Mom's Tufted Ottoman

A simple black ottoman, with fancy diamond buttons of course, it is for my mother after all.

This ottoman was a coffee table in it's former life and I'm pretty sure we all know someone who had one of these.

You'd never guess now though, it looks classy and awesome and it's perfect in her living room.

Lori's Chaise

This piece made me an international upholsterer.
My aunt has a chaise and tried to talk my Mom into upholstering it for her. She refused insisting that we fly me down to Phoenix to work on it. So I flew down for a weekend.

I was a little worried about finishing in time but it turned into a family affair and took no time at all.

There was a little bit of contention over the fabric choice, especially for the pillow so we compromised. The front and back of each pillow is different. The largest pillow has red on the back, the red pillow has regular couch fabric on the back and the plaid (which my uncle hated) has green on the back. I imagine that every time my Uncle comes in the room he flips it over, every time my Aunt comes in the room she flips it over :)

This one felt like a really big change, it updated the piece in such a nice way.

Damask Dining Room Chairs

I super love these chairs so much. They were fun to work and turned out to be so beautiful. A friend of mine gave me the chairs for free because they were looking so rough. The springs were poking through the seats.

We used indoor/outdoor fabric to make them a little more wipeable and they're just beautiful.

I'm especially pleased with that chair on the left in the above picture. That chair has a slipcover on it, made out of the same fabric so it can be easily removed and washed. The client has kids so she can put the youngest on that seat and extend the life of her upholstery a little.

Computer Chair, Second Update

This is the second time I've updated this chair that we use at our computer. I didn't hate the black but the first update fixed the incredibly saggy seat. I wished I had realized before I put it all back together just how uncomfortable the chair was though. It really needed some new foam so I took it apart a second time. And if I'm going to go to all the effort of taking the staples out I figured I'd make it something I really liked.

Here's what it looked like before, saggy seat and all.

I love the new fabric and brad asked if I refinished the legs, which I didn't. The lighter fabric lightens up the legs too which I'm a fan of.

Dining Chair Refinish

The upholstery on these dining room chairs had seen better days. It was stained and torn and ready for a refresh which I was more than happy to take care of.

Here's the before, just a little more modern

Silver Slipper Chair

And clearly a Purple Velvet Couch needs some Silver Slipper Chairs to go along with it.

These chairs were found on Kijiji and they were in really nice condition except they'd obviously sat in front of a window and had some serious sun damage.

They make a much better silver set and looked incredible with the Purple Velvet Sofa (winter hours makes taking decent pictures difficult.)

Couch Fit For Royalty

Not everyone can pull off a purple velvet couch but my Aunt Margo is definitely that person.

This was also the grossest piece I've ever worked on. The stuffing was straw, it shed gunk if you looked at it wrong. It felt great to strip it down and replace everything.

Brown velvet... no thank you

Two Tone Wingback - Rose's

This chair was such a happy accident. We ordered fabric and when it came it was the wrong fabric, not what we'd ordered but everyone liked it even more. It was a more expensive fabric so I hadn't even seen it and we got it at the cheaper price.

Here's the before and after

Brandie's Head board

My friend Brandie wanted a new headboard and footboard so we got to work. She had a tufting vision that turned out really beautifully.

I'll be the first to admit that tufting isn't my forte, I'm working on it but I could use some more practice. This one turned out okay but I look forward to my next tufting efforts.

We used her old pieces as a base and then I got to beat them up, pull off trim, add some wood.

It looks beautiful in her bedroom and she loved it.

Ashley's Love Seat

It's fitting that this post is the one that follows my previous one. I was so thrilled to work on this gorgeous piece and even better that it wasn't disgusting and full of mold like the last one was.

It was a ridiculous amount of work but I loved it all.

Here's how this lady started

The wood was in pretty rough shape so it all got sanded, stained and finished.

(sorry for the crooked photo, I couldn't bring myself to fix it)

Here's one half finished, it was really starting to come together. 

I was excited to use double welt trim on this piece, something I've never made before. It gave the edges such a finished look, it was so fun to put on.

The One That Got Away

I need to delete this picture. It makes me sad to look at it but I just couldn't bring myself to delete it forever so instead I'll blog it for memories.

I had a friend call me one day and say hey there's this couch I keep seeing on the side of the road for free, do you want it?

Boy did I ever! I went and got it immediately dreaming of how amazing it was going to be. It was in pretty rough shape and was going to take some work but I was okay with that. But it didn't take long for the smell to build in my garage... and that picture is a really good picture, it makes it look a lot nicer than it was (and that's saying something).

I started to remove the fabric to let it air out and get rid of the smell but I discovered that all of the foam was full of mold. It's such a waste that someone would just leave it outside to get ruined. I could have stripped it down and replaced all the foam but it's hard to re-cover my costs once I do that so I had to admit defeat and it got thrown away.

But I think of it often, and I'm sad it couldn't be saved.

Ugly Chair

This chair

It definitely earned the title Ugly Chair.See how it's a greenish colour? Don't be fooled, it's actually bright yellow, just look at the fabric that's hiding underneath.

This chair actually goes with the Quatrafoil Couch. I found that couch on Kijiji for free and when I contacted the seller they said they would put it outside in the alley for me to grab. What they really meant was it's been sitting in the alley for some time, it's pretty gross has snow on it but it's free, help yourself. Sitting beside it was the even grosser and unexpected matching chair that Brad so kindly agreed to help me take as well. I initially thought it would go as a set with the couch but in the end they went with my two Grey Wing Back chairs instead which was a better choice. That left this ugly ducking sitting in my garage since February. I thought I would have to trash it but I eventually found an owner who could look past it's current state.

Since it was in such rough shape it needed more tear down than usual, all the padding got trashed.

I added all new foam and batting. Looks a little better hey? Like you would actually sit on it now.

She chose some fantastic fabric that ending up being a nightmare to work with (due only to my own carelessness) and made me question my own intelligence. This chair should have been very quick and simple but I made foolish mistake after mistake. It finally came together though and looks so cute.

I also did something new with this piece. Underneath the cushion I added a little custom fabric.

That's my name, embroidered right on the bottom of the chair. It's kind of hoity toity but I love it anyway and will probably add it to my future jobs.