Living Room Facelift

I'm back! I am so excited about a new project that will be launching next week (stay tuned!!), so I wanted to make sure I shared this project with you before moving on to other things ;)

My client had a wonderful furniture set from Pottery Barn (sectional and a chair-and-a-half with an ottoman) - it suited her space well and, with down everything, it was super comfortable. And, it came with slipcovers - perfect, of course, for grandkids and animals. However, when she washed them, they shrunk :(

So, rather than deal with the ongoing frustration of too-small slipcovers, she decided to start over. She found a great to-the-trade fabric - a low-pile chenille, treated with Crypton for stain resistance and durability. And this time she went with color!

To me, it looked like lavender with sage - pretty! The fabric was softer and lighter in weight than other Crypton samples I had seen, so it sewed up better than I expected. And this was my first time to have to do the pin-fitting right-side-out, since the sectional sections were asymmetrical. It was not as complicated as I had thought it might be :)

A key part of the project was replacing all the down wraps for all the cushions (the originals had flattened and were "leaking" some). Ronco Industries came to the rescue, with a new down back cushion for the chair and new down wraps for all the seat cushions. And these cushions were not small, so it was like wrapping them all in thick down comforters (the bench cushions on the sectional were each almost the size of a twin mattress)! 

This was so worth it - the pieces are refreshed and even more comfortable than they were to start with.

We did a mix of contrast piping trim and topstitching  - adds interest, but keeps the overall design simple.

I opted to construct one of the sectional cushions the "regular" way, with the zipper panel wrapping around both ends of the cushion (see below). But, since the end of one of the cushions is exposed when the sectional is assembled, I moved the zipper panel on that cushion around so that the exposed end is "clean". The length of the zipper stayed the same, it just puts more of the zipper length in a place where it is hidden.

Sectional End W.jpg

Here's to new looks for the new year!

Sherri