First Steps: Bench Reupholstering

So...the brown velvet bench in my sewing room has to be brightened. And to give you a good idea on what I'm looking for, I have found this picture from Better Home + Garden:



So, I am going to have a lot of work ahead of me. And if I can only get every single staple out of this bench, I may be able to make some sort of progress. I should keep all the staples I pull and count them...it would be in the hundreds!

This is the top layer underneath the bench. The person who did the last upholstery job used a stiff netting material. You can see the areas where the old stuffing is falling through the webbing.

Here, I finally removed the first layer and all the staples with it. This is the part where I flip the bench on its side and rip off the faux welting (which was glued on, a method I may have to consider over handstitiching).



This is after the faux welting was ripped off (and saved for future reference) and also after I took out additional staples and almost ready to rip off the cushion...until I found even more staples!


Here I have flipped it back over onto the legs. I tried taking off the top layer but the buttons are threaded to the bottom of the bench and past the webbing.

Well..tomorrow I take back some veneer shelving. Apparently, it is not a good idea to spray paint anything with a veneer coating...I thought it was a good idea. Instead, B will help me cut shelves to my wanting. And it really is for the better, since Lowe's only carried the veneer style in four foot and three foot lengths. I plan to have two 5' x 12" and two 3'x12". Luckily, it is okay to spray paint metal.

That is the old dresser we are moving out tomorrow!