Great job! I've never heard of using India ink before. I'll have to give that a try. Hmmm... a new project for me.

Please show us pictures of the sofa when you are done.

spanky you make my stomach go into knots...but in a good way...I *need* to start going to auctions!

I *love* the Maharam pebble fabric, btw. Excellent sewing, too. Beyond my skills for sure.

And is that the FLOR under the sofa? Or was that at the auction house? And are the cushions simply coming *out* on the back? What will you be doing on the back of it?

Hmmm, now I'm wondering what ebonized oak would look like...maybe a way to redo the ugly powder room but without painting?

That's the FLOR under the yellow sofa---"Comfort Zone", which they no longer make but I think they have something new that is comparable. I really like it. It doesn't show dirt at all!

Ebonized oak is beautiful. If you do it with ink, though, it should go on bare wood. You have to sand after the first coat because it raises the grain. I think I put some wax on the chair, too---the black tends to rub off for awhile even though I used permanent ink.

The back cushions on the sofa are loose and are also too soft and squishy. This sofa is the look I am going for with the built-up frame on the back and converting it to a tight back:

{{!gwi}}

I would love to have just bought that sofa (it's either Room & Board or DWR, i forget) but it didn't come in an 8' length and it cost too much even in the shorter lengths.

You have fabulous taste and even better vision of what can be done. I love it.

Sky

You are incredibly talented!

Jana

An excellent job -- quite an amazing transformation!

Jan

None of that is anything that I'd want in my own home, Spanky. BUT! that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the clean, crisp lines and the overall style of the pieces.

I love, love, LOVE that you have such passion for the style and remain true to its ideals as you "rescue" pieces from rain-soaked oblivion.

You go, girl!

That's awesome, Spanky! I think it may have been you who did the MCM chest, which was also awesome -- maybe post another pic for the newcomers : )

The ebonized chair looked wonderful before, and now even better with the great cushions you made! The pebble fabric is terrific.

Can't wait to see what magic you do with that couch!

Spanky, that looks awesome!

Here's my walk on the Modern side (these 2 chairs were pulled kerbside in '05).

This is one side. It was FILTHY. I scrubbed it thoroughly and spray painted it with Kryon Fushion.
{{!gwi}}

I painted the metal frame that supports the cushions with Hammered Finish Rustoleum, replaced the bolts with stainless steel ones and reassembled the chairs. The cushions are the same material I used to make the deck canopy.
{{!gwi}}

I have since purchased 2 more chairs and a loveseat that I plan to "do" this coming year. I may keep them for myself or simply pass them along to my brother who shares a similar fondness for the style with you.

Furniture is such fun. :)

Great upholstery work there, too, chelone, but of course you don't count--you're a ringer :)

Aw thanks, you guys!

I am still an amateur when it comes to upholstery. I think it may be partly due to using a home sewing machine instead of an industrial, even though my home machine is top of the line. I can't seem to get perfectly straight seams with welt. They're always a little bit wavy and sometimes, like with the heavy wool flannel that I used for the love seat, it is kinda obvious. It's frustrating.

BUT I'm not doing this for paying customers, just for myself and family members and they don't mind. And each thing that I do is a little better than the one before.

(fly, i just got home from an auction where i got a couple of lengths of big mod print fabrics for upholstery! Only about 2-4 yards of each, but I got it all for 2 bucks! Wheee!)

A commercial "needle feed" with a walking foot would make your sewing a lot easier, Spanky (I know what you mean about applying welting). With it, you would have the needle bar moving forward with every cycle, pulling from the top, and aided by the "walking" foot, and the lower feed dog doing its thing, as well. You can run a larger needle, too.

You would be able to purchase feet to accomodate different welt sizes and still derive the benefit of the machine's mechanism.

The needle-feed/walking foot makes working on napped fabrics a lot easier. "Creep" is minimized to an extent that it's virtually negligeable.

You could probably purchase a Juki 562 (has a small bobbin) for about $300. Mine is "cherry"; new motor, hook, new bench. I want more, but it's still a deal. Consider a commercial machine... you will NEVER look back!

Spanky,
Great job, great vision, and great fabrics. Like everyone else, I can't wait to see the sofa. I love the style.

