So the boyfriend's moved in and I've inherited a whole bunch of bachelor furniture. I guess this whole mess of junk will be as much of a project as he will be.
First project: his old smelly sofa. His pal Mike found it in the trash years ago and instantly fell in love despite the missing cushions and odd smell that I don't even want to start trying to identify. I've never reupholstered anything in my life, so this should be interesting... wish me luck!
I started off by ripping out the piping around each cushion with pliers.
Then, I used a mini screwdriver, a hammer and some needle-nose pliers to pull out about a million staples that were holding the fabric to the wood frame. First, I wedged the tip of the screwdriver into the base of each staple and hammered it lightly until it was behind the staple. This helped loosen the staple enough so that I could get a good grip with my pliers.
I grabbed my trusty needle-nose pliers and ripped out all the staples individually.
When I got to the feared buttons, it turned out simpler than I thought.
Behind the button, the fabric and the foam were these square pieces of cardboard holding the buttons in place. I simply unattached the buttons from the cardboard and took both the button and the cardboard off for future use.
And now we have a completely naked couch, except for the cushions (which I plan on doing last).
What a beauty, huh?
