Bringing new life to upholstered furniture!

From ottomans to chairs, benches to sofas, reupholstery can totally transform furniture, whether fine antiques, family heirlooms, or tired-looking thrift shop finds. The result will be the equivalent of a new piece of furniture. However, there is one caveat: the piece must have good bones! That means it must have been well-constructed originally to be worth the expense of upholstery labor. Calico has helpful guidelines on whether it’s worth reupholstering your piece of furniture.

We recently partnered with two design influencers who completed projects to re-do and renew an ottoman and an armchair:

Sarah Gibson redid a second-hand ottoman and had bolster pillows made.

Designer Sarah Gibson and her husband live in Salt Lake City, Utah and are busy renovating and updating a ‘90s builder-grade home. The Gibsons are both serious D-I-Yers—and while they have installed herringbone wood floors and tiled walls, they turned to Calico to reupholster a second-hand ottoman. Sarah has been blogging about her design projects for ten years at Room for Tuesday.

Sarah wanted to refresh a basement media room and make it more comfortable to watch television by adding an ottoman to their sectional sofa. She found a “basic and boring second-hand ottoman” on Facebook Marketplace--at just $50. After bringing it home, she was quickly reminded that the ottoman also needed to be pet-friendly!

Sarah knew this ottoman was the right size and shape for her media room, but it was also worn, stained and a bit misshapen—a good candidate for an upholstery makeover!

The ottoman was to function primarily as a coffee table or for extra seating. Sarah brought the piece to her local Calico and selected an easy-care performance velvet for both cover and welting. But which tape to choose for a custom box application on top? Sarah settled on the style Shelley in Cashmere because it was more tightly woven for added durability.

Sarah also had Calico make bolster pillows in the same fabrics and trim—because it’s often a good idea to repeat a fabric for visual harmony in the room. Note that the ottoman trim is beautifully mitered at the corners. Casters on the feet of the legs make it easy to shift the ottoman out of the way, if needed.

Why a custom project? Because Sarah could consult with a Calico designer on the selection of fabric and trim—and also specify the placement of the box trim and the size of the welting. Sarah asked to add additional padding for more loft and to repair areas that needed reshaping. She also chose the bolster pillow size and details.

“The new look beautifully fits our aesthetic and it’s the perfect size for our floor plan. I absolutely love the trim on top of the ottoman—I’ve been wanting to add box trim to something for ages!”

Sarah Gibson

Blog: How to Make a Basic Ottoman Look Custom and High-End (roomfortuesday.com)

Instagram: @roomfortuesday

Ashley Wilson transformed a chair for her husband!

An inveterate do-it-yourselfer and designer who lives a seasonal life between Florida and Utah, Ashley Wilson wanted a gaming chair for her husband. But she didn’t want to buy something new. She wanted something old that she could transform.

Ashley and her husband drove to a thrift store to look at chairs to re-do—but “what he thought was comfy, I thought was ugly!” They compromised on the chosen chair, covered in a rust-color chenille—and promptly headed to the Calico store in Murray, Utah (near Salt Lake City).

At Calico, Ashley easily found fabrics that suited her feminine style of decorating. She loved the large gingham check, but her husband didn’t want a fabric with any white areas on the seat. The Calico designer suggested a solution: a second fabric for the inside of the chair!

Ashley chose Floris, a performance velvet for the inside cushions and arms. This solid velvet complements the slubby gingham check Hestin for the outside and skirt. Calico has more than 2,000 performance fabrics in a variety of textures, styles and weights. Ashley also added a lumbar pillow in a third fabric to cushion her husband’s back.

“The whole process was so seamless. I love that I was able to take a thrift store chair that had seen better days and give it a major transformation. I didn’t have to buy something new (which is great for the environment) AND I got a custom look!”

Ashley Wilson

Ashley asked Calico to change the style of the skirt from pleated to gathered. Calico upholsterers can do amazing things to update chairs and sofas! They can change the length and style of a skirt (or remove it completely), take out channeling, tufting or buttons, build up arms and plump up cushions. Of course, they can also fix loose springs and shore up wobbly joints.

If you have a family heirloom or a beloved old frame that needs a facelift, ask us how it can be renewed. And check out our Before-and-After Gallery of reupholstered pieces for inspiration. We love makeovers!

For other design projects that Ashley has done with Calico, visit her blog, At Home with Ashley.

Instagram: @athomewithashley