The 'Over-Achiever' Loveseat

That's what I'm gonna call it.  The idea of finding a gorgeous loveseat on a curb, taking it home, and turning it into a to-die-for piece of furniture with not a lot of money is grandiose, but then the work began...and let me tell you, it is WORK!  I thought I could probably get this baby from broken and battered to luxe and lovely  in a week (maybe two) if I worked on it a little everyday.  Nope, not gonna happen.  I have a great hard-working, "I can do it" attitude but this loveseat will test even me.  I will push through though and someday (the keyword being someday), we will have a beautiful, antique loveseat enhancing our living room.  The good thing is that Anthony is, as I write, taking the exam for which he's been studying for for the past couple of weeks so once that's done, he'll be able to help me.  Anyway, here's what I've done so far:

The first step (I'm no professional...as a matter of fact, I'm a beginner doing what should be a professional's job...but that's never stopped me before) was to remove all the trim bordering the existing upholstery.

This was and will be the easiest part of the whole process.  The trim was simply glued over the staples holding the fabric onto the chair so all I had to do was pull.  At this point I was thinking to myself, "Wow!  This is going to be a cake walk".  Boy was my head in the clouds.

Here's what the 'over-achiever' looked like minus the trim:

Next up was removing staples - TONS of staples!  I decided to work on the back of the chair first so I could get to those buttons to remove them before I started on the front.  I started by just pulling on the fabric at it's edges to rip it and the staples attaching it to the loveseat up.  But, it wasn't going to be that easy.  The pesky glue that held the trim on made me question over and over again "Why am I doing this again?".  I switched back and forth between pulling fabric, yanking and pulling with pliers, picking off glue, and questioning why I was doing this to myself.  Well, I finally got all the fabric off.  Oh yeah, when I first started pulling off fabric I noticed the fluffy, crumbly stuffing underneath and I panicked.  My first thought was "Asbestos!".  I freaked out, envisioning myself or Anthony having to call one of those lawyer hot lines on t.v. that advertise their "Have you or one of your loved ones been exposed to asbestos?" schemes, and immediately stopped working.  I literally ran to the computer and researched asbestos and whether or not it was used as padding in antique furniture.  Lucky for me (not so lucky for those lawyers...ha), it was never used in furniture.  Cancer-free, I went back to the staples.  After pulling off all the fabric and ripping out the padding, here's what I had to work with (sorry for the blurry picture):

And here's the evidence of my hard work:

I'm saving the fabric to use as a template when cutting the new fabric, which I don't have yet.  I want to make sure Anthony can, for sure, get those back legs on and in working order before I put money into fabric.  The trim and fake asbestos will go to our lovely trash can.  Should I also mention that I had battle wounds from working on this crazy loveseat?  Yep, the inside of my hand was bruised for almost a week from death-gripping the pliers.  Some women endure pain for physical beauty.  Me?  I'm a different breed.  :) 

So, that's just the beginning.  It's back to the loveseat for me - as I type it's upside-down on two sawhorses and I'm working on the bottom so Anthony can get those legs on when he's done.  :)  More progress updates later!  I hope you have a Happy Memorial Day!  Say a few prayers for our troops and for God's peace to rule this crazy world!