Every time a DIY Upholstery post comes across my Google Reader, I immediately click.
Wednesday, I got a link to this chair makeover posted by CasaSugar, but done by Laurie from HousetoYourHome.com. It grabbed my attention because it’s so similar to the chairs we do in my upholstery classes. Once I clicked on Laurie’s blog, not only did I see a photo of Monument Circle here in Indy, I saw that Laurie used to be a paralegal (same here), her daughter plays volleyball (mine did too), she revamps furniture (same here, like FOREVER!), and she’s a blogger. I also ascertained from reading her blog that she recently obtained booth space at the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from my house. OK, so do you get it?
I’ve already emailed Laurie and invited her to my studio to check things out.

Let’s now move on to her chair makeover. It turns out that Laurie did not upholster this chair herself. She says if she’s selling the chairs, she has them professionally upholstered. Obviously, I don’t know how much time she has available, but I’m thinking she could make a little more money on her chair makeovers if she upholstered them herself. And we all know that with a good teacher, it’s not that difficult, right????

I’m going to have to stop in over at the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall (which used to be a great old, creaky floored Tuesday Morning store) and check out Laurie’s booth.

Let me take a moment to express how happy I am that furniture rescue and restyling is booming! This is no joke, when I started revamping furniture more than a few years ago, I got some pretty dirty looks from women who thought thrifting for old furniture was right down there with eating out of a trash can.
Who knew??

Way to restyle, restore and repurpose Laurie!!!

Indianapolis is all dressed up in its best party duds in anticipation of this weekend’s Super Bowl. The excitement is in the air, the weather is sunny and warm, people are friendly and we’re all so proud to welcome the world to our town.
For anyone visiting or who is a resident, Miss Leslie Bailey of TheAdventuresofLesalina.com updated the Indianapolis City Guide which was originally done by another of my local design buds, Emma Reidy. It’s right here on DesignSponge.com today.l
If ever a city is pulling together to show off its very best of the best, it’s Indianapolis! I’m so proud of my town.
So, you can imagine how happy I was that Lesley included ModHomeEc in her Guide. I love it that she put me under Do and Explore.
Thanks Leslie, and get yourself over here to show off your skills! BTW-Leslie is as cute and fun in person as she is in her adventures.

Remember this bench I recycled last summer?

Well, I’ve gone and recycled it again. This time, I added prettier authentic vintage legs and a soft and cozy faux chinchilla covering that transformed it into a luxurious luggage bench.

PhotoImage:IndyStar.com

It goes in my “guest bedroom”, which is part of my whole house makeover series in IndyStar.com. I’d be lying if I said we often entertain out of town guests, but just in case we get a pop in from out of town, there’ll be a luggage bench they’ll want to take home with them.

For the entire tutorial, click right here at IndyStar.com. and for more photos, click here.
PhotoImage:IndyStar.com

The faux chinchilla came from fabricdirect.com. I usually don’t even like faux fur, but when I felt this faux chinchilla, I was surprised and excited to use it on the bench. I used the leftover yardage to cover a hanging swing in my studio. People LOVE it.

Natural beauty.

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Fabric collage upholstery is popping up everywhere. The girls from Bokja Design, a Beirut interior design collaboration, have obviously mastered the art of combining colors, textures, pattern and shape to create their truly magnificent works of upholstered art. And more recently, Happy Chair has been all over Pinterest with its’ own brand of handmade upholstery fabric.

PhotoImage: shawnarobinson.com

Is it just me, or isn’t this reminiscent of the much coveted MacKenzie-Childs look in the 90’s, but with more carefree bohemian freedom? I used to think the M-C furniture was the epitome of perfectly restrained chaos, with the bold patterns coming together on the furniture to produce a visual orgasm of color, pattern and texture.

PhotoImage:HoustonLifestyles.com

It’s not as easy to execute as it seems. Believe me, I spent many hours trying to emulate their ottomans during my ‘ottoman phase’.

