover that involved a big plastic and a vacuum. Unfortunately I didn't have a bag big enough to fit even one cushion so I had no choice but to push and straddle the foam into their covers without breaking the zippers. (Thankfully the zippers were forgiving.) And because I'm extra paranoid, I bought Scotchguard Fabric and Upholstery Protector.
I was so happy to see my couch come to life. Up close you can see all the flaws of my couch but nothing beats the feeling of enjoying something I poured my heart and soul into and didn't have to spend $1,600 - $2,000 on.
I like to give names to things I own and I thought I wanted to give my new couch a female name but I was conflicted so I decided to go with Prince because ...
Video source: MusicPlayOn
"I never meant to cause u any sorrow...
I never meant to cause u any pain...
I only wanted one time to see u laughing...
I only wanted to see u laughing in the ....
purple rain... purple rain....purple rain"
And because I'm so happy with how my new couch turned out...here's the pic of my old couch.
If you have the time and patience ...I hope this inspires you to try out this or a similar project. My only suggestion is to make sure you have happy music..whatever that may be to you.... playing at all times. And if all else fails....find someone that says they'd be willing to do anything and everything for you and ask them to do it for you :)
Oh and digital high five if you read this entire post.
