Before & After Antique Settee Makeover

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Hey, there friends I’m back with another furniture makeover before and after reveal! Only this time I wanted to share the reveal first and then get into the nitty-gritty details.

I’m not going to lie, this is probably my favorite furniture upholstery/restoration furniture project yet!

Like I mentioned I’m going to first share the finished piece with you and then I’m going to take you through how I did this. There are a couple of reasons why I’m so excited about sharing this project with you all and why it’s probably my favorite reveal yet, and I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, take a look at what it looked like before I did anything to it.

The Before: Picking Up The Antique Settee

Believe it or not, this was another roadside rescue score! That’s right I got this baby for FREE!!

As always, I saw the listing on Craigslist “Free” section and dragged Tom with me to go pick it up. 

To be honest, I wasn’t convinced I had to have it.

However, in my experience whenever I’m having an internal debate about a purchase or pick up and don’t end up getting it, it usually ends up haunting me for weeks or even months to come.

So the hoarder in me said, “what the heck”, and I got it.

I’m so glad too.

Even in its existing state, it was still so much prettier than the photo that had been posted online.

Finding Inspiration for the Antique Settee Makeover

I had already seen some photos of other settees on Pinterest with similar frames.

Meaning, for once in my life I had a solid idea of the fabric I’d be using.

The real debate was in the frame itself, or rather the condition of the wood. 

While the frame was in very good condition considering its obvious age, it still had blemishes.

The wood was stained, scratched, and covered in layers of grime from several years of use. 

The problem was I couldn’t tell if these were problems a good cleaning and minor touch ups could fix or if it required a complete makeover. I’ll get into the how in later posts but in the end I opted for a full on restoration.

The way I see it was that if you have a beautiful antique piece of furniture, with such detailed carvings and a solid frame, a simple clean and touch up job wasn’t going to cut it.

Full-on restoration work is what this gal needed to shine again.

Let me briefly explain what I ended up doing to restore this antique settee.

By the way, it was fairly clear to me just by looking at the bench that it was an antique.

This hunch was confirmed when I dug into reconstructing the seat. Where I found layers of horse hair and copper springs. Something used in quality antique furniture. 

However, I’m still unsure of what time period exactly this gal is from. 

If I had to guess I’d say it was made sometime during the 1920s, but I could be WAY off. If you have any clue I’d love to hear in the comments!

Ok, so here’s what went down.

I reconstructed the existing seat 

The seat made up solely of horsehair, had sunken in in the middle.

Caused by the springs. Which had come loose underneath, due to old deteriorating material. Requiring me to repair and reshape.

When it comes to working on any kind of antique or historical project I am a huge believer in preserving and respecting the past. I rarely replace things completely but rather do what I can to preserve what is there so it can continue to last for years to come.

With that in mind I left all the horse hair and original springs that made up the seat cushion. Including the inside lining that separated the horse hair and exterior upholstery.

I reshaped the seat so it no longer slumped in. Additionally, I left the existing upholstery thread, and stretchers, securing what was there. Then added to it for security.

I Reupholstered the Frame

I went back and forth with whether or not to reuse the existing fabric or replace it all together. The upholstery is often the exception to my restore vs. replace rule. 

The existing upholstery was in great condition as it was. I actually loved the fabric pattern, colors and materials used. 

However, if you do reuse the fabric it needs to be cleaned. Let’s be real guys this antique settee, while beautiful, still came from the side of the road from an unknown household. That kind of stuff needs to be cleaned if left in your house and used by your family.

I was unable to detach the trim from the fabric it adhered to.

As a result, the majority of the tacks remained attached. In the end, I decided to replace it with new reupholstery altogether. 

I Stripped and Stained the Wood Frame

This was the biggest and most time consuming part of the project.

It was also the most rewarding!

It resulted in all the intricately carved wood details -that made me love this antique settee so much in the first place- to really shine through after all the grime had been removed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here, stripping furniture whether it’s paint or stain is a pain in the butt. 

