Family Room Fixer-Upper

 

Furniture shopping isn't very high on my list of favorite things to do.   Well-made pieces are crazy expensive and my tastes quickly surpass my budget every time I start looking.  But that's what we've been doing the past couple weeks.  

Our previous family room furniture was in great shape structurally; it was just in poor shape fabric-wise.  Ten years have taken their toll on the fabrics, leaving them frayed and worn in places.  Lots of places.  Hoping to save money,  I first looked into having all three pieces (sofa and two overstuffed chairs) reupholstered.  Wham!  Sticker shock!  The labor estimate alone for reupholstering a sofa was $700.  Add fabric and we were looking at over $1000 to have just our sofa reupholstered!  Insane.

Being the DYI-type that I am, I considered (briefly) making slip covers for all of it.  I don't know how to reupholster, but I can work a sewing machine.  However, the thought was really overwhelming when I pondered the sheer quantify of fabric I'd have to wrangle under the machine.  Not really doable on such a large scale.  The risk of wasting several hundred dollars on a botched slip cover wasn't working for me.  Nor did I relish the idea of such a huge project looming over me for weeks.

I know, I know.  They make slip covers you can buy.  Tried that last year.  I spotted some at Target, purchased those babies for $80 apiece, came home and promptly starting trying to make them fit on my furniture.  Have you ever tried to put socks on a rooster?  Me either.  But I bet they would fit better than those slip covers did.  Back they went to the store that very day.

So, short story long....

We went furniture shopping and found reasonably priced pieces--two sofas and one chair this time.  One of the sofas has a bump-up chaise lounge.  I've called it.  Permanently.  If you're nice, I might let you sit there.  I let Jonathan last night.  (It was his birthday.)

The red sofa is a double sleeper.  The younger children don't remember our sleeper sofa days.  So they have no memories of family movie nights with the couch bed pulled out.  They're just a mite excited at the prospect.  Lacy called the aqua chair.  She may be duking it out with Hannah for that one, when Hannah is here.  Age may possibly trump youthful determination there.  I'll let them work that out.

There was no way I was replacing the ottoman at $250+ when I could revamp it easily with a couple yards of fabric.  I found this remnant that ties all three new pieces together.

Ryan volunteered to handle that for me.  OK, he didn't exactly volunteer, but he didn't object.  Pretty much the same thing.  Thanks, Ryan!  You did a super job!

So the new room is pulled together.  Meanwhile, the old sofa is waiting for Ryan to take it to Columbia;  the old blue rocker is in my sewing room, and the incredibly comfortable old red chair now has a home in the corner of my bedroom. 

I am resolved: in the next ten years, I will learn to reupholster furniture.

You just watch me.

Love,