Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Slipcovers Revealed!

After many months of coordinating just the right fabrics, waiting for them to arrive.....and waiting for my upholster Chris Green to be available....the sofa is delivered!!!!  I will warn all of you who are not fans of color and a lot of it, turn away now!!!  For you brave raucous-color-lovers, you may continue.....
My sofa, only my skirt was one fabric
and had one long box pleat,
not a ruffle.

I started with my JM Paquet Sofa with slipcover. This sofa was pretty darn expensive 8 years ago when I bought it, but the cover was very tired and in need of replacement.  The JM Paquet company went out of business about two years ago, so the promise of the easy to order new slipcover went out at the same time.  Boo.  The colors of this sofa were crazy vibrant and the rest of the furniture slipcovers in the room along with this sofa were just done.  Nine years of kids will do that!  The two main, down stuffed cushions also needed a little re-stuffing.

I went into Antiques and Country Pine about a dozen times for a total of about 40 hours to figure out an updated, fresh palette for the furniture collection.  I needed all the fabric to be washable, which made the selection process all the more difficult.  I wanted to tone down the color and use green and brown as unifying shades.  I wanted a more sophisticated palette. This image gives an idea.

Not all of the fabric are represented in this image.  I ordered new covers for the smaller love seat and two rocker chairs made by Lee Industries and the nine different fabrics to be coordinated on the large sofa, plus another fabric to recover a Ethan Allen camel back sofa that also sits in the room. Phew!  A lot of work, people! 

As you know, it took Chris quite a while to complete the cover and I visited his studio twice during the final days to make key decisions. I spotlighted on of my trips in my blog post Daughter, Distractions and a Multitude of Fabrics.   Here are some of the images from those visits.
Notice the original skirt.
Like I said, one fabric.

New cover, re-stuffed on top of an old one.

Here is my daughter 'helping'
by texting on her IPhone.

There was a lot of shifting of fabric positioning on this slipcover.  We changed key locations of several fabrics a number of times to try and tweak just the right balance.  When working with 9 different fabrics, it gets hairy!! 
It's been a long road, but I can say that this sofa is truly a piece of art!  With no further adieu..............





I love love the play between the
different fabrics in this location
where they visually merge.
The love seat is now in a chocolate brown floral, not the yellow floral that it was before. I am so relieved because I felt like the yellow looked dirty from the day it was delivered!  The stripe on the two rocker chairs is fun and ties the whole collection together.

The lighting in the room makes it so difficult to capture on camera.  Perhaps in my next life I will learn to take better photographs!  I am super pleased with the new covers.  The look of the room is completely different and I am happy with my choice in new wall color.  It all compliments each other well. 


Coco is happy.
Now.....go take off those sunglasses and rest those eyes and accept my apologies for all the crazy color combinations!  I like it that way and I am the one who lives here!!!!

-The End-
Linking this to:




17 comments:

Teresa@1800 Farmhouse Rd said...

You did a great job! Wonder how much shipping would cost to send my sofa to you, LOL. Love that you weren't afraid to use all of the combinations.

Unknown said...

Great sofa and fun fabrics....looks great! Thanks for stopping by.
xojana

Lisa said...

I LOVE it!

DIYbyDesign said...

Seriously...that's amazing. I am super impressed. Thanks for sharing at my Swing into Spring party.

Katie said...

Oh wow, great job on this. We need to recover a chair and I'm dreading it! I'd love if you hop over to Sew Woodsy and link up the slipcovers!

Val said...

Oh I just love how fun this sofa is! What a great piece to have in any room!

foreverdecorating said...

Okay, I was first questioning this because I had done something like this in the 1970's and thought it was out of style. But after the reveal, my heart skipped a beat and fell in love. Your sofa is beautiful and unique.

Jen T said...

Lesley this is beautiful! I love, love COLOR! It's so good to see it! Also, I have to tell you..yours is the first thumbnail I clicked on from MMS b/c it looked so pretty & interesting and laughed when I saw it was YOU! I love the color combinations & patterns.

Gayle from Vintage Farmhouse said...

I love all the colors and patterns, great job! I use to sell JM Paquet years ago and had always planned on purchasing a piece, but never got around to it. I'm glad you were able to find someone to make a new slipcover. Also the green wall color makes a wonderful background.

Deneen@dreaming-n-color said...

I love the mix of fabrics! It is a visual wonderland! Beautiful!

High Street Cottage said...

These mixed patterns have been around for a while, and they still look wonderful. So very comfy and casual. I did a slipcover post this week too, I guess Great minds think alike, have a wonderful Sunday, xxx tami

very merry vintage style said...

Wow--this really turned out nicely. great design! Thanks for linking up your post to my party--
Mary

Mary said...

I love this! I'd like to invite you to post it on Masterpiece Monday at Boogieboard Cottage. The link will be up all week, I hope you can join in. Have a nice week, Mary :O)

Jessica @ Sunny Tuesday said...

It's so fun & colorful!

Unknown said...

I LOVE it! Color is all the thing here in OK., but when I post something on the blog with lots of color and pattern.....I get a lot of silence. FUNNY! You go girl! I think it looks happy and it makes me smile.

Lisa Montsion said...

I love all the pillows.

lisa

Blithe Allison Reed said...

I clicked on this while searching for JM Paquet to order a new slip cover for my sofa that is a very close match to the one pictured at the top of this part of your blog. I LOVED seeing what you've done! It's nice to know I am not the only one who enjoys putting all kinds of fabrics together. Great job! Thanks for sharing.