The Wilt Chamberlain Sofa...Refurbed...

 

A few months ago, I posted some photos of the living room suite that I was planning on using in my house.  If you'll remember, it was in pretty rough shape..

 

This is what all of it looked like when I first found it!  Covered in mildew, dust, and dirt.

Once I got it cleaned up and disinfected a few times, the naugahyde...most of it anyway...was in pretty decent shape.  There was a bit of cracking here and there though and what was left of the bottoms of the sofa and chair had to be completely ripped away as they were almost non existent!

 

The poor little ottoman was cracked....

I dropped the chair and the flying saucer ottoman off first, as the sofa...at nine feet long...was going to take up a heck of a lot of room at the upholsterer's shop!  When the fabric finally came in, they got to work right away on the chair.  It was done in one day!

 They had to remove the naugahyde from the back cushion because of cracking.  They fixed the seat and made a new cushion.  The hole in the front was taken care of by replacing the naugahyde on the front with the fabric.  There was some cracking on the arms as well (the upholsterer said that the backs and the arms are always the first to start cracking and hardening because of oils left by people and their hands coming into constant contact.  That bit couldn't be replaced as it would likely have ruined the inside and outside arms.  My mom had a moment of inspiration and asked if we could put strips on the arms to cover up the cracking.  I think that's my favourite part...well, that and the contrasting buttons!

Will ya look at that profile!

The ottoman had to be completely redone as the naugahyde was so dry, it would have cracked again if we'd just removed the cracked panels and replaced them with fabric.

That's the original button though!


The sofa was in worse shape than expected and had to have the bottom slats as well as the bottom pieces of frame remade because the original had warped.
We did the same strips on the arms so as to match the chair, even though the naugahyde was in great shape.

 In retrospect, I wish we had done contrasting buttons here too.  But, as I'm going to be placing a long line of throw pillows on it soon, they wouldn't be seen anyway.

I truly love it!  And it sits like a dream!  The only problem I've found is that it's so long that, if you want to lay down and watch telly, you can't prop your head on the end because it puts you so far away that you can't see the very well!  Instead, I have to pile pillows almost in the middle to put my head on!  Oh well, it's worth it to have my grandparents' 1960's living room brought back to life!

XX

Angry Bird...Well, Not Too Angry....

I rarely get angry. It takes a lot...usually. But any of you who have dealt with contractors will know what an infuriating lot they can be. Especially when it comes to preserving MCM architecture and understanding the artistic and aesthetic movements that influenced it and how they fit into the design as a whole. Cue the recent unpleasantness....

You'll remember that, in an earlier post, I described the issue with my MCM's gorgeously, geometrically offset front stoop and porch/raised walkway. The walkway/porch had collapsed and was letting water into the basement. I was initially worried that they would opt to make the whole thing a single level porch and ruin the look of the front of the house, which is mirrored in the lovely pattern of the carport ceiling (I'm going to paint this bad boy like a Mondrian when I get the time!):

Luckily, I was assured that the only change that would be made was in an ever so slight widening of the porch/walkway, making the offset ever so slightly shallower, that would cover a little crack in the stoop where the two met and also keep the step up to the stoop itself. Sounded good. Then I arrive the day after they poured it to find what they ended up doing....poured it as a RAMP! Excuse me, Mr. Concrete Man, but a ramp IS NOT a porch! GAAAHHHH!!! The flipping house looks drunk! I might post a pic at some point, but I just...I just can't EVEN at this point! Now I have to wait for what they poured to cure so they can fix the mess...which now can NEVER look the way it did to begin with. So annoyed. Want to punch someone. Hard. Below the belt.

Also annoying is the state of the basement itself. Covered in dust and mildew. Everything. Covered. I must say, my mom and I have been making progress. Opening windows, running fans and dehydrators every day, cleaning EVERYTHING that's been down there. It's a job. My living room suite that was stored down there is actually in better shape than I feared though. Here's the ottoman with half the top cleaned to give you an idea of how the pieces looked when I first brought them out:

I know, it looks bad. But it doesn't compare to the look of the matching chair and sofa when they first came out. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of them before the disinfecting scrub down. But here they are now, ready for the upholsterer....

The sofa only needs it's bottom re-padded and the cushions replaced (the original cushions were in great nick, except that they'd shrunk...yup, shrunk! You should have seen the look on my face when I put them on and they had huge gaps in between!). As we can't find the exact match to this particular Naugahyde 50 years later, I'm covering the cushions in a fabric....

The chair needs the same, plus a bit more work...

The chair really does match the sofa, but the light was bad when I took this one and it makes it look less red than it actually is! There's a couple of cracks in the Naugahyde on this poor guy. The strips on the arms will be replaced with the above fabric to get rid of this crack on the right arm....

....as for the crack in the back cushion, we've opted to fix by replacing the whole panel with the contrasting fabric as well as having them make a new seat cushion in the same fabric:


The ottoman cover can't be saved (poor little nut has a torn seam), so it's going to be recovered in the fabric...but I did request that we keep the original button in the middle!....


There's another chair that, while not a part of the set, is very similar in style and was always used with the suite originally...


It was super dirty when it came out of the basement and was frankly a mess as you can probably see from the pic! YUCK! So I stripped it completely to its bones! While performing the coverectomy, I found the original fabric underneath the seat along with the original tag....

Apparently, Rowe was 'First In Fashion' in the early 1960's! Could you just die!
Later on, I'll have this chair covered in a solid aqua, black, or white to compliment the other pieces in the living room.

Another piece that I've had to strip completely until such a time as I can cover it was a great rocker! It was probably recovered in the '50s or early '60s with the sparkly gold fabric that was on it, which wasn't bad. But what I found underneath was super lovely!!....


Don't worry....that arm you see taped up isn't a bad boo boo! It appears that whoever made the chair spliced a piece in to make the curve on the inside. The adhesive he used to attach it had all but given way in the dampness of the basement and it just dropped off when I touched it! So I taped it to keep it from getting 'done in' in the meantime!

I've not been thrifting much lately, but the one opportunity I had saw me buy my new best friend....a mid '60s stereo console who I've christened "Danno".....
Would you believe I got him for $50?! He needs a slight bit of work, but nothing major that I can't do myself....knob connections cleaned and speaker connections tightened so he doesn't throw gravel at me quite so much! Isn't he a handsome fellow?


I'll keep you lot posted on how I go! It's getting closer to my moving in and you best believe I'll be posting what I find in my long sealed up bins once they come open...honestly, I can't remember what I have, but I know it's almost a full mid-century kitchen, bar, and well, everything else under the sun!

Before I sign off, I want to share some pics of something that just broke my little pea-pickin' heart at the upholsterers'. When I walked in, I was greeted by two of these lovelies....

They're bloody MINT! Check out the little chains on the side!....

And if that wasn't enough groovy goodness, there's a flipping MATCHING MINT CONDITION SECTIONAL too! It was stacked so I couldn't get a good pic, but you get the idea....

What do you want to bet this gets covered in a hideous beige-y colour...or even worse, a detestable Victorian print? God, I wish I could snatch these sweet little swingin' nuggets up and save them from the frump that I know surely awaits them! This must be what it feels like to work at an animal shelter and have to watch poor little lambs go to the slaughter. Breaks my heart!

What have you lot been up to since last we spoke? Any great vintage finds? Any thrifty goodies? Any mid-century hand me downs come your way?