Every piece of our furniture that gets re-done has it’s very own story. This particular settee definitely has an unconventional tale! We are so happy to be sharing it’s complete transformation with you all today – and we hope you fall in love with it’s makeover just as much as we have!

We acquired this settee at a local auction, and it definitely wasn’t in the best of shape. But that was alright with us, we could see it’s great bones and the potential to be beautiful again. So we packed it in the car (right alongside my sleeping baby) and brought it to the workshop!

Vicki had a vision for this piece from the get-go! She had a favorite beige ticking stripe fabric, which we knew would be perfect. We then decided on one of our favorite off-white colors by Annie Sloan after all the dings and holes were filled.

It was a fairly easy upholstery project for the most part. The seat was pretty well put together, we just added a little more batting. The only time consuming part was that pretty little pleated skirt at the bottom. Vicki took on that whole project and hand pleated that entire skirt by herself! It took a little convincing to get me around to the idea of a skirt, but Vicki was adamant! After she found an inspiration picture to show me, I was sold! I am so glad she was persistent because it is just absolutely gorgeous!

The goal was to give this ornate little piece a ‘French Flair’. From the striped fabric, to the pleated skirt we think it gives a bit of that impression 🙂

The silly story behind the piece comes into play when we were getting ready for our Market in the beginning of November. We were determined to bring this settee but time got a little away from us while working! We got to the venue and set up our entire booth, all while keeping this settee under wraps. The night before the show found us wheeling this piece on the baggage cart up to our hotel room to finish off the tiny remaining part we had!

After a busy and somewhat stressful day of setting up, we had a good laugh that  night! We wondered what the other guests of the hotel thought of us bringing a big furniture piece into our room!

(P.S. This beautiful settee didn’t sell at the market but after just a week on our new ETSY Shop it sold and is now going to it’s forever home! We are so happy!)

Update: We did this piece many years ago now, but have since gotten requests for what we used. We started our furniture painting years ago with Annie Sloan products but after finding Fusion Mineral Paint we wouldn’t go back to anything else as Fusion is SO much easier to work with.

Similar products: Fusion “Raw Silk” / Similar Ticking Fabric / Braided Gimp Trim