PhotoImage: CorneliaPark.com

Fast forward now to 2012. It’s the same thing as far as the mixed and haphazardly, yet very calculated use of fabric mixes, the tag line of ‘recycled’ and now a punch of bright, bold and ethnic patterns. What goes around comes around, right? In fact, Squint Limited, a UK design company even uses the same adjective, bespoke, that MacKenzie Childs touted. Check out their jazzy tufted headboard and footboard, a stitching and sewing feat, indeed.

PhotoImage: ApartmentTherapy.com

I admire those people who can take lots of busy design and put it together in a workable, appealing way. My big question is this, can you imagine how much time it takes to design and stitch the fabric pieces together and then combine that with the upholstering of the pieces? Labor Intense comes to mind. And then, how long would it take before you’d tire of the busy patterns? That just may be me, but I am thinking about doing a tamed down, modern version of this idea. You know I’ll let you see how that goes.

When I started my upholstery design business fifteen (or more) years ago, I used to call my pieces ‘upholstered art’. That’s how I feel about all upholstered furniture because I know what it takes to do a good job of reupholstering. Whether a chair is upholstered in a purple velvet with gray welt cord, or covered in modern patchwork, they are still works of art if you love the shape, size and style of the frame. And if they have those three things, you can reupholster them over and over again throughout the years. That’s practical and it’s GREEN!

If you’re pretty handy with the sewing machine, you could easily put some fabric remnants together to try this for yourself. Just for you.
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If you’re one of us who just can’t get enough chairs, take comfort, you’re not alone. Every time I get a new batch of upholstery students, one or two confesses during the first class, that he or she has a chair problem. You know what they say, admission is the first step to recovery.
Ha! Get it? Recovery, as in reupholstery.

PhotoImage: JetSetModern.com

It’s like Group Therapy, we all admit why we love chairs so much, how we can’t stop buying them and how we occasionally get control of the addiction, rid ourselves of our stash, but eventually start up again.
What it boils down to is that we all feel like chairs are individual works of art, like they have their own personality or soul. It borders on lunacy.

PhotoImage:Pinterest

Auctions are dangerous, antique malls can be scary and you practically have to put me in a straight jacket at estate sales.

PhotoImage: HouseBeautiful.com

When you combine the chair buying addiction with the other new addiction, Pinterest, I’m a complete goner. At least on Pinterest I can hoard my chairs over on my Chair Obsession board without spending a dime.

Photo Image: GoodwithStyle.typepad.com

To send you off into a cold, winter weekend, here are some hot chairs that may inspire you to get yourself into RECOVERY.

PhotoImage:Pinterest

PhotoImage: www.google.com

PhotoImage:www.okayart.com

PhotoImage:gasp365.tumblr.com/

PhotoImage:thisdesignerspalette.blogspot.com/

PhotoImage: SkimbacoHome.com

PhotoImage:Blocket.se

PhotoImage:decorology.blogspot.com

PhotoImage:http://svpply.com

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Haven’t we all had chair or sofa back cushions that have turned into a crumpled, smooshed up mess? They go from not very comfortable to downright uncomfortable and extremely annoying. You pick them up, pound them, beat them, to no avail. You probably tell yourself they’re better, but come on, you know they’re not.

Here’s the email I received from Katherine, who’s trying to figure out this fluffy mess.

Hi Shelly,

Also, in general, thanks so much for all the information you share on your blog–you don’t know how many times I’ve wished I were close enough to take your classes!

Thanks Katherine, I love to hear that, and I love to share tricks and solutions to help you make your furniture last a little longer.

I’ve performed this fix a million times. (Not really, but close.)

This should solve the problem, at least for a while. Sometimes furniture and cushions are just poorly designed, even those with a big price tag.

1. Unzip the bottom and remove the dacron or down filled cushion form.

2. It’s likely the cushion form is divided into a top section and bottom section. The top section is filled with stuffing and the stitched-in divider across the middle keeps the top stuffing from falling to the bottom of the cushion form, but the filling in the top section does sink down to the bottom of the top section. And likewise, the stuffing in the bottom section sinks down to the bottom of the bottom of the cushion.

