Plum Love

Well, we did it! We finally have our living room back! It took us over 2 months to finish this project, but we couldn't be happier. We're just thrilled with how it turned out. Not bad considering neither of us had any experience with reupholstering things. lol. I sure love figuring things out with Cam. It makes marriage so fun. And the sense of fulfillment when it's all over is awesome, not to mention all the late-night sillies that come out when the project takes a million or two unexpected turns.

Here's what we started with:

For some reason, in this picture the couch doesn't look all that bad. It was. We picked it up for free off a ksl listing. It had been sitting outside in the rain for a while because it wouldn't fit down into the new basement apartment of its owners. We didn't have a truck to haul it, but they were so anxious to get rid of it, they loaded it up and delivered it to our apartment for free! I was thrilled. It was a little rough looking though. If you could get past the puddles and water stains, you found tons of hair, dirt, uno cards, pet stains, etc. It was n.a.s.t.y. We took a rug doctor to it and cleaned it up as best we could and used it for over a year. People always commented on how nice it was (considering we got it for free), but it was a major eye-sore in our living room. yuck.

One day, I had a meltdown and said that we were either rearranging our living room or moving because I was sick of it. Cam opted for the former and we took a Saturday to do some damage:

(am I the only one whose projects are most often fueled by meltdowns?)

The goal was to create a 3-seater couch and an ottoman with what we had to work with. (The sectional's chaise lounge part was on the wrong side of the couch in our opinion...Plus, what fun would it be to just recover the sectional? No, no, we must totally reconstruct the darn thing. :)

Cam cut the foot off the sectional and added two legs. I sewed the cushion and cover and the ottoman was done!

And then it sat there. Just like that. For 2 months. (Almost) And the rest of the couch stared at me. And Cam kept telling me how "fun it would be to work on the couch!" What he really meant was, "Kristin, I can't do anything unless you start sewing. for real." And thus began the week of non-stop sewing, stuffing and stapling.

What you may notice in the picture above is that our little half-sectional grew an arm on the left side! My brilliant husband figured out how to build and bracket on an arm to match the other side so we could convert this sectional into a 3-seater. I love being on his team. :)  

Once the entire frame was built and Cam was just waiting for me to finish sewing everything, he decided to press all my seams for me so he could be supportive while I worked in the sweatshop. It was awesome. He sure is good to me. :) (I really REALLY hate ironing.)

We had almost everything ready to go, when our trusty little staple gun broke. We took it apart,lost a few pieces, & got our hands all covered in grease, so we decided it was a good time to hit up Goodwood Barbecue for dinner. We were both so drained that dinner was hilarious. It was fun to cuddle up in the booth and joke around with each other. When we got back to the house, Cam had to go buy a staple gun at Walmart (everything else was closed). He walked me to the door and dropped me off along with the "I had a really great time with you tonight." etc. And then proceeded to give me a goodnight kiss. All you married folk, try this sometime! It brings back all sorts of butterflies. Gave me the oomph to finish the side-panels and psyche up to help Cam staple everything together.

Meanwhile, Cam made 3 different trips to Walmart. The first staple gun he bought didn't fit our staples, so he went back to buy new staples, which also didn't fit (even though they were the same brand as the new staple gun...) and so he went back and bought a whole new staple gun with coordinating staples. It was late. lol. The same lady checked him out all 3 times. She got a kick out of it. Cam did not. He got in the car and screamed. lol. And then came inside and informed me that "I was so mad! And nothing was on the radio except commercials. I hate that." Oh husband. :)

It was smooth sailing once we got the right staples in the right staple gun. We finished around 2 and vacuumed for an hour. SO MANY STAPLES! We threw everything away, Cam hung our new family picture (thanks Em!) And we sat on the stairs to check out our handywork. :)

A little finishing touch with the silhouette and we were good to go!

We're really thrilled with how it turned out. :) Thanks for reading!