One Room Challenge Week Three: Sofa Reveal

Welcome back to my living room! Week three of the One Room Challenge is already upon us and boy to I have an update I feel good about!

After weeks of wrestling fabric, pulling out staples, and a few jams on my sewing machine I am happy to report that my sofa is officially recovered! I have learned so much during this process and am so glad I decided to take on this challenge. But first a little reminder of where we started

Not so bad, but not where I want to land. The plan to transform this living room has always started with changing the red fabric to something more versatile to design around.
Last week, I updated on removing the existing fabric and recovering the back. Now all that was left for this week was the cushion covers.

Still a few discrepancies with the arm faces, but I have a plan to fix it later

I have to say, out of this whole process, recovering the cushions was the most intimidating. This would require precise pattern making, pleating, cording, and zippers. I was committed to seeing in through, but was really not sure how it would go.

While the overall pattern making wasn’t took difficult, my sewing machine was just not a fan of thick upholstery thread. After 8 consecutive jams on my machine, I had to accept that I needed to change something. A quick switch to quilting thread, and I had no issues whatsoever. Phew!

I am as shocked as you are that this weird lumpy green stuff is what my pillows are made of.

And while I’m in the weeds of sewing shop-talk, I would like to take this time to shout out the zipper foot attachment. I of course used this for sewing in zippers, but also used it for sewing cording and assembling the cording and cushion pieces together. It really made the whole process incredibly easy and gave me nice sharp seam lines with the cording nestled in easily.

And one last shout out to Face Lift Interiors and their YouTube page. They have so many incredibly specific and helpful videos that made me feel like I could work through any problem that came up. If you love niche upholstery content with a quirky British twist, then boy do I have good news for you.

And without furthere ado: The completed sofa!

I am still shocked that I finished it and also shocked to see a not red sofa in my living room.

This was a fun and challenging project. My main resource was time and patience. I really tried to keep my expectations for accomplishment low each day, and I very rarely accomplished at my estimated slow rate, but much much slower. Though at the end of the day, I am only a few weeks invested in something I’ve wanted to change for 8 years, and that absolutely felt worth it for me.

While I’m feeling very motivated to now add color and interest to balance the now neutral room, I am still basking in the relief of having a fresh slate to design from.

That’s all for today! The truly aesthetic and exciting details are ahead and I’m so excited to shape this room into the comfortable soulful space I know it can be.

See you next week!

-Aimee