New fun upholstery fabric freshens cast-away furniture

DIY’ers: Judi Kirby

Project: Furniture makeovers

Judi Kirby of Bluffton and her husband enjoy breathing new life into run-down, cast-away furniture. Here is the story of their latest makeovers.

My husband and I are big fans of flea markets and auctions. I also enjoy looking at something in a catalog or online and telling myself, “I can do that.” Then it’s off on the hunt (which my husband loves) to find the perfect piece for him to take apart and for me to put back together. Last month we finished two projects: a sofa and chair.  

The sleeper sofa came from a friend and it was covered in a very ugly, very worn yellow and blue striped fabric. It definitely needed to be recovered but I didn’t know with what fabric until I saw this fabric with beach huts in an upholstery store. I found a great deal for the fabric online so I got started. I measured the sofa, then measured again. I took apart each piece and used the old fabric as a pattern. I wanted to add red cording and estimated I needed about  47 yards — I had 2 feet leftover which was perfect. Once I had all the pieces, it took about 35 hours and the couch cover was done. I also made small throw pillows out of blue denim with red piping. In all, the project cost around $200.

Once I finished the couch and moved it out of my studio, I knew I needed a chair to fill the space. I found a blue and white chair at a local thrift store. As my husband says, the chair had really good bones so we brought it home. I went back to the fabric store and immediately saw this bicycle fabric and I knew it was perfect. The people I showed it to thought it would be too stripey, but I knew I could make it work. 

Taking the chair apart was such a puzzle that I thought we would never get it together again. So I labeled each piece with a Sharpie marker and wrote out the steps. Once apart, we found that the springs and webbing were in excellent condition. We sanded the frame, primed the wood, and spray painted it indigo blue. We added new trim and foam, installed new hardware, then put it back together. In all, the project cost about $175.

This story was originally published June 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM with the headline "New fun upholstery fabric freshens cast-away furniture."