DIY couch recover

My love seat looks pretty threadbare. Why? Well, there is a fun story behind this couch. It used to belong to the men's lounge at the college my husband and I attended. It was circulated through the men's dorm from room to room as they replaced the lounge furniture. It eventually made it's way to my husband and his roommates who took a house locally. When we got married, it became ours. Fun fact, the couch is as old as I am! I found a label on the bottom that has it's manufacture date. But when we got it, it was looking sad. The cushions were getting frayed and ripped. They were the same material as the rest of the rest of the couch. So I took action and recovered the cushions. 

    

My first effort was an ivory. Enter baby number one with sharpie markers! Hmm... Bad choice. So my next choice was a dark brown corduroy. This was easier to maintain. Harder to stain too. So I have recovered it in the brown corduroy twice. Now it is several years later and it just hasn't held up to college students visiting and the kids abuse. (Mostly the kids!) so, we stopped at Joann's the other day and I looked at more brown corduroy. It was $12.99 a yard on sale for 40% off. Hmm... I need about 5-6 yards of this stuff... So I looked at the red rage fabric. Low and behold, upholstery fabric! And half off all red tag fabric too! Score! It was originally $29.99 a yard, (yikes!) red tag for $21.99 a yard, (ok, that's a little better) and all red tag was half off so I scored at $10.50 a yard! This fabric was so perfect.

It was the brown I needed, the upholstery fabric that holds up longer, and it even has little flecks of purple and gold all through it! So matched my stuff! 

But, at the cutting counter, there was only 3 yards left, I took a risk, I know, but it turned out perfect! There was just enough to do the whole couch! Even my hubby said it looked sharp! I started by taking my cut pieces and folding them right side down over my cushions and pinned them in place then sewed two seems up the sides like pillow case. Once I turned them right side out it was a mattering stuffing the cushion back into them and hand sewing the seem in the back.

I really like the way this turned out! It looks better and it should hold up longer. I think I want to try my hand at recovering the rest of the couch at some point. Hmmm... Another project to ponder...

DIY stool

I found this guy in a little antique/thrift shop in my hometown for $5. It has a hinged lid and had a plastic storage tray on the inside. For $5, I could totally redo that sucker and make it my own and that's exactly what I did! 

    

I took all the pieces apart. Hinges off (in the little plastic bag there) and unscrewed the legs. I got out my spray paint selection from my stash and started with that brown satin finish I have.

Well, a quick stop at Joann's yielded a lovely piece of outdoor fabric in the remnant bin. I also grabbed some bating for a crib size blanket to it and fold and cushion the seat a bit. I started with a stripe evenly stapled across one side, then stapled the stripe evenly across the opposite. The front and back basically. Then I went to work on the sides and stapled them in place. Tucking in the corners was a little tricky but with patience and even some fabric glue you can do it! 

This is the end result. Yep, I spray painted black instead. Not just any black, the black for the plastic furniture! I like the effect. It's not too shiny and it even crackled a bit here and there. Once I screwed all the pieces back on and brought it inside, I decided this is the piece that will sit by our front door for putting on shoes and for storing hats and gloves! Now that was fun!! What's next?