Chelone,
Those chair are so much fun to look at and they look so comfortable.

What great examples of turning trash into treasure.

Your chair turned out beautifully! I swear I had one just like it(with the walnut finish) in my 1st apartment..a handmedown from the folks. Everyone loved sitting in that chair, it was so comfy.

I have a fondness for the crisp, clean lines of the mid-century furnishings, but they're not for my home decorating. My younger DD and her SO have gone that route for their place, so I get to enjoy it without the commitment.

Oh, meant to say, spanky, that sofa conversion should be fun--looks like it will involve some considerable reconstructive surgery on the back there...

spanky, the chair and upholstery are beautiful. I'm just amazed at the plans you have to the sofa. Can't wait to see pictures of all the finished pieces. Good scores at the auctions. 60 bucks for sofa and loveseat? 2 bucks for fabric? woo hoo!
Chelone, Very nice transformation with your kerbside find. Looks fantastic!

flyleft, if you have completely naked wood, you can use an alcohol-based DYE and it will neither raise the grain nor rub off (although for durability it's best to topcoat it). TransTint is one brand I've used - DH does woodcarving from time to time and for a while we had a bit of a "thing" for dyeing his carvings bright colors. :-) Arti Toymaker's Dye is completely nontoxic and even food-safe (if used with a food-safe finish like a "salad bowl finish"), although it's water-mixed and so will likely raise grain which has to be sanded back down. Supposedly General Finishes' water-based dye does not raise the grain, but I have not used it. In running a Google search for someone else recently, I came across a nontoxic, gel-format dye from a company called Clearwater, but I haven't seen it IRL.

Interesting pieces, Spanky. Back in college I had a chair much like the one you ebonized, although yours looks much better. Mine had the original orange upholstery, urk!

Wow, that turned out stunning. The fabric looks fantastic with the ebonized finish.

I also absolutely love the look of that fabric with the red frame, chelone.

Gosh, I wish I had a single talented sewing bone in my body.

Wow, I am utterly amazed with that chair. I love the clean, crisp lined and your upholstery choice complements the frame perfectly. Keep us posted on the sofa project. It sounds like quite a challenge.

Chelone: Your chairs look great too! Utterly fun and comfy!

Chelone, thanks for the info on the walking foot! I have a regular one for my Bernina but it never worked too well. Supposedly the rubber feet were a bit too thick and needed to be shaved down a bit but I didn't bother.

I've seen Jukis at auction a few times in the past ten years but I am not sure where I'd put it in this little house of ours. I do dream about it, though...

Oh, and your outdoor chairs look great!! I love the red with the big stripes.

Here's the loveseat:

{{!gwi}}

The back was easy to build up. The original arms and back were a continuous run of hardwood 1x3. I cut down blocks of pine 2x4 to size and attached them to a pine 1x3 for a base, then screwed that to the back of the sofa frame. Then I put another pine 1x3 on top of the blocks. I had to add some angled pieces to the front to adjust the slant of the inside back, but that was it. I didn't take photos of this but I can take some when I do it on the big sofa.

For the tufting buttons, I decided against using the ones that come in a kit at Joann's because they always seem to pop apart under the strain of the tufting. So I just got some metal buttons with shanks and cut small circles of fabric, gathered them by hand around the ends, put them on the buttons and pulled the thread up tight and did a bunch of anchoring stitches. Took about 2 minutes per button!

Mry193, the fabric was 2 yards, not 2 bucks! I wish! I think the fabric was maybe $30. It retails for over $100 per yard so that was a pretty good deal.

I've used aniline dyes on wood. They're fun and I got good results. But India ink gives a very different look. It's easy to do a sample of it--a little bottle of ink is only $3 or so and you may already have some sitting around.

I'm going to do this chair after the big sofa, i think:

{{!gwi}}

It isn't marked but the frame looks Danish-made. The fabric looks American, though. It's supposed to recline but the mechanism is stuck. I'll clean the teak up and reupholster it in more Pebble wool but in a charcoal brown, because that's what I happen to have. I would do it now except that I have to get the big sofa done in time for a baby shower that we're hosting next month. I can't have that hideous yellow fabric on that sofa for the party!

Wow, that is stunning!!!

FABULOUS.

