Has anyone seen the cushion?

Okay, so phase one of Ashley's big project that she has been working on is almost complete. What's the project? Reupholstering a couch. Well, the whole project involves reupholstering a couch set - love set and sleeper sofa. She started with the love seat. It was smaller and pretty straight forward. The larger couch has the sleeper sofa, so that will bring some new challenges. I will probably disconnect the bed from the sofa prior to the makeover. Here are some before-and-after pictures. Then I will answer the question in the title, "where is that cushion, anyway?"

In this picture you can probably see why this set was free. Notice the chunks missing? This set was a craigslist special. The only thing we had to pay for was the material and staples. But as Ashley always says, "Think potential!"

We systematically took each piece off. Each section was stapled on, so the removal process involved removing all the staples from the frame. While it wasn't terribly difficult, there were a lot of staples. Ashley labeled the pieces so she would recognize the pieces once they were off.

(Don't be fooled by me in the pictures. I helped take staples out at first, but after that, it was all Ashley.)

After pieces were off, Ashley used each piece as a template for the new fabric and then stapled the pieces back on the frame in reverse order. Ashley used my pneumatic stapler to affix the staples. A little overkill maybe, but it was so much easier to use than a manual stapler. The only problem was having to run the compressor every so often. It can be quite loud when it's running. If we were working on it while the kids were sleeping that meant taking the compressor outside and running it. Ashley was a little intimidated by the tool at first, but now she's a pro! We just pity the person who may decide the reupholster the couch after we're done with it. It may be an impossible task at this point.

I do not have final pictures yet, but in the next picture you can get an idea where Ashley is going with the new design. One of the snags she ran up against, though, was she could not account for all of the cushions. There should have been three for the love seat and four for the sofa. One was missing. After searching all afternoon for it, Ashley found it. Where was it? Take a look at this picture.

Somehow we didn't realize the pillow was in the frame when we stapled the last piece of fabric to the bottom of the love seat. And as I mentioned before, the fabric wasn't coming off. So we were able to reach in through the cracks and pull the cushion out. We cracked up laughing. I asked Ashley if we had any kids in there. We should make sure we keep the cat away from the next couch project! He may not fit through the cracks!

The above picture gives you a peek at the new look, but those pictures will come once the cushions are finished. Stay tuned!