Reupholstering and a Photo shoot

I know I was promising a post on Amelia's christening, and I have tried to get it ready, believe me. But there are hundreds of images, and they are all in the 7MB size, which means I have to go through and reduce each one to about 500KB, otherwise it will take about a week to upload them onto the blog. So bear with me, as I make my way through them....

In the meantime, we are having a sofa reupholstered in a simple woven Warwick fabric, for the navy library. It's currently upholstered in a very sturdy, stain resistant and practically indestructible macrosuede, which if you have young kids is the only way to cover furniture!

However, going against my better judgment - I am being very daring doing this because we eat dinner on our laps in here most nights, and my husband isn't fond of napkins, so he tends to wipe his fingers on either his pants or is he's desperate the sofa. He thinks I don't see, but I have peripheral vision to rival any African animal and I know what's going on. So I may be completely nuts choosing an off-white fabric that in time will be covered in smears and stains, but style usurps practicality in this case.

I'm completely in love with nailhead trims on furniture. As you know I did it on my bedhead and on Charlie's bedhead, and I think it looks fabulous.

Here's the room soon after we moved in. It does look a bit better now that we have a rug, and the big tower of power entertainment unit. But not much I'll admit!

And here's the sofa. We actually have two of them. One I am sitting on right now, the other is with the upholsterer. We don't have room for both in our house, so I'm not really sure how I'm going to accommodate them....

Anyway,  I want to add a nailhead detail, just to make it a bit more interesting and hip, so have been looking for inspiration to help my upholsterer along the way. Here's what I came up with.....

Our sofa shape is very similar to this. The side of the sofa faces the door as you enter, so I thought it might be interesting to have this detail running around the frame of the arm as a focal point. What do you think?

I do so love this room. It has that gorgeous suzani fabric I love, with all those beautiful blues, and that amazing driftwood coffee table, and who can neglect that view. Oh and the garden stool on the right is quite delightful too.

I was thinking on the front of just doing a simple strip of nailhead along the bottom of the sofa. So that it's not overwhelmed. I am having piping on the cushions and the arms, so that it will resemble this chair, but in sofa size. But maybe with the detail on the side arms as mentioned above.

I love the simplicity of these chairs. The colour and shape is gorgeous and the final flourish of the nailhead just running around the bottom of the chair is the perfect little detail. Don't you love the lumbar cushions and the rug?

This is quite a fabulous detail, although you can get away with it on this sofa because it's plain white and there is no piping and the nailheads are quite chunky. Perhaps a little over the top for my sofa.

My sofa arms aren't rolled like this, but if there were I'd do this with the trim. I think it's fab. And who wouldn't love that lamp and side table.

This is quite cool. The nailhead trim on the side table and the mix of nail sizes on the sofa. Quite a unique effect combined with the grosgrain ribbon.

 

My upholsterer tried to suggest that I do the nailheads an inch or so apart, which I have considered. Although not sure about at this stage.....thoughts?

I think I prefer this look. If I did the trim must along the bottom edge, it would kind of look like this.

This has no connection to my sofa, other than I wish I owned it. Isn't it beautiful. I have no place for it, but in my dream home it would be perfect in the oversized hallway.

Then there's the size of nailhead to decide on. I'm going to have to see the sofa recovered, in the flesh to decide on that one.

In my book you can never do too much nailhead.

Even on traditional furniture, like this, it looks lovely.

All images via my Pinterest page. See there for sources.

I am off to see the upholsterer tomorrow to finalise the details and give him instructions on the various cushions I need made. So any advice, tips, thoughts before I go?

The house is being photographed for House & Garden in a month so I frantically trying to get it all picture perfect. Finally the impetus I need to get it all done, at least for the moment!