You might remember my sofa which was given to me by a very dear friend. It belonged to her grandparents and she had no further use for it so she very kindly gifted it to me. It's actually Regency (circa 1730) and my friend, who is an artist, had created her own upholstery (used in a very loose way!).
I loved the way what she had done with it, a sort of "deconstruction" and I wish I had the creativity that she has to do something similar. I spent many weeks trying to decide how to breathe new life into it but I finally admitted to myself that it was too risky to try and do something funky/bizarre/quirky as I would have to live with it for a very long time if I got it totally wrong.
Before it went to be renovated and re-upholstered, the poor old sofa needed new padding on the seat and sides as well as recovering and the legs restoring. Basically it needed to be stripped back to the bare wooden frame.
I looked at loads and loads of pictures in magazines and online and ordered a ton of free samples online. My first instinct was purple velvet and I should have run with that from the outset. Instead, I went round and round and round until my head was spinning with colours and fabrics. When I went to see the sofa in the workshop it was nothing more than the wooden skeleton! I was really put on the spot because they needed to know what fabric to order. I was shown a booklet of velvet swatches and I instantly picked Aubergine and choice made! It is a J Brown aubergine velvet.
And here in all its glory is the renovated and re-upholstered sofa. You wouldn't credit it was the same sofa would you! The guys did the most awesome job and totally sympathetic to its age. I absolutely love it. The cushion is a little high but it will diminish by about 20%. It just needs to be sat on.