Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Cane Back Sofa Encore Part 2

Hi all,

After replacing the cane that had holes in it, I added new webbing. This is when I discovered we were missing a leg!



After searching online and locally, I decided my best ( size and price) choice was this leg from HD.


I was able to find just the right place on this leg to cut off the excess so that I had 3- 9" legs. I had to put dowel screws in the legs to screw them into the sofa. 


This was the hole for the missing leg. I cut a piece of 3/4" dowel to insert in the hole for the new leg. You can also see where the wood split directly across the middle of the hole. I put Titebond Wood Glue along the crack and used clamps to pull it together.   The "plug" was glued in with Titebond Wood Glue. The 5/8" dowel screw was then screwed into this "plug". I had to do this for 2 of the 3 legs. On the 3rd leg I cut off and left the original wood tenon in the hole.  

After  we got all three legs on, it was on to painting this baby! I took a piece of the treated drop cloth that I was using for the upholstery to HD and had it color matched for a monochromatic look. 

I love how soft and "creamy" this drop cloth is after a few (3-4 for this x -large size) bleach baths and soaks. If using drop cloths, remember to take all hems out and you will gain a couple of inches.
 After bleaching repeatedly, put into the dryer so it will shrink before your cut your pieces.

 After 2 good coats of paint I used Annie Sloan Clear  Soft Wax over the paint.
Next, it was on to the cushions and upholstery. The cushions looked a little thin to me and , not wanting to spend over $60.00 just for foam, I decided to cover the cushions with 1" batting. I got a great deal on the batting at Fabric World in Stone Mountain, GA. The cushions looked nice and plump. Great fix, or so I thought!!  (Sorry, thought I took pics of them, but guess not). Once I put them on the sofa they were too plump, the scale was all off. So, I had to take the batting off and cut down the cushion covers to fit the original foam. Note to Self: bigger is not always better!!  I also discovered that each cushion cover needed to be cut separately as all three foam pieces were not identical in size. 
Finally, I had reupholstered the sofa and made new bolster pillows.

Here she is before and after..

Well, what do you think? Would you tackle replacing cane or would you have passed this one up? For me , it was worth it to learn a lot more about furniture repair, restoration and Encores!!





3 comments:

  1. What an awesome job!! Thanks for all the details. You should be teaching workshops at HD!

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  2. I would have tackled replacing the cane as well because I love a good challenge. Considering the time involved, would you take on another equally (or more) labor intensive project? Do you have any more like this in the works?

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