loveseat before and after

Here is the before of our lovely find. I spotted this gem on the side of the road at an estate sale for $30. The fabric was worn and stained, as you can see, but she was still a beauty! As it turned out this chair is over 100 years old. What luck for me to snatch it up!

When we decided on the room that this would go in we wanted to match the fabric to the area. We went with a pale yellow with small green flowers. It has a texture to the fabric and creates almost a quilted look. The wood trim was in excellent condition but we wanted to darken it and antique it. I used a walnut stain that I put on, then waited a few minutes and wiped back off again. This ended up darken everything but leaving a heavy excess of stain in the crevices so as to create an antiqued style. Now, after that point I have to say I was in over my head. Because this bench is so old I had a wicked hard time figuring out how to get the upholstery off and then ended up ruining my "template" for the upholstery that I was putting on. Oops. As embarrassing as it is this project took me eight months to complete. Oh well. It's done now and I love it! Now that I have two reupholstery projects under my belt I think I'll just head on to that rocking chair in my living room! How exciting!