The Story Of My Vintage Settee Makeover (x2)

13 Nov The Story Of My Vintage Settee Makeover (x2)

Hello!  Hope you all are having a great week!  As much as I love Christmas and my Christmas makeover, I thought I would take a little holiday break today and show you my drab-to-fab settees.  Frankly, I’m super excited about them and couldn’t wait to show you!  Don’t worry though, for those of you waiting for more tutorials and details on my holiday challenge space, they are coming soon!  (Hanging Wreath tutorial here in case you missed it)

But let’s start at the beginning.  When I bought these vintage Bernhardt settees for $150 at an estate sale.

Then I tried to strip them myself.  (it did not go well)  Which led me to writing this article about DIY fails.  It was a sad day.

But I called the experts (Little Jack Horner’s if you live in the DFW area), and they fixed my mess and gave my settees the beautiful grey wash finish I was dreaming of.

Then came the difficult decision of the upholstery.  (see this post)  The world was my oyster, and I was having a hard time narrowing down ideas and finding the perfect fabric.  For several months, the settees looked like the image below, with patterns rotating in and out.  

I thought I had decided, and there were roadblocks so I started again.  I knew I wanted a wide stripe down the middle of the front (tons of great inspiration here!), and something striking on the back.  Well, the upholsterer brought them back last week, and my jaw dropped.  Finally, nearly a year after purchasing them (oy vey), my settees are here, sitting in my living room, in all their makeover glory.

Behold the front!

Behold the backs!

The animal print is cream, white, and gray so the neutral color palette adds softness and tones down the overall look.

To add a little fun, the other side of the seat cushion is the leopard fabric for when I’m feeling a little feisty.  (or the kids get something on the other side, and I haven’t washed it yet)

I’m loving all of the details of the settees with the grey-washed carvings and the barely blue linen cording.

In my revamped living room, they will be back to back, which I wrote about here.

If you love this look, you could easily recreate it as all of these fabrics are available online or in store (if you have a Cutting Corners near you).  Plus these fabrics are affordable!  Nothing here was over $25 a yard.  (I can hear you cheering)  For the front of the settees, I used Glynn linen which I have used for tons of projects and will use forever.

Side Note: I have not linked to the individual patterns because the Cutting Corners site does not have pages for each fabric.  Therefore, just type in the fabric name you are wanting in the search box, and it will pull it right up.  Use this link to search for the fabrics you are interested in. 

Front of Settees:

Glynn Linen in White

Glynn Linen in Graphite

Cording:

Jefferson Linen/Cotton in Pearl

Back of Settees:

Bambi in Gray

Revamping old upholstery is seriously one of my favorite things, can you tell?  More to come on my living room soon!