The sofa is finished!

Here is the rundown:
- refinished frame

- retied coil springs

- new padding

- new stuffing

- new lush velvet

- antique european grain sacks ( laundered &

sanitized ... good as new)

Basically it's a brand new sofa on an antique Late Classicism (1835-1850) mahogany frame!

One grain sack was used to cover the front

2 similar colored sacks were used to cover the back

The grain sack came with the letters KC embroidered on it, that's how the farmers
could tell which sacks were theirs.

I had originally considered painting the frame but couldn't 

bring myself to do it.  

Even though it's mostly veneer the crotch cut 

mahogany is 162+ years old and 

deserves the respect of not being covered up. 

The strip of trim at the base was blending 

in too much though so I did 

put some gold paint on that and rubbed it down

so the gold stayed only in the recesses and now the trim pops!

Here is a before shot:

BEFORE: red velvet was at least the second covering it had on it, before that was a green fabric.

AFTER: I followed the original frame tufting detail and it really makes a difference.

BEFORE: years of grime built up on the frame

AFTER: nastiness gone and lovely flame goodness shining

You can check out the whole journey with this piece by clicking on the Mahogany Empire Sofa label

at the bottom of this post and to the right.

Partying with:
Under the Table and Dreaming

Primitive & Proper
Between Naps On The Porch
Savvy Southern Style
{Primp}
The Shabby Creek Cottage
504 Main

Miss Mustard Seed

the sofa design

Deciding what fabric to use on a piece of

furniture is my biggest hurdle.

I've already decided and changed my mind twice now as

far as fabric goes for this piece.

Now I'm pretty convinced that I Will use the antique european grain

sacks that just arrived from Austria.

But do I use them solo?

Or do I go with a contrast sort of thing... 

the utilitarian grain sack mixed with the king of fabrics velvet?

Once I get past that decision, then do I leave it deconstructed like the popular

RHardware style ... which might work well with such an old sofa

or do I just cover the sides and back in burlap?

I know what I would like but I'm not keeping this,

 it's going to this month's

tag sale at Repurposed & Refined.

That is ... as long as I stop goofing off on the puter and

get myself back to work!

I'm partying with:

MMS Furniture Feature Friday

Sofa Update

Yesterday I finished sanding the frame and put teak oil on it:

Here you can see where I started to use the oil on the bottom rail

Above is what the frame looked like before I stripped/sanded it

Here it is sanded down & while I am adding the oil

So today I worked on the fixing the frame where the feet attach.

One corner was fine, one corner was 

gunked up with old messy glue:

And two were broken.

I chiseled out the old wood then cut & glued the replacements.  

Tomorrow I will move on to reattaching the feet, cutting new stretchers for the arms, cleaning up the spring ties and then

rebuilding the cushions.

I started on the sofa

I started to take the sofa apart and I'm fairly excited about it.
The first thing I liked about it is that the frame is thick and big boned!

To me it looks like mahogany veneer with a solid strip of mahogany along the knee roll area:

Look!  Burlap feed sack from one of the mills in Buffalo NY ...
it's like I was meant to work on this sofa

The innards:

I'd like to take the inside frames with me into
town today to see if I can get someone to give me some info.

Are those lines the result of hand cutting?

The bottom of the seat frame is made up of 15" wide planks ... the wood looks like cedar
to me but I'm probably wrong.  15 inches wide!

And check this out ... square nails!  

Yesterday I tried to strip the finish off but it didn't want to come off very easily so I ended up
sanding it.

It has it's dings and you can see the numerous spots where the
veneer has been fixed but the fixes were done very well.

Next step is to put a finish on the wood.
Do I go with a wax or do I go with something along the lines of a polyurethane?


I'm partying with:
Transformation Thursday #150
MMS Furniture Feature Friday