Tuesday

Deconstructed Farmhouse Sofa

We have so much fun this week with our Deconstructed Sofa project!  We found it on a whim trip to our local antiques shop while we were looking for a small piece of furniture to paint our with our new line of Tweetle Dee Paints, and instead we came home with an incredible antique sofa for $35.00.  It was solid wood and so well constructed that we knew it would be as beautiful under the fabric as it was above.


Both of us have reupholstered furniture before, but never had we taken a piece apart with the plan to leave it half ripped apart.  The trend for Deconstructed Furniture is huge on the farmhouse decor scene and for good reason.  With the clean lines of the wood frames and inner pieces of leather, burlap, linen, ticking, etc. you see the beauty of the piece in a new way.


The best way to begin is to just rip into it!  Seriously rip into it.  We felt across the top and looked for a good spot to cut.  Because the top fabric was in such good condition we decided to not take it off.  We would cover over it with the drop cloth fabric, so no need to take it off.  We removed all the rest slowly...slowly!  I used a screwdriver and a set of pliers to pry a thousand or more staples and nails out of solid hard wood.  Sometimes we just had to feel across it to see if you missed one, which gave us both a few slivers.


Once the wood was cleared of everything, we sanded it and filled some of the holes with drywall plaster.  We love using that for fill on antique pieces because it leaves a small mark showing the wear and not a perfect finish, which you want in a re-purposed antique piece!  We sanded the rough fill off and painted the wood with our Tweetle Dee Vintage White Chalk Paint and loved how well it covered.  

After paint we sanded and chipped some of the paint away to show the wood in places where time would have worn it off.  My biggest pet peeve in distressing is when a someone distresses a piece in places that they would not have worn.  You want a piece to look like to was worn and well loved NOT just hammered and chipped on purpose. 

One of our secrets is to use Acetone over your distressing to smooth out the paint.  It makes the transition from paint to wood soft.  Use a soft clean cloth and wipe a little of it on and rub slightly to wear down the rough edges.













We purchased two large drop cloths and about four yards of burlap.  Using an electric stapler we tacked in the burlap and pieces of linen through the gaps where the original fabric had gone.  We covered raw edges with sisal rope, tacking it in as well.  The beauty of this piece is the hand stitching along the outer seams.  We wanted it to show so using an upholstery needle and twine, we hand stitched the piece in places where the seams showed and across the front edge. Then we hand stitched the drop cloth to the seat cushions with little stitches showing.   


We loved this project so much that we are going to tackle our leather sofa and chaise lounger next!  It will take a few weeks before we can post pictures as we have orders and a few workshops coming up...but it will be soon.  If you live in the Wasatch Front and have a piece you want deconstructed and recovered, shoot us an email and we will see what we can do for you.

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