Friday, March 15, 2024

Little project - spiff the living room furniture

One of my little projects was to thoroughly clean/repair/spiff the living room couch and chairs.  This mid-century modern furniture belonged to my late MIL and is very well made.  Its been reupholstered twice now.  At first I thought I could swap out the legs because  a couple of them were wobbly - easy fix, right?  
I even ordered new ones which I thought would add some pizzaz.  But after I turned the furniture upside down to investigate I found that the legs are solid wood, built to sit up against the frame, and reinforced with screws.  So. Plan B.  The liner fabric got vacuumed and wiped down and I prepped to use Restorz-It on those banged up legs. 
On the ends I knew I wanted to use nail on furniture sliders, and look!, there are predrilled holes.  If there hadn't been, I would have had to dig around in the garage to find the right size drill bit to drill small pilot holes so I didn't accidentally split the wood when installing them.
These are an improvement I should have done YEARS ago!
Of course the two center legs were super wobbly - in order to tighten them up I had to cut the liner fabric to get at the screw holes.  I also had to dig around for new screws in the garage, as the old ones were rusty.  (Due to years of Galveston humidity!)  Once I got the legs secure, I used my power stapler to secure the liner fabric.  There's always going to be a slit in the fabric, but no one will ever see it, and I will eventually forget it!
This couch is a BEAST.  I don't even know how I managed to get it propped like this on a dining chair - it weighs a ton. When I was ready to flip it back over, I got Scout to come help - I did not want to pivot the weight of it on those back legs I had just fixed.  And once we flipped it, it was like buttah to slide it on the floor. 
For all of the furniture, I cleaned the legs, buffed with steel wool, then wiped on the refinishing liquid.  I waited until it dried to tap the sliders into place, but that part went really quickly.  Everything got a thorough vacuum and wipe down.  I am washing the arm rest covers and will put those back on today.  I use these little tacks to keep them in place.
The lampshade was a minor casualty...I will be on the hunt for a new one.  In the meantime, I hot glued the frame back on to the top of the shade and carefully placed it back on the lamp.
All in all, it was a good use of an overcast day outside (which is also why it looks so dark in here).  The room looks clean without the puzzle spread across the table, and I did put all of the stacked camera equipment back out into the garage for another day - there just isn't enough time in the week to get alllll of the projects done.  I would love a nice big rug in here, a new lampshade, and possibly another lamp.  Also, I probably need to put sliders on the dining room chairs.
On to the next project!


Gina

3 comments:

Lisa B said...

Looking good Gina. I found large 11 X 14 rugs on Marketplace for peanuts. One lady had 1-11 X 14 and 1- 8 X 10 in the same pattern for $125.00 plus she shampooed them and included a thick pad. Another was $75.00 for an 11 X 14. I was so happy, it is the little things for someone on a budget.

Pattie @ Olla-Podrida said...

Wow! I am impressed. Turning the couch over on its own is impressive enough, but repairing things the way that you did is amazing. Well done!

Joanne said...

The room looks fabulous and spotless! I am impressed that you can add furniture repair to your repertoire of skills.