Artfully refurbished an old couch

Before

After

• 1 old couch
• 1 sheet of 4x8 fir plywood
• 1 sheet of 3” foam
• 3.5 recycled foam floor
  tiles
• upholstery fabric
• sewing machine
• hand saw
• drill
• hammer
• screwdriver
• stapler
• scissors
• screws
• staples

Step 1: Strip down the old couch, remove the staples from the bottom that secures the upholstery. I recommend using a pair of side-cutting pliers to pull them out, and a flathead screwdriver or dull chisel to get the tougher ones started. Then rip out the old foam and batting and put it aside, you'll need it later. The bottom layer is usually cardboard or something similar, usually stapled as well. Depending on your design you can leave it, remove it or reposition it.

Step 2: My design required lower arms since I wanted to use big pillows as reconfigurable arms, the wooden arms would really just be keeping the cushions in place. To do this I removed the nails holding the arms together then sawed the vertical supports down to the required height. Then a piece of plywood was used to reinforce the sides.

Step 3: Next the cardboard was reattached to the seat and parts of the arms and a plywood sheet covered the hollow back.

Step 4: Then we put a layer of 3” foam on the seat using spray adhesive and a few staples to keep it in place, the foam floor tiles were glued and stapled to the back and another layer of 3" foam applied over them.

Step 5: This was the fun part, to make the extra comfy seat and arm cushions we shredded up the old cushion foam with knives and just basically tearing it, keeping it in some garbage bags until the pillow covers were made.

Step 6: Reupholster the base. Basically you need to stencil out every surface of the couch and figure out how they can be stitched together so they will fit around it and generally be stapled to the bottom to keep it tight to the frame.

Step 7: Pillows and cushions. I made an oversized elongated pillow for the backrest, stuffing it with some of the old foam and batting, the seat cushion was to be a lumpy rounded rectangle, stuffed with the shredded foam and some batting to fill it out. My arm rests were cylinders with the same shredded filling, and we made some erratic little throw pillows with the left over filling.

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