I just bought a new book on upholstery yesterday, and I was thinking about YOU when I thumbed through it, Spanky.

How funny is it that I live many miles away, have never actually MET you, but still you pop into my mind when I look at an upholstery book?

(music fades in)... "it's a small world, after all... it's a small world, after all..."

Well, I decided to re-do the DNA chair first, before the big sofa. Now I can add it to the line-up of chairs in the family room that we'll sit on for TV-watching until the big sofa is done, which i hope will only take about a week.

Here's the before:

{{!gwi}}

And the afters:

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

I used Maharam's Pebble wool, which is a grospoint weave but with boucle yarns. It feels like a big fluffy bath towel but in wool---really nice to touch! The color is called Wenge and is a darker brown than in these photos. I love it with the old teak. It's an espresso brown, pretty much.

The fabric was easy to work with, especially when hand stitching the long seams up the sides of the back. It's so textured that the stitches totally disappear when the thread is pulled up tight. It's very satisfying to see the edges go together with no visible stitches. So neat and tidy!

I replaced all of the padding and also converted it from sinuous springs to elastic webbing. It was made with a big lumbar curve, which makes it very comfortable sitting. My daughter who is nearly 7 months pregnant didn't want to get up from it!

Someday I hope to find the ottoman that came with these chairs. I have just enough fabric left to upholster it if i ever do find one...

OMG! I had to go back and look at the dates on your posts to see if all this really is happening as fast as it seemed to be. You think about doing something and a few days later, it's done! Projects like this (if I even attempted them) would take me years.

The furniture looks great, those fabrics are beautiful, and you are amazing. Congratulations!

*sigh* SO beautiful. Re your daughter: maybe it might make a nice nursing chair? :)

So what did you use for the padding? And do you mean there were springs attached in the frame under the cushions? I've never seen that before--only the webbing...

And what did you use to clean up the wood on the arms? It definitely looks *new*.

I feel certain you'll find the ottoman sometime.

Wonderlander, it used to take me a lot longer to get stuff like this done but I don't have any little kids anymore and I've also just gotten a lot more practice at this. It's way easier when you know what you're doing! I don't even look at the book anymore.

Fly, I cleaned the wood with Murphy's Oil Soap. Teak usually just has an oil finish, so if the Murphy's takes any of that off it is easy to refinish it.

The seat was a box frame with sinuous springs stapled over it. I haven't seen too many Danish-made chairs with sinuous springs in the seat, so this could be American-made. The upholstery fabric that i removed was the really cheesy acrylic stuff that was popular in the 70s in this country but I"m thinking it may have been reupholstered then. There are also no marks on the chair frame at all, which makes me think it's American. I think Danish chairs are pretty much always marked as such. Maybe.

I used 2" foam on the back, 4" foam on the seat, and covered both with a bonded polyester batting from Joann's that is very thick and reslilient. It comes in 5 yard rolls and is meant for use as chair pads (they are marketing it as a substitute for foam squares--you can also buy it in 12" square pieces). I used to get a 1" thick upholstery batting from Joann's that was a little softer than this stuff but still much sturdier than quilt batting, but they no longer carry it.

That ebonized chair is absolutely fabulous. How I WISH I could find a chair like that!

I have a pair of the same chairs that spanky ebonized. Very inspiring! The thing is that my pair are not very comfortable at all. The cushions are OK, but the seats are nowhere near firm enough for a chair that sits so low to the ground. Maybe they were nice and tight a while ago--but not anymore.

So spanky--can you share your secrets for what you did to the seat? I'm eagerly awaiting news!

Thanks so much for the details, spanky. I'm saving them to a file.

lynnski, we have a sofa and chair in that style and I had the straps redone, as they'd gotten saggy long before the pieces had come into our lives...do yours have straps underneath?

Spanky, just saw this thread and you're very inspiring.

Okay, I'm still trying to figure out what you were referencing with the bottons that you made for the tufted loveseat. How did you keep the fabric on the metal botton? Do you have a pic of the metal button that you purchased? (I'm about to tuft some outdoor pillows and you scared me away from the Joann buttons!)

Thanks!

