Good Bones: Home Renovations--the Furniture Edition

My home transformation continues as I gut my existing domicile and make it into the dream home I will never get unless I take action to achieve.  That's right, some people find their dream homes, some people build their dream homes, and some of us must take a nightmare and make it into a dream.  So, join me for the journey.  

Last year I found a lovely couch and chair set in a flea market.  The trouble was that the faux leather was peeling and flaking so badly that the couch was going to need to be reupholstered and the proprietress felt she couldn't charge much for a couch in need of so much TLC.  "It has good bones," she told me.  And I agreed.  Although the colors match absolutely nothing that I own, the couch is so nice, faux leather flaking aside, and the price was so good, I knew I could do something with them.  So, I purchased the set for $85 and then tried to figure out what to do with it.  

Initially I thought they would be perfect at Mr. Bleu's shop, this manly color palette looks like it should have men waiting for a beard trim while sipping whiskey and reading the paper,  but I knew that allocating them for public use they would get torn up beyond repair.  I decided not to part with them.  Honestly, if anyone is going to tear them up, it should be me not a bunch of strangers.  Believe it or not, the couch and chair are both quite comfortable. The cushions are heavy enough that the previous owner suspected they are stuffed with horsehair rather than cotton and I agree.  I don't know how old the set it, but evidently old enough that horse hair was so plentiful people were stuffing cushions with it.  

I am a reverent kind of person, I hate to tear up old things, but I had such a hankering to see if I could repaint this set and make it match my French cottage décor that I decided to cast reverie aside and attempt to turn this manly Victorian armchair into something Marie Antoinette would have swooned over.  Or on.

One thing that definitely made this makeover easier was the way that the pleather piping and front were flaking off.  The piping was also horribly stapled on all the way around and when I pulled up the staples it revealed a failed thick layer of what looks like hot glue.  

Eesh!  Would you look at that, at least it gave me the confidence to know that no matter how this project turned out, it would still be an improvement.  Well, after much sanding, spraying with water, painting and waxing, I finally have a lovely new-to-me chair.

I found some pink upholstery piping to use instead of the pleather and I painted the chair in a color called Tea Rose, which is from Heirloom Traditions, an all-in-one paint for indoors/outdoors and fabrics.

I can most definitely say that while I love the look much more, it's not as soft as it was and frankly, now that it's getting colder, it's just a little less cozy.  Although the paint went on much better across the pleather, I can tell that peeling will remain an ongoing issue.

I used a sanding block to remove as much of the peeling pleather as possible before beginning, but some inevitably remained and I may have to repeat that process at some point in the future.

Over all, I do feel that this chair is greatly improved and definitely fits in much better with my decor.  Although I am happy with the outcome, and my family said that they love the look of it too, we are all in agreement that we do not want a pink couch, so it's back to the drawing board on that one for now.