Blue Light Special

I love a good deal! Yes, I will admit, I am a walmart shopper... I buy most of my groceries there, minus milk and meat. Costco holds my heart there.. I also love walmart because you can always stumble upon a wonderful surprise.. and my client Cindee did!! She found her fabric for her over loved over stuffed chair there! I have been known to stop in and see what the fabric depart has and every now and then I am shocked at what I see. Cindee went with a bold pattern. I love it when my clients take a risk and go bold, because in the end, they love how it turns out! Go bold or go home! But hey, what do I know...I slipped my entire sectional in a loud pattern and its been on for almost 2 years now. Back to Cindee. Here is the before:

The arms were a "little" worn so she brought some cushion batting and carpet tape to soften it up. After:

Soo cool right?!! I think it looks awesome! Here is a look at the last of the 8 chairs that are gonna wreck my life for the next 2 weeks...

3 is company, 4 is a crowd...

So I would first like to say, I was featured on Better After! yay! I freakin love that blog! I may or may not stalk it daily. Anyways, she posted the brown and white settee I reupholstered for a client earlier this month. Now back to business. I just finished the first 4 of 8 chairs! I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. These wonderful chairs are for a country club, hence the formal fabric choice. I detached the back cushion and tightened them up so they can fluff them when needed. Before they would just sag.

I think they turned out great! the next 4 will be out of a different fabric.

I swear, just when I thought I was about to be finished, I looked up and there was another one to tackle! Its a love hate relationship... I did manage to squeeze in a chair to be slipcovered, I will have before and afters for you later today. Well, back to the garage...

Update....

I am elbow deep into a clients job and I just wanted to drop a line... I am reupholstering 8 chairs and i am just about half way thru:) anyways....I have been thinking about this for a while now, starting in May I will no longer be offering reupholstery services. It's not a final decision by any means but for the time being I dont have time to keep switching back and forth between slipcovers and upholstery. I have a waiting list full of slipcover clients that I need to get to. If you absolutely have to have something upholstered, shoot me a pic and we will see what kind of mood i am in....

So, with that...I am booked thru the the 2nd week in June. If you are wanting to get on the schedule, let me know. I can at least give you the yardage you will need so you ca be looking for fabric.

Stiff as a board

I felt this title was very apropriate for this client's redo. We have been chatting back and forth for a few months now and she has been patiently waiting for a slot in my schedule to open up. She knew she wanted a neutral color fabric for her slipcover. she toyed with the idea of using drop cloth but settled on a neutral cotton duck fabric. She was worried about how, where and what to wash it with. She could not get the 20 yards into her home washer, so she hauled it down to the local laundry mat to abuse one of their washing machines. She decided to air dry out the fabric at home, across her basketball court. It definitely dried out! She texted me saying, its dry.....a little dirty, a little smelly and a little crunchy! I had to laugh. I told her to bring it anyways! When she dropped off her couch and fabric, she said she had tried to iron out the wrinkles, which worked and happened to make the fabric nice and stiff! She was so cute when telling me the story of her "washing" adventure. I love a dedicated client! The fabric worked out great in the end. The stiffness broke down just enough to work with but it still has a "crisp" look to it. It made her box pleats look super sharp!

Her couch had a great down filled cushion. She also brought me a few body pillows because she wanted a long and skinny lumbar pillow made to run the length of the couch. She wanted it as full and tight as I could get it.
before:

after:




It looks soo great!! I was able to work around all the parts that got a little dirty in the "drying" process and I am happy to report that it does NOT have an outside smell to it! It went from plaid to rad!! I can't wait for her to see it.

Here is what I will be working on the rest of this week...

Once theses bad boys are done, I have 4 more to do! My poor husband keeps asking me when he can park in the garage again. I told him May, unless our house sells! (I hope it sells before he can park in the garage...)

Its a 2fer....

So here it is... the sectional! I got it done in just a week! My client needed it done before this weekend. Her daughter is getting baptized and they are having family in town, meaning the...duh duh duh...mother-in-law. She should have no complaints over this couch anymore! The original couch had a slipcover already on it, but when she washed it, it shrunk. She was ready for a change anyways. When I came to pick up her fabric she had a 3 different ones to pick from, but not enough of some to do the whole thing. She had plenty of denim, so I did the couch bodes, and 1 side of each cushion and the bands in denim, then squeeked out enough blue and yellow twall for the other side of each cushion. She had just enough navy duck cloth to do the all the piping and then we used the remaining stripe to pop with the pillows. It turned out great! She was soo happy with the way it looked, plus you get 2 looks for the price of 1. All you have to do is flip the cushions!
before:

She decided to do away with the skirt this time around, they tend to be a "catch all" for things. She has 2 kids and 2 dogs, one that is teeny tiny and then scooby blue, a great dane puppy! My kids thought it was a horse!
after:
Look 1

Look 2

She wanted to start off with the all denim look, to keep the dogs from getting it messy before the big weekend. The best part is that she pre washed everything so she won't have to worry about any shrinking!





I love that all the pillow and cushions have 2 different side. I had to get creative with the bits of fabric I had. Her cushions and pillows are just so soft and squishy, all I wanted to to do was curl up and take a nap on it once it was done!

I just finished up a bunch of curtain panels for a returning client and am taking the next few day off before i have another rush...happy tuesdee!