Antique Couch Reupholstery

After falling in love with all of the linen couches at stores like Wisteria, I began to think about how much lovelier a linen sofa would look in our living room than the current super-dark leather one that was currently occupying the space.

Wisteria Natural Linen Settee, $1,399.00

Our old couch.

I knew that I wanted an antique couch with the wooden frame like the ones in the catalog, so I searched and searched Craigslist until I found just what I was looking for, this beaut:

Okay, well maybe she wasn't a beaut yet, but it had nice lines. I decided that it was time to fire back up my upholstery skills and take this couch from dark and blue to cozy linen.

I found some discounted 100% upholstery linen (be sure and check the weight of the fabric before ordering, some linen is really thin) in slubby mushroom. But mine was around $18/yard. I believe that I ordered 12 yards for my couch and I ended up having just (barely) enough.

Here's a before and after for all of you ADHD people out there:

Thus, I began the upholstery project. Like I mentioned in my wing chair tutorial series, the deconstruction part of upholstering is much like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Make sure and save (and number in the order that you took it off) each piece that you remove to make the upholstery part a lot easier. Also, if you take step by step photos, it will help you remember what went where and how it went.

Materials needed:

1. Hammer, screw driver and pliers to remove old and misplaced staples
2. 3 feet of Ply Grip
3. Rubber mallet
4. 12 yards of upholstery weight fabric
5. Staple gun (pneumatic is my gun of choice) and lots of staples
6. Double welt cording and sewing pins
7. Sewing machine and thread

Using brute strength/ pliers/ whatever else works,

1. Remove all of the trim. This is usually just hot glued on. It might me worth saving just to know how much double welt cording you will need to make when it comes time to reupholster. You will notice that the staples are simply stapled to the wood frame and that this trim's function is to cover up all the staples. Brilliant.
2. Take off the black layer on the bottom of the couch (under the springs). This fabric is almost like that material used to keep weeds from growing in a garden.
3. Remove the couch back. This will have some of the little metal claws called Ply Grip. I find it easier to just use that to measure for new Ply Grip versus trying to salvage it. Be careful with this stuff, it will break skin in no time.
4. Remove the outside arms/sides.
5. Remove the inside arms/sides.
6. Remove the couch (inside) back... like where you back would rest as you sit on the couch.
7. Remove the piece of fabric under the cushions.

You should end up with something kind of like this:

 Then, I removed all of the original cotton batting and made sure that all of the webbing was secure. I also used this step to put a little wood glue in areas that the frame seemed to have loosened a bit. This couch had interestingly been originally upholstered using upholstery tacks. That didn't stop me and my pneumatic staple gun from reinforcing it a bit, though. And the wood didn't split, either. Whew!

The webbing on the bottom of the couch.



If I were a *real* upholsterer, I would have taken these all the way off and retied the springs while I was down there and then put all new webbing in... but I didn't. Maybe some day when my skills improve. (This would have also been a good time to restain or paint the frame, had mine been in bad shape. But fortunately, it was in great condition.)

Once all of that was done, it was time to start putting the couch back together again.

I started with putting the batting right back where I got it from and securing it with a few staples. I used extra batting that I got at the fabric store to help fill in gaps.

Like I had done in my wing chair project, I laid out the old fabric on top of the new fabric and traced it and then cut it out (in an effort to save material). I saved all the extra pieces that were at least 3 inches wide to use for the double welt piping. With each newly cut piece, I stapled them to the couch frame... in the opposite order of the way that I took everything off.

This is from my wing chair, but you get the idea...

I continued to do this until the couch was back together. On the piece that went on the back of the couch (as in, would be against the wall), I had to use a little Ply Grip. Here's a good tutorial on how to use it. It's pretty simple: bend it to the shape you need, cut it to size, staple one end of the staple through the little holes in the Ply Grip, and then stretch your fabric over the metal and use a rubber mallet to secure it.

Ply Grip (mostly) done right.

Ply Grip can be bought at www.diyupholsterysupply.com. I think I ended up ordering 3 feet for this couch and I ended up having extra.

The Cushion: I knew that I wanted to do one big cushion instead of the three smaller cushions that it came with. And I wasn't sure that I could swing attaching all three cushions without it being obvious, so we went ahead and ordered a new cushion from DIY Upholstery Supply (the same place I bought the Ply Grip). You just send in your measurements, and they cut you the correct size, weight, etc. foam that you need.

And since I am still working on my sewing skills, so I took this to a local tailor. He didn't end up doing exactly what I had hoped ( he made the corners boxy), but he still did a LOT better than I would have done.

The Double Welt Cording: Many high end pieces of furniture have double welt cording bordering their wood frame. This can be a little bit tricky, but definately finishes the piece off nicely. It was a bit of a challenge to find the preattached kind (which ended up definately being worth it)... but we drove into Dallas and found some at Childress furniture. I used this tutorial to sew my double welt cording. The double welt cording is then attached to the sofa using hot glue.

Lesson learned: I was so excited to see how the couch looked with the double welt cording that I used the first piece I sewed to line the back part of the seat/ most obvious part of the couch. I should have used my first piece somewhere less noticable, as I got better the more I sewed.

And there you have it... my very own antique linen couch.

Please let me know if you have any questions! As always, I appreciate your comments.