WOW! I'm SO impressed!!!! I've wondered about this kind of thing because I recycle wood from old furniture and cabinets whenever I get the chance. So I understand your reasoning about adding the 2x4 to build up the back of the loveseat. But I never would have had the nerve to actually try it! We're about to send our old couch and loveseat to the basement to be used by our kids. I thought it was a shame to ban it, but now I know it can have a second life someday! You're so creative!

flyleft--yes, they have straps underneath. Kind of rubbery and thin. And stretched out in a manner that my late grandmother called "butt sprung." (Actually, Gramma often used that term to refer to certain dresses--and it wasn't complimentary!)

Do you know where one can get more of the strapping? When you sent yours out to be redone, did they replace the same type of strapping, or use a different kind of system? Thanks, Lynn

lynnski, I got "Elasabelt" webbing from this place:

link

It's like an extremely heavy-duty elastic that barely stretches at all when you pull on it, but it has a nice amount of give when you sit on it. They also have metal clips that you hammer onto the ends of the webbing and which then fit into slots in the chair seat frame on some types of chairs. But my friends who deal in MCM furniture say that these often pop out so you're better off just stapling or tacking the ends to the wood.

I have seen one other type of chair that has little metal brackets that screw into the wood and you slip the ends of the webbing through them and screw them tight.

What I did was tack the free end to the frame, then made a mark on the webbing about 2.5" from the inside edge of the frame. Then I stretched the webbing until that mark was at the edge of the frame. This was so that I got the same amount of tension in each strap. It was also about as tight as I could pull it myself, and it took everything I had to hold it there while stapling. A webbing stretcher helped a lot, i found out later! But if you have a helper, it's easier. One person can stretch and hold (esp. if it's someone strong) while the other staples or tacks.

I used an electric staple gun with 3/8" staples and put about 12 in each end. Maybe 16, i forget! Carpet tacks would also work but a stapler is quicker. Once you have 3 staples in, the other person can let go.

That link above also has the Pirelli webbing but it costs a lot more and I don't know that it's any better. It seems like it might even deteriorate faster since the rubber is coating the webbing and therefore is exposed to light and air, which rots it over time. The Elasabelt's rubber is covered with a thread wrapping like regular elastic.

Anyway, hope this helps!

What a huge help! Thanks, spanky!!!!

texashottie, sorry, I forgot to address your questions about the buttons!

I don't have a picture of the buttons I used. They're just very plain metal shank buttons. The ones I used where flat on top but you can use domed ones if you like that look better. Plastic shank buttons would probably work fine too. I just thought metal might hold up better over time.

Just cut a circle of fabric 2X the diameter of the button (a little more if the button is very domed). It should fold over to cover the back but not the shank.

Do a running stitch by hand close to the edge of the circle of fabric. Put the button in the middle of this and pull the gathering thread up tightly. I usually run the needle through the gathers around the shank, keeping it as tight as possible. Make a few lock stitches in place to secure it.

That's it!

For fabrics that ravel, reinforce the edges with machine zig-zagging as many times around as you think is necessary. I did a lot on the Maharam Pebble wool fabric because it was really ravelly.

Bulkier fabrics will be easier with bigger buttons. I used 3/4" buttons with the bulky Maharam fabric and they were almost too small.

Big buttons look better if you add a layer of thin batting under the fabric. Cut it just big enough to fit the top and maybe the edges of the button but not so big that it wraps around to the back. That will add too much bulk to the back.

Oh, also---thread your tufting cord through the button shank before you stitch the fabric on! The fabric might block the holes in the shank once you gather it all up.

I realized it would be very easy to do a little photo tutorial on how to cover shank buttons for tufting. Took all of ten minutes and half of that was finding the stuff and taking the pics!

{{!gwi}}
Cut a circle of fabric about twice the diameter of your button. This is a very domed button so it needs a bit more fabric to go over the dome than you would need for a flat button.

{{!gwi}}
Do a running stitch around the edge. Stitches do not have to be tiny but they should be even in length. Thread button with tufting cord (heavier than what is shown here).

{{!gwi}}
Pull gathering thread up as tightly as possible, distributing fullness around the circle. Run the needle through the gathers one or two more times around, keeping thread tight as possible. Anchor with a few stitches in one spot.

{{!gwi}}
Et voilÃÂ !