French Settee Completed

Hey everyone!  I've been MIA for a couple of days, did you miss me?  I missed you!  It was a decision to keep plowing ahead with my loveseat/settee or interrupt that for a different project.  I decided to continue working on the settee and have this to show for it...

Yay!  Let's just soak it in for a moment, shall we?  I soft-focused it, so it would look ethereal, well, maybe that's stretching it...

 Craigslist Listing

 Inspiration

Now that it's done, we can take a look at the process, starting with my "before and after" photos: 

You can see it started out black.  I actually liked it in black, but decided to brighten it up.  I think it's going to go in my master bedroom, so the lighter color makes more sense, anyway.  After all of the upholstery was taken off, it got a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) in Olde Ochre (the same that was used on my dresser redo).  For the record, after painting the dresser and this settee, I have just shy of 1/2 quart left of my paint.  This settee took more paint than you might think, too, because the cane took quite a bit.

Then the caning got several of these patches, maybe five or six, using cane I had from a previous project.  I got the idea from another blogger, although, I don't remember who.  It's not the exact width, but it's close.  (I think I went a bit cross-eyed, trying to figure the ins-and-outs of the weaving!)  Had I realized there was that much patching, I may have ordered cane sheets (it is quite inexpensive).  Although, it may have been really distressing (and not in a good way) seeing the entire loveseat pulled apart--you know what I mean--where the project looks overwhelming?  I tried using wood glue, but am not overly happy with it, I think I'll give E3000 a try.

The next thing I worked on was the two separate seat cushions.  I used the same toile picture and centered it on the cushion.  If you've ever made these before, you know they're time consuming.

After the paint dried and the cushions were underway, I distressed the piece.  You know me, I'm a "madcap" distresser, so just lightly hit some of the edges.   It worked well in my favor, since I didn't have to overly worry about covering the cane 100% with the paint, so it looked lightly distressed.  It got a coat of clear wax, the cane got a light coat, too.

 

Onto the easiest, most fun part of the project--upholstering the fabric on.  This is where some of you will think I'm nuts diverge from my opinion, I go old-school and use tacks.  Yes, tacks.  (The needle nose pliers are from removing all of the #!@% staples.)  I used most of the old stuffing and added batting to fluff and freshen the seat base and cushions.

In an effort not to leave steps out, the above photo shows an extra piece of foam that I sewed an extra flap of fabric on at the base of the seat with which to cover it.  When completed, I didn't like the "sharp" edge, seen in the picture, below, so I took it out and replaced it with rolled batting.

Here are the tacks, they are easy to put in and easy to take out, plus, you get more control being able to hold the fabric.

Here you'll see more tacks on the armrest.  The other arrow is pointing to double welt that will get glued, with fabric glue, over the tacks.  The double welt method I used can be found at Much To Do With Nothing.  You could also use gimp if you want something premade.

 (photo from modhomeec.com)

Here's the armrest with the welt glued on.

Distressing and some of the seat double welt.

More of the seat double welt and the rolled batting edge.

Ahh, how satisfying!  The settee was found on Craigslist, the toile was from Old Time Pottery.

Me, attempting to ham-it-up.  Phew, that was a time consuming project!