What you end up with, is a pillow form with two wads of stuffing that have ended up in the bottom sections of the two horizontally stitched channels. The top of the sofa cushion ends up flat and the middle of the cushion ends up flat which causes the cushions to collapse over themselves.

Here’s The FIX:

You’ll need:

a seam ripper
extra pillow down or dacron stuffing
sewing machine or needle and thread
straight pins

What you’ll do:

1. Open seams on the top and bottom of the cushion form (not the cushion cover).
2. Remove old stuffing.
3. If it’s down, put it all inside a plastic trash bag to contain feathers. With your hands, pull the balled up stuffing apart, fluffing it with air and incorporating new stuffing into old.
4. Repeat this for the bottom channel.
5. Now, refill both channels until the stuffing fills both channels fairly tightly.
6. Pin and stitch up the seams you opened.
7. Replace the cushion forms into the cushion covers.

THAT’s IT! Cushions are now as good as new. You may have to repeat this in 6 months or so.

I’ve already fixed all of my crumpled back cushions so we’ll have to wait for Katherine to send pics.

Flattened Down Sofa Cushions really means flattened DOWN sofa cushions. Literally, down feathers. This is the second time I’ve wrangled with my brother’s flattened down leather sofa cushions. On the first go round, I unzipped and removed the down filled cushions, which you probably know are boxed forms with stitched channels that are stuffed full of down, I opened them up, removed the filling, fluffed up the down and added more down to each channel and restitched the cushion forms. Which, by the way, was no east feat! This was one tedious job, one only a loving little sister would do for her big brother.

It wasn’t long before he called me, whining again. There is just no way around it, down filled cushions go flat, especially when the cushions get lots of wear and tear from big, tall men.
Here’s what happens. Down feathers, with their barbs, get tangled and twisted together, which eliminates the air or space between them. It’s that space that theoretically gives you the cush you need under your behind for a comfortable seat.

You can remove all the down, put it in a big trash bag and then get your hands in there and separate all the feathers to restore the fluffy volume. I tried that. Word to the wise: You can refluff till the cows come home, but unless you replace the feathers, all or part, this vicious cycle will never end. If you can’t possibly live without the look of down, there are ways to fake it. You can spend the big bucks and have down wrapped foam or spring cushion inserts custom made for your cushions.
We opted for a less expensive solution. Big Brother wanted to solve this down problem once and for all, so I ordered three pieces of 5″ firm foam, cut to size and then went to work. The reason I ordered the foam already cut to size was because the cushions on his leather sofa were wider than the standard 24″ width of foam slabs you get at Joann or even an upholstery supplier. We paid $107.00 for three custom cut 5″ thick pieces of foam. Not bad.

In addition to the foam, I used dacron batting, and spray adhesive. Of course you need scissors.

1. Determine the length and width of the foam you need by measuring welt cord to welt cord, both directions and adding 1″ to the length and width measurements.

2. Unzip and remove the old down inserts

3. Line up the new foam

4. Cut pieces of dacron to cover the top, front edge and partial bottom, or the full bottom of the foam inserts. Apply spray adhesive to the foam and dacron, let it get tacky and then press to secure the dacron in place.

5. Then get ready to ride the bronco and get those new inserts stuffed into your leather cushion covers.

Stuffing new inserts into cushion covers is not easy. You can try to fold them in two and work them into the cushion cover, or you can place them into a plastic bag and stick a vacuum hose up against the foam, holding the plastic around the hose, suck the air out of the foam, which will shrink the foam, to allow the foam to slide into the zipper opening very easily. If you do this, try to pull as much of the plastic bag out after the cushion is in place. Remember this, it’s perfectly fine to grab a handful of dacron pillow stuffing to fill in the corners. You want your cushions looking smooth and full.

