so i bought a couch...like 3 years ago

so, one day whilst thrifting, the husband and i came upon this couch. 

i knew i had to buy it, while the husband did not. 

so there we sat...we "debated" about this couch.  

it was $75.00, which, i'll admit, is expensive for a thrifter such as myself.  so we struck a deal.  (i actually had to shake hands with him, thus binding me forever.)  i had one year to refinish this couch, if i didn't, the husband said he would either burn it or take it back to the thrift shop. 

so approximately, eleven months later (in my defense i did have a knee surgery when we originally bought it, then it was Christmas and then the summer came etc. etc.) i began the refinishing process.

honestly, it was a beautiful couch before they painted it white. . . .a lovely dark cherry. i believe it's made out of cherry wood as well.  i would have liked to stain it the original wood color, but i'm not that good, so i sanded it best i could and then spray painted and gave it a coat of polyurethane as well. 

i saved all the cushion backing and buttons to reuse them.

note: i have never seen so MANY STAPLES IN MY LIFE

i almost considered keeping the material.  it was thick, strong, and quite lovely.  probably was quite expensive in its day.   stripping it took quite a while...and as i started ripping things off, i knew i was a little over my head.

luckily, my friend holly decided to save me.  she would come over every week and we would work on it!  it really needed two people to work it and derek still refused to have anything to do it.  he really wanted to burn it. ..

so eventually, holly and i did finish the couch! (it was after my deadline, but after seeing its beauty the husband didn't want to burn it.)  it wasn't that hard, once we did one side and figured out our system.  she sewed the cushion for me, once, and then twice.  she was sooooo bummed when she realized that she sewed the zipper on the wrong side. she was a super trooper and its a good thing she came along...because we know...i probably wouldn't never have finished it. . . 

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ps...holli has an amazing etsy shop! 

sistao'sass 

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it looks pretty great...don't you think?

oh yeah...sadly, it's for sale

(because after all that work....it's style and material is just not fitting my current style and my new house)

we even took some family photos in them!

(thanks dad)