Turning Trash into Something New and Beautiful

Ok, First off I am one of those kind of people if I can save money I will try my hardest to do that. I am about as far from a materialistic person as you can get. I rarely buy anything new and just about everything in my home was either given to me or bought used. About 12 years ago I was given a used living room suit from my husbands uncle. It was not in perfect condition and def. not a pattern I would pick but hey it was somewhere to sit and free. We have made due with those couches this whole time. About 5 yrs ago my nephew body slammed my son on the loveseat and totally broke the supports in the bottom. P.s. do not body slam each other on the furniture please,lol. So here we have these worn out, stained, broken, and in some areas even ripped couches. I had been wanting something newer for yrs. I had loaded the loveseat up in the truck to be hauled off to the dumb thinking it had seen it's last day when the idea hit me. I wonder if I can refurbish that loveseat. I had never done anything like this. I have no wood working skills and I know nothing about refurbishing furniture. But I figured what can it hurt to try. Now I forgot to take a picture of the loveseat before I started so this first one is about half way through the stripping down process.

I stripped all the old material off it and pulled out all the staples. Believe me there are about a thousand staples so this took a few hrs. I tried to save as much of the cushions and foam as i could because that cost a good bit from your local craft store and I wanted to save as much money as I could in this process. Here is a picture of the couch all stripped down to nothing but the frame.

The following day I went to Lowes for wood and to Johan Fabrics to pic out some fabric. My suggestion get something normally used to cover furniture even though it cost a bit more it will last longer. I end up going with a light tan color that feels very soft and for my loveseat I used about 5 yards of material. Wood wise I bought two sheets off wood with a nice natural design in it. I also got a can of chestnut wood stain. I used a jig saw to cut the curved pattern of the arm rest so that it was a perfect fit. Instead of making cushion covers I attached the seat cushions to a piece of ply wood the covered the whole thing with material and stapled it to the under side of the wood. Advise her make sure you have a nice quality staple gun because you want these staple to stay in the wood nice an strong. I covered the back support as well with the old cushions and the material again using the staple gun to secure everything in place. I reused the foam for the arm rest but I only covered the top half with material and the bottom half with the stained wood. 

The finishe project cost me close to $150 in materials counting the two throw pillows. It still saved me somewhere in the price range of $250-$350 if I would have bought a brand new love seat. Here is a picture of the finished project.

I really didn't know how I would feel about that much wood but I ended up really liking it when it was finished. I think it looks very stylish but a bit rustic. Maybe if you have an old couch that has seen it's day you too will decide to bring it back to life instead of hauling it off to the land field. It is both better for your pocket book and the earth.