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Can you believe fast time flies when you’re mindlessly oggling images of dream rooms on Pinterest? Naively, I start to believe I can turn my house into one of those inspiration boards. The image above is one of those rooms I want to recreate in my house. (Honestly, who wouldn’t want their own little “morning room” where you can single handedly bring back letter writing?) This smart room above was featured in an Elle Decor article entitled A Chic Retreat in The Hamptons. Like most slideshows, I thought every room would be as appealing as this little gem, but happily, the the other rooms held no appeal for me. I say happily because I’m happy I didn’t have to be jealous of their entire Hamptons retreat, just this inviting office/letter writing/reading/morning room.

If you’ve read my blog in the past few months, you may know I’m in the process of a whole house makeover for my weekly newspaper column. When I saw this picture, I knew I could do this look in my own house, the side room off of our master bedroom, which you’ll read more about in a moment. When we first moved here, we halfheartedly turned it into Mr. Mod’s home office. Who knew he was such a slob? Keeping a tidy home office was never a dream of his. He brought home the biggest, clunkiest, darkest desk he could find. What’s more, he quickly tired of being isolated upstairs when all the action was going on downstairs. So, it has become an eyesore of a room complete with a gargantuan copier from, like, 1989 or something. However, the room does have a massive window facing south where I sometimes stand in my jammies with arms outstretched, replenishing my supply of Vitamin D. Can you see where I’m going with this? I could really appreciate this room, I could make it something wonderful.

Now, I’ll let you in on the horrible secret. This upstairs side room was weird, creepy and dreadful when we bought the house. I suspect there were some very strange “get togethers” that went on up there. I don’t even know where to begin, but here goes:

*Diagonally cut tongue in groove panelling on the walls
*Two walls with floor to ceiling smoked mirror panels attached to the paneling
*Brown, black and amber mottled ceramic tiles all over the floor
*A giant, freakin’ outdoor hot tub smack dab in the middle of the raised floor
*A 2′ x 2′ wooden storage cabinet in the corner that houses a garden hose and spigot. (?????)
Need I say more? Oh, I could say more, but I won’t, other than the house practically had to be exorcised before we could call it home.

Anyway, once the keys were in our hot little hands, hubby ran upstairs thinking he could take a dip in his very own in-house, sexy, flippin’ hot tub right there off the master bedroom. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement when he discovered water pouring through the ceiling into the dining room. He made a quick phone call, borrowed my brother’s Sawzall and the hot tub was quickly stacked in neat little piles out by the street for Tuesday morning trash pickup. Plywood was put down to cover the hole, carpet was laid, and the smoked mirrors are still up there. But not for long.
It’s just about time Mamma has her own sun drenched morning room.

PhotoImage: IndyStar.com

Here you have it, a wall to wall, all inclusive slatted headboard and floating platform bed that started out as a sketch on a piece of paper. A reader of my column kindly informed me that Ikea sells a slatted headboard, but I’ve never seen it. Anyway, I’m all about handmade and custom.

Photo Image: IndyStar.com

Honestly, converting my daughter’s bedroom into a mod, fun, bright guest bedroom has been one of the most productive and industrious house projects I’ve ever successfully executed. And let me tell you, I’ve had some big duds! This is part of the Whole House Makeover weekly series I’ve been doing for The Indianapolis Star, so there was no time or resources that would allow for a flop.

PhotoImage: IndyStar.com

The original inspiration for the room came from The Custom Hotel in LA where I stayed a few years ago. Quirky, bright, comfy, and upbeat, I set out to create a version of that room right here in our own home.

The following columns include getting the wood ready, on the wall, adding tables and reading lamps and constructing the floating platform bed. There’s much more to add to this room, but this is the main feature of this comfy space.

1. Getting the Wood on the Wall: IndyStar.com

2. Built-In Beside Tables and Reading Lamps: IndyStar.com

3. Floating, Upholstered Platform Bed: IndyStar.com