Grandma's Sofa Recovered

My sister Michelle inherited our Grandma's sofa. This is the sofa we all grew up falling sound asleep on.  From the time I was little kid all the way through college, Grandma's sofa knocked me and my siblings out without fail.  It's so hypnotic and without question the most comfortable sofa of all time.  I'm so glad it's still in the family and now on the West coast for me to enjoy all over again.

Grandma's original sofa, circa 1950s

When Grandma sold her house and was downsizing, I told my sister Michelle she had better hold onto the sofa and she did.  Now that Michelle has relocated across country to my neck of the woods, I get to fall asleep on Grandma's sofa all over again.  But, before I could do that, we had some work to do. 

Michelle had the sofa re-upholstered a couple years ago in Virginia but she kept the original color scheme including the dated, original stained wood and it just wasn't very hip. After the movers damaged it (Score!) we came up with a plan to bring it into the 21st century, namely changing the wood color and the fabric.

Michelle's "Take Two" on Grandma's Sofa

My upholsterer repaired the broken frame and tightened the connections to make the frame even stronger than it was originally.

 

When deciding upon the fabric and the color of the wood, we were tempted to do something really fun like...

 

Or this...

 

Domino

 

 

Ruthie Somers in Domino

 

 

 Anthropologie

 

 

Instead, we played it safe and went back to our roots.  What's the most comfortable thing you can think of for a sofa?  ...Velvet!  We found a really affordable, beautiful, velvet fabric with a solid rub count (100,000) online for less than $20/yard in a soft gray color from Michael Jon Designs.

We had the exposed wood painted a high gloss white and built new seat cushions.    There's only one problem with the sofa.  It's so perfect, we're afraid to sit on it, which makes it hard to fall asleep on.

Stay tuned for the evolution of Michelle's apartment.  Our next project is commissioning a giant painting from a local artist to hang above Grandma's sofa!