My vision, realized.

Before.

Notice how damaged and scratched the wood is.

Strip all fabric, 1/2 inch cardboard strips, and batting.

Tape off, so just the wood shows.

Sand, chemically strip (with a toothbrush, people), stain, rub-on polyurethane.

Cut out all the fabric pieces.

Make 34 yards of welting.

Sew the front pieces together with their single welting.

Working one piece at a time, put the batting on, trim.

Stretch upholstery on. Staple. Staple cardboard trim, to make nice tight corners.

Pat yourself on the back.

Repeat for back. This time, using your scrap fabric (sometimes it comes in handy to have a cupboard full of fabric I can't throw away) before the batting.

Glue on double welting.

Make cushion: cut foam, glue on batting, make cover, assemble. No pictures.

Finished.

Admire the lines.

Admire the clean fabric against the rich and smooth wood.

Stand in awe that anyone would have thrown out this gem. (Remember I pulled this out of the dumpster.)

Sit.

At this point you may be saying, "Alisha why would you upholster in bright white when you have three small children?" Well I wish I could answer, "My children don't make messes and they respect my things."

The truth is, I love love love decorating in color. Bright, bold, invigorating color. The bad thing is, my color taste changes every 3 years - I've discovered. I don't want to buy a new couch every three years. So I've decided to have white and maple wood, and walnut wood be my staples. All long term furniture will be in these, and everything else will change. A white couch and a white piano means that you can paint your wall bright without being too circusy. Now imagine bright, bold patterned pillows on that couch. Bright curtains, colorful art. You might need a few big white pieces to offset all that color.

The trouble is, how could I possibly have a white couch? I looked at many white couches, and at the upholstery fabric they used. All the ones I saw were slip covers, so you could take them off and bleach the cover. That would not work for my couch.

And then I found......

Crypton

And I fell in love. Completely waterproof, practically impossible to stain. So durable it was first only for commercial furniture (like in doctor's waiting rooms). I covered my two side chairs in crypton first, to live on it for a few months before I invested all that money. Chocolate, ketchup, boogers, all wipe off like I was wiping it off the counter. But somehow, it's soft fabric. Worth every penny. So I saved my pennies, I waited for the 50% off-home-dec JoAnn's fabric sale, I waited for the coupon that would give me 10% more percent off, and I special ordered my beautiful, snow white, indestructible crypton. Unfortunately, despite my strict rules for the couch, it's already gotten dirty, and it came clean effortlessly.