Work in Progress...

This is my latest project:

The coolest couch ever! We picked this up at the thrift shop last week, for a mere $40 WITH 2 matching side chairs. YES, a 3-piece set for only $40. How could I pass that up?

We happened to be visiting my Mom in Virginia, with the van, so we had to hurry home so Husband could return with the truck. My original intention for going into the thrift shop was for another dehydrator-- but you know how it is: when you want something, you can't find it; when you don't need it, there it is!

It's solid wood (hickory?) and after bringing it home and looking it over, we discovered a date:: 1934! The original nails are square! It's in really good condition, only a little loose on one side, which I spent the afternoon tweaking and tightening and one of the arms was reallllly loose, the brace underneath was about ready to fall off, so I made a new brace which now makes the whole couch quite solid now.

The springs are SHOT! I have a re upholstery book that tells me how to fix this, but in both of the side chairs, someone removed the springs and put boards across. It works well, so in that same afternoon of tweaking the frame, I removed all the old springs and cut out boards to fit. I wouldn't have been able to fix the springs anyway, I discovered, because several of the braces underneath each row of springs were completely broken off.

The cushions, I'm not sure if they are original to the frame, but they are recovered and inside them are also spring cushions. I have plans to replace them as well, but they do alright for now. Much better, actually, since I put in the boards on the bottom. You can see the color of the cushions in the top photo on the bottom right corner. The cushions are heavy! wow! I may call up a reupholsters place and ask if they know the history of such cushions and see if I can figure out if they are worth saving or at least the date of them.

The set looks really good in the living room, and I can't wait to show the final project, after I get the cushions done. Now I have the fun of looking for fabric!