Have you ever thought about how to recover a settee sofa? About 15 years ago my daughter, Madeline and I did! We took this lovely old settee and completely reupholstered it. This sofa settee was given to my daughter for free from some family that was moving. It was in great condition but obviously needed to be recovered.
We didn’t know what we were doing!
Neither of us had ever reupholstered anything of this magnitude before. In the past i have made slipcovers for chairs but never had I taken apart an entire sofa before and put it back together again!
My sister Tiffany had reupholstered a couple of chairs...HERE and HERE and she told us we could totally do this!
So began our project of removing all the fabric.
Removing all the old fabric
Madeline, her sweet husband Peter, my other daughter Emily, even my little granddaughter and I all worked like dogs pulling out thousands of staples! Yanking off all the fabric and taking the entire settee apart.
Tip- Save all the pieces of fabric and label them so you can use them as a pattern for the new fabric.
Starting the reupholstery of the sofa settee
Once we took it all apart the sofa we painted all the wood sections pure white. We washed the new black denim fabric to make it more pliable and easy to work with.
Next we began the reupholstering process by using the old fabric as a pattern and cutting the new black denim fabric to match the old.
Then with a staple gun we began stapling the new fabric on the sofa. We stapled and stapled and stapled. We just followed the shape of the arms, the back, the seat and you could tell where to staple because of all the areas where we removed the old staples.
Reupholstering in style
We did this project in fashion style. Check out the outfits we were wearing while reupholstering. See my cheetah scarf and those shoes!!
The shoes were Madeline’s of course, I can’t really wear heels like that.
At one point we couldn’t see where to staple in a few sections so Madeline strapped on her head light! But notice her gorgeous drop earrings and her beautiful draped green top!
Style all the way! haha
To finish off areas where the pieces came together, we used black and white polka dotted fabric and cording. We sandwiched the cording in the fabric and sewed it up in long strips.
Then we hot glued it all in place.
The finished settee sofa recovered
It really turned out amazing and we were so happy with it.
The details on this sofa are so pretty.
Me and my sweet little grandkids (who by the way who are now 14 and 15!) sitting on the sofa.
And yes we did all of this with two little kids in tow in a little apartment…even the painting!!
Yes we are crazy! 🙂
It was so much work but also so much fun to work together on a big project like this with my daughter.
Giving the sofa Settee to me
Madeline moved into a home where she did not have room for this cute sofa. So now it is in my master bedroom and I love it. I think I need to make some new pillows to go on the sofa and maybe a rug 🙂
How pretty your settee turned out! I would not have been able to do this. Wouldn’t have the patience it must have taken. You will definitely have wonderful memories!! It fits perfect in the window frame!!
Thank you for sharing at Gma’sPhoto | ge•ner•ic Linkup Party . Looking forward to seeing you next Friday!
Take care and best wishes.
I didn’t think we get it done myself but my daughter was so motivated. We just all worked together to create something new and beautiful. Great memories for sure!
You did such an excellent job; it was worth all the time and energy invested in it. However, you are left with a lot of memories to cherish. That is so important and priceless.
Wow! You guys did a great job on the makeover. It’s good that you had room for the sofa when your daughter couldn’t use it anymore after all that work!
Thank you Catherine…it really was a lot of work but so worth it. I feel so lucky to have it in my house now 🙂 Every time I look at it I have the best memories of working on it together with my daughter 🙂
Karin
wow! Love that you did the project looking so glamorous! 😉 The after is amazing- love the gray fabric you used. Thank you so much for linking this up!
I love this…
I came over to link up for your meme..?
xo bj
A friend sent me here…so glad she did. I just purchased a sofa and it needs to be reupholstered. I think I may try it…
http://mrgoodwillhunting.blogspot.com
Wow! You are adventurous. What a job!
– The Tablescaper
Beautiful project and absolutely darling grand babies!!!!!
wow, that was ambitious! it turned out great!
Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier.
Lisa
Now that is an amazing transformation!!! Great job!
Yeah Mom! I forgot to post those pics of us wearing our hot outfits! I am glad you got those in there!
You are the best mom ever to help me with such a project!!! I love you!
What a cute post! Love the fact that you tackled a big project like this and it turned out fabulous!!!
Reupholstering a larger project that a chair or stool is on "my list". You have inspired me take it on. I DO love your working wardrobe too :
Great accomplishment
Cori
LOVE…
LOVE…
LOVE…
and LOVE the shoes too!!
Thanks for sharing this gorgeous transformation (and again – thanks for the mention yesterday too!)
😀 Lynda
It looks gorgeous. Such a huge transformation. Hugs, Marty
That turned out great! What an awesome family you have to help you out with such a project.
That looks like a ton of work! I wouldn't dare tackle that job but it looks like you got it done..great job! ;D