Before and After

I'm a sucker for "free". I hate the saying, "Nothing in life is free.", but there is a lot to that. Case in point, this sofa. I was at the dump on a way overdue trip of stuff from the garage. Mostly old motor oil (ended up all over the inside of my car), three tail pipes, and a car full of other misc.While there, a guy was actually getting ready to push the sofa above over the concrete wall which falls 20 feet into a dumpster. It would have been ruined by the time it hit the bottom. I couldn't stand it. I mean look at the carving on the wood and the lines of the sofa. Even my amateur eyes knew this was a very old piece with great potential both decoratively and financially. So he helped me get it off his truck but was gone by the time I could load it in. So determined was I that I got this behemoth beast into the car myself one end at a time. I couldn't close the back hatches but it is so heavy I knew it wasn't going anywhere. I took it to the shop so Janine could give me a second opinion and we dropped it taking it out doing a little more damage to the already bad storage from years past. She did give it two thumbs up. Then we got Karen in on the fabric choice and decisions on whether I should cover it to sell or to keep. Karen gave me a fab deal on the red toile and off we went with the idea of me keeping it.

This is what we have had. We bought this sofa 11 years ago when we built the house. It was tan and cream ticking. A couple of years ago I had slipcovers made from drop cloths and we got a new look. We've been really happy with it and I've been in a conundrum about what to do when the sofa recovering was ready. The sofa has been hubby's domain forever so there were a number of concerns coming from him, which is always normal, but more so since this had more to do with his comfort than usual. We were pretty "Pottery Barn" looking.

But, voila!!!!, here's the "new" sofa. Not too "Pottery Barn" now, right? I love the lines. It was reupholstered by Ralph of Continental Upholstery in Halethorpe; he always does a beautiful job. He's got a friend who has a workshop space in the same building who did all the refinishing on the wood. There were even pieces that were missing and the guy molded new ones. I asked Ralph to do away with the channel back because I thought it'd be too busy, especially since I was using three different fabrics.

I love the way Ralph centered the woman under the trees. Close up of the beautiful carving and grain.

And the same on the legs.

A look at the back. I used a wine and off white ticking on the back and Ralph used my roman shades fabric for all the double welting. Wadayathink? Bruce, how 'bout you?

This is part of what put me over the edge last week. Not good timing with all the other things we had going on. But I had finally remembered to ask Janine if a person could paint Formica. I'd been wanting to have white subway tile installed on the back splash and counter top for years and we had finally gotten to the point where it could happen. I'd been looking for a tile installer and finally got a reference when I remembered to ask Janine the big question. The "On-A-Shoestring" decorator comes out no matter what so I went for cheap and "easy" knowing what Janine had said was true, that I could always tile if this didn't work. Well, I think it worked! So far, so good. We had put in hunter green Formica when we built the house because that was the look at the time but, 11 years later, it looked dated as 11 years does for most things including me. And with the dark cherry cabinets (I knew I'd never get to paint them, even I remember how much more we paid for cherry than builder's "oak"), it was dark and closed in feeling. Wow, now it's fresh and looks bigger and oh so much better.

I pushed the envelope by taking cabinet doors off of one set of upper cabinets and painted the inside the same color as the counter tops and back splash which was the same color as our trim had already been. So I got to have somewhat of the look I love of open shelves in the kitchen like Karen has which is fab. Oh, I did take off the doors on the bottom under the sink and made a skirt with the same fabric as I made the new window treatments which is the sister fabric of my roman shades.

Of course a "new" kitchen requires a new piece of furniture. This unique piece came from Tammy of Sweet Finds at The Pink Cabbage. The top opens up for storage, there's a drawer, and hook and eye that keeps the door closed on the storage door at the bottom. Voila!!! again!!! I'm so loving to be at home. Now all I have to do is keep it clean...