If you’ve got a project coming up that requires you to strip a piece of furniture or wood I wrote an entire post on a great effective method that makes this dreaded process so much easier.

I used that same paint stripping process on this antique settee and while it still sucked it would have been so much harder had I not done it.

It was a lot of work to restore this beauty but I was so eager to get her back to her former glory that I finished the project in a few days rather than taking weeks or even months to complete it like some previous projects I’ve done.

The After: The Antique Settee Makeover

This will probably sound weird and slightly morbid to some of you but I think my favorite thing about this antique is the design of the carving on the back rest. It reminds me of a skeleton rib cage. 

It reminds me of vintage anatomy illustrations, or Día de Muertos artwork. The settee is really more like a piece of artwork than a piece of furniture to me.

What I love about all things that were made 50, or 100+ years ago, -whether it be furniture, houses, clothing, etc.- is the attention to detail and craftsmanship, during a time where everything was immensely harder to make than it is now. 

Regardless, it was still made and it was often made better.

I can’t help but daydream about the process, trying to imagine it’s years of use in however many homes it was in.

The whole thing is in a way romantic to me.

The rib cage design is easy enough to see from afar.

What’s really cool- although much more difficult to see,- (and even more difficult to get a good photo of) are the tiny bumps carved into the wood surrounding the larger rib cage carvings.

The Wood Details

It’s I’m sure hard to tell from the photos but looking closely you see a bunch or random bump like carvings that give the illusion of a shaded, and more deeply carved out area. 

However, it’s not simply carved deeper.

All of that are little carvings, isn’t that so cool?!

I’m geeking out right now, I know 🙂

For the upholstery, I knew I wanted to go with a solid color rather than a print to allow the wood detail to be the star of the show and I thought some sort of velvet fabric would look good. 

I had originally thought white,something very similar to the settees I’ve seen on Pinterest.

However, I feel like velvet is already difficult to clean let alone white velvet. So white (in my home at least) was not the answer.

In the end I found a really pretty light gray velvet suede to use as the upholstery fabric. 

The light gray shade I felt would would hold up well to stains and dirt.

Gray is also a good neutral color that goes well with pretty much any color pallet and decor style.

I wanted to use a decorative trim rather than a piping finish since that’s what the original upholstery had used. 

So I paired the light upholstery fabric with a slightly darker gray trim with a subtle sheen to it. 

The Stain Color Matters

I did stain the wood with a custom mixed stain, which I’ll talk about when I go through the restoration process in later posts.

Overall I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.

Currently, the restored antique settee sits in our master bedroom. 

Our bedspread is gray and when I picked up the settee there were also a set of four framed photos in silver frames sitting beside it for free, and I thought they would all pair well together in our bedroom.

I hope you enjoyed this reveal of my latest restoration and upholstery project.

Interested in seeing exactly how I restored this antique settee? Stay tuned, because I’ll be talking specifically about the steps I took and any tips I have when it comes to working with antique furniture.

Antiques are my favorite kinds of furniture to put in my home but often require some kind of restoration, unless you’re willing to pay for a completely restored piece.

Looking For Upholstery Guidance?

There are things I’ve learned throughout the projects I’ve worked on that I like to share here on the blog. So if you’re looking for some inspiration or DIY projects and crafts check out some of my other posts HERE.

If you need guidance on your own upholstery project, take a look at my 3 part upholstery series where I go into detail of the entire upholstery process from start to finish.

How To Remove Existing Upholstery: Part 1

Learning To Recreate Patterns for Upholstery Projects: Part 2

Finishing Up Reupholstering Furniture: Part 3

My hope is that I can make someone else’s project journey that much easier, or provide a place for inspiration. 

If you have any questions for me that you aren’t finding answers to on my blog feel free to reach out to me in the comments or on Instagram.

Either way, I enjoy sharing my projects here with you guys! 

I love getting to know any fellow creative and reader so be sure to find me on Instagram, or Pinterest and say hello!

Thanks again for stopping by and for all your support!! 

XOXO – Heather