apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me with a fairly simple question. I have a couch and two chairs that are upholstered, but have wooden legs. One of the chairs is the IKEA Tullsta, if that helps for visualization. The wooden legs are light wood, but the rest of the furniture in my apartment is dark wood. Is there an inexpensive easy way to make the legs of my couch and chairs dark in order to match everything else? I'm pretty sure they currently have some kind of varnish on them, so it would probably be a bit of a process to sand them and stain them dark. I was actually thinking of trying to darken them with shoe polish - is that crazy? Thanks for any advice you have!

I just bought replacement legs for my Ikea Tullsta chairs from www.diyupholsterysupply.com. Total cost was $20.00. check it out.

My husband and I just got a pre-owned sectional sofa. It's got good "bones" but awful upholstery, so I am recovering the whole thing. Problem: The seat cushions are OK for now, but they won't survive the abuse our two-year-old is giving them for as long as the structural part of the sofa will. They are 30" by 30", and I haven't found any sources for foam wider than 24". Can anyone suggest an ONLINE or EAST COAST source for large upholstery foam? (I live in the Mid-Atlantic, not the City.)

Mel - the same source I referenced above also does custom cut foam orders. Service is great. Check out the website. www.diyupholsterysupply.com

(2 plugs in one day - those people should be paying me)

Mlle Kate, A, Curtis and Violetsrose: Thanks for your responses to my question on OT 369 on how to build a minimum life from scratch. I've posted a short reply there today.

thanks for the site raj!

Thanks Raj! I'll check it out.

Thanks so much, Raj - that site's a great resource!

I can't change the legs on one of my chairs - does anyone know of an easy way to darken the kegs on it, minus stripping and redoing? Is the idea of dark shoe polish a complete no-go?

Is there a fabric out there in the cosmos that cats aren't interested in scratching? I don't mind the fur build up, but the scratching is problematic. I really don't want to use that double-sided tape dealie, it's so ugly...

I'd rather find a fabric they don't enjoy scratching! Am I being dense? Such a thing can't possibly exist...can it? I imagine if it's fabric, cats like it. If it's wood, cats like it. If it's frickin' anything they can sink their claws into......garghhh.

I'd go for wood stain before shoe polish.
You'll regret the shoe polish if it rubs off and ruins carpet etc.

you can buy a pint of stain for around 3 bucks so it'd be totally worth it.

Can anyone here help with air conditioner installation advice? I have a rental on the fourth floor, and my window sills are a little slopey-ier than normal, and if I place my window AC unit and pull the window sash down, it still looks pretty precarious... I will probably have to purchase a window AC bracket, but at $32, it seems pretty steep...

Can anyone recommend a solution? Also, the external window sill is masonry - exterior of building. There's no wooden sill attached to it... The sash on my window frame is all metal... The only reprieve is there is a ledge on the interior side of the window that's wood, but the sash/lip of the window frame deters from me being able to attach something on it to hold up the AC unit.

I was hoping to be able to do this on my own, but I'll consider getting a fixit guy to help. I don't have a corded power drill - will a cordless with a masonry bit be sufficient?

Thanks!!

microfiber. it's polyester fake suede; and our cats barely bother it.

there's lots of posts here on AT about it; like
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-microfiber-good-or-bad-017586

DT,
I agree with click chick. Shoe polish is a quick and dirty solution, with heavy emphasis on the dirty. Who knows what it might rub off onto?!

If you want to avoid the messy and time-consuming step of sanding, look into tinted varnishes (you might have to mix one yourself) or wood glazes that you can put on over the existing finish. It won't look as good as a complete re-finish job, but it can't look worse than shoe polish.

It's easy to adhere two pieces of foam together. Lightly spray both surfaces with Super 77, let sit for a minute or two, and attach. They really bond. Perhaps you can build up a 30" cushion with this method.

k, jillrenee: There's no fabric, no fiber, no material that's guaranteed, 100% catproof for all cats. Some cats will scratch one thing, others another. We have two cats: one attacks microfiber and ignores the scratching post, the other doesn't. But he attacks anything made of rubber. Felines, I tell you...

I'm moving to a 2 bedroom apartment, and I need all new living room furniture, including a sofa bed. I would really like some design help from a professional. What stores sell great contemporary furniture, and also offer complementary design services? (provided you buy enough stuff).

SummerinBrooklyn,

We've always managed balancing/securing the A/C unit by propping the back of it with bricks or wood planks.

The weight of the A/C on the supports plus the window holding the unit down in front is usually enough to keep it balanced.

design dabbler knows from what she's talking bout. cats is cats and will claw what they wants to. ain't no fabric tough enough to withstand.
felines call the shots, don't evah think otherwise. get used to it. mrrrrow.

i'm visiting NY and was wondering if anybody could recommend some awesome furniture stores- even just for browsing?

K, re Cats and furniture: I hate to admit it, but I got a kitty repelent spray from my local pet store the other day. It didn't stain the furniture, (obviously, you'd have to test it out and it) and it smelled like oranges. It really seemed to work. I also moved a cat scratcher into the living room so they would have something to scratch and the combination seems to have done the trick. They'll sit on the couch, but don't want to scratch it. I don't need the spray anymore. The downside is that its kind of expensive-- $8 a can. But I was talking to a friend who said cats hate any citrus smell, so you could try making your own with orange essence or something. good luck!

I have a the 2 square by 4 square size Expedit bookcase from Ikea. I want to run it longways and put some Capita legs on the bottom. What would be the best way to get them attached? The bookcase itself seems so hollowish, I'd hate to drill holes in it and then not be able to use the holes.

melksos-

my parents bought a lot of beautiful pieces, and got design help from ethan allan. The designer came along "free" since they bought enough furniture (a couch, coffee table, long side table, and side chairs, i think).

The ethan allan they went to is in bergen county, if that helps

mar -
If you go to SoHo, there's something called Moss and there's numerous other stores right in that area, if you're really looking for a concentration of them.

If you're looking for antiques, there's Broadway between 14th Street and, say, 9th or so, and then there's also the Upper East Side in the area just one block East of Bloomingdale's (oh, and then there's also furniture IN Bloomingdale's) and there's a Terence Conran store just underneath the 59th Street Bridge on 1st Avenue, which gets you back to modern stuff.

There's kind of a lot of Design Within Reach branches throughout the city these days, actually; one in Tribeca, probably one in SoHo.

ABC Carpet & Home on 19th Street and Broadway has 6 floors of stuff, and it's great fun.

There's a Crate & Barrel on Houston and Broadway (right practically on top of the subway). If you like thrift stores, Housing Works helps people AND always gets the best stuff and there are branches of it all around the city.

Bo Concept is said to be kind of reasonable, and I think it's pretty and it's on 18th (or 17th) just East of 7th Avenue, and if you walk even farther east on that block there's a West Elm and a few other things.

That's just off the top of my head.

JT, when in doubt, paint it! Turn the furniture onto it's back or side and sand the legs lightly. You don't need to get the existing finish of, just scuff it up.

Wipe the dust off with a damp cloth. Protect the upholstery with some masking tape. And paint it.

I use Painter's Touch paint in the 8 oz can for furniture, from the hardware store. You can do a second coat when it's dry if you are really picky.

K -

Maybe the trick is to find things that your cats enjoy scratching more than your furniture. I bought a sisal rