I’ve been meaning to share photos of the new upholstery on our vintage Baker sofa forever!
I had started work on doing the upholstery myself, but the tetanus side-effects really wiped me out for those first two months or so. We ended up buying a car this year (did I mention that earlier?), so one day in October when my resolve and spirits were both low, I loaded up the sofa and took a little day trip down to my trusty upholsterers back in Maryland. It takes about three hours to drive there, but I stopped along the way to do some antiquing and Amish-food-eating with my sister, so it was a fun day trip. :)
Jensen’s only charges $525 for a sofa job (about a third the price of my upholsterer here in the city!), but I still felt a little guilty for not upholstering the sofa myself, especially since I mentioned here that I would. I have to say though, it was worth every penny to free up that time and energy when things were a little rocky, health-wise. (If you’re looking for an in-depth upholstery tutorial, I did a whole series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)
I ended up doing the contrasting welt we talked about and I really love it. I found four yards of this dark teal (almost black) Sunbrella fabric at Home Fabrics in Arizona for about $4 a yard. They have this store in California, Utah and Nevada too, I think, and it is a treasure trove!!! I save about half my suitcase for hauling my finds home to NY each trip we take.
I’m so glad I found that Sunbrella. I know it will hold up really well and I think the color is great with the pretty green velvet I scored at JEM here in the city.
We’ve had the sofa back for about eight weeks now and it has taken kid spills like a boss.
Bravo on letting go and giving someone else the job to upholster that Baker sofa, love the color. Minty fun green!
pve
Amazing Jenny! Great fabric choices. I always want/try to do things myself, but I really appreciate those items I let someone else do mostly because I know how much work goes into it. So worth it!
Looks great, Jenny!!! I *love* the contrasting colors. It looks fresh and happy. Nice job knowing when to delegate, too. That's a big deal!! Well played.
Love the transformation. I am always impressed by the vision you have in updating furniture. You have a great eye for possibilities.
Love it – it looks fantastic. I love the contrasting pipping!
It looks so fantastic!!! I LOVE the teal. I don't know if I would ever have the guts to do it for my living room, but you've definitely given me some inspiration.
You have such an amazing eye Jenny! I wish I were half as talented as you! Wow I sound like a really scary stalker fan.
Totally going to check that upholsterer out next time I need something. Sometimes it's nice to just have someone else do it if you can. Love the colors too!
Can you post the contact info for your upholsterer? I live in Virginia and paid $1200 for the labor on my sofa and $525 for a chair! I 'd love to have more done at that price.
Jenny! They have a Home Fabrics here in Fort Worth, too! I have found some CRAZY awesome stuff there! Woot woot! xoxo Grace
AStoriedStyle.com
Love what you did with the sofa! I'm always a fan of reupholstering a quality piece.
I love how the sofa turned out! Looks fab!
Amazing, Jenny! I'm dying to see the rest of the room. Happy New Year!
Wow! That's a truly amazing transformation!
Your sofa looks fab! as does your living room! Looks so inviting and fun!
Curious. What was the yardage you used for your main sofa fabric? Thanks.
Seriously Jenny, absolutely STUNNING! You make me want to reupholster everything in my house! Thanks for sharing this!~
I was so wrong! I think I voted for the same color welting. The dark color looks so great.
I have a confession to make. 11 years ago I was given a sofa by a neighbor for my new house. This sofa had a floral upholstery I wasn't fond of so I thought to put this sofa in the basement. Mind you the sofa was in immaculate condition, with beautiful legs hiding underneath the skirt, and yes…down cushions. But I was 20 and didn't yet know of the wonderful world of re-upholstery or what constitutes exceptionally well-built furniture. So into the basement it went. Except it didn't fit down the stairs. So what is a driven albeit misguided 20 year old to do? I cut off those legs. I no longer own that home and that beautiful sofa is probably still there sitting on the cold basement floor. It haunts me to this day.
Looks fabulous — I especially love it with the rug! What a great color.
It looks so good, especially with the Persian rug! I wish I had the guts to try to reupholster something but I'm fairly certain I'd either really jack it up or lose interest and have a half-recovered chair sitting in our house.
Did you put anything on the sofa to protect the fabric? I'd love a velvet sofa, but I'm concerned my dog and I would destroy it.
INCREDIBLE! I let go of a Baker love seat my mom gave me, simply because the re-upholstery costs would have been too steep — and I will be forever sad about it. It looks FAB FAB and MORE FAB.
Ok, I'm so glad you posted this today! I'm about to reupholster a couch for my daughter's "big girl room". It's going to be a green velvet, and I'm totally in love with it, but I want to make sure it's not going to look like trash in a year. Did you treat the velvet before hand, or is it just easy to clean?
Amazing. I love your fabric choices especially the contrasting welt color it really shows off the great lines of the sofa!!
great work on the sofa!
it is simply divine.
Molly {Dreams in HD}
http://dreamsinhd.blogspot.com/
Love it! And that price is out of control.
Wow, Jenny! It looks gorgeous! And thanks so much for sharing about Jensen's! I've been putting off reupholstering my two living room sofas forever, but at that price, maybe I won't have to put it off much longer! Is it Jensen's furniture workroom in Rising Sun, MD?
I LOVE the color you chose! So fun and so chic!
Well done! And I totally would have driven three hours for that price, too. I was at Target the other day and I happened upon a aisle that was full of ikat, Greek key, blacks and oranges. I checked the tags because I immediately thought this was your work. (It was Target's Threshold line.)
Loving the velvet. I'd love a velvet upholstered settee or chaise one day. Just got the new Ballard Catalog and they were showing a lot of their pieces (chairs, daybeds…) in pretty shades of velvet, like mint green.
Freaking amazing! Gorgeous. Wish I could come up with that combo on my own. Loveeeee it. It's so much better when you reuse and get to be creative isn't it? I bet you appreciate it a millions times more than any other couch. Seriously, everyone should reuse couches instead of adding to land fills!
I love the style of this sofa. So nice. Great job on the choice of fabric too.
I can't even imagine having a couch reupholstered for that little! In Boston I just recently had a sofa and ottoman reupholstered for $2100 plus the cost of the fabric! Yours looks spectacular, maybe next time I'll take a trip down to Maryland.
Love the color of your sofa – it turned out beautifully! I've been meaning to reupholster our large sofa (solid oak with down pillows that is over 45 years old!) but never had the time to find fabric. I finally found a slip-cover that fit it perfectly – at Ikea of all places. Not the same but better than it was! Thanks for sharing your pictures, Cynthia
Holy Cow!! i can't believe that is the same sofa! great color combo. please come to california and help me finish up my home!!
Nice! Those prices are amazing. I am in North Jersey and would totally make the trip for those prices.
Nice! Those prices are amazing. I am in North Jersey and would totally make the trip for those prices.
Beautiful sofa, beautiful choice in color. Would you mind sharing the make and colorway of that velvet? It is to die for!
Absolutely love that sofa the colour is amazing!
Absolutely love that sofa the colour is amazing!
gorgeous but please tell the story of the Chesterfield sofa
gorgeous . can't wait to read more about the Chesterfield sofa
Sometimes you have to outsource it! It looks great, so love the velvet you picked.
love. it.
I knew I would love that sofa finished! Its beautiful.
Man, my first thought was "I hope she shares her upholsterer, but she definitely won't," and you did! Alas, it's not in NYC!
Beautiful!!! Love the velvet you chose and your "new" sofa is just stunning ♥
Congratulations for this great make over!
The sofa looks absolutely gorgeous, Jenny! Definitely worth the 3 hour road trip. Great picks on the fabrics.
What a great sofa – and a great price! I have two vintage chairs I need to get done. Thanks for mentioning the fabric store, I'm in California and will be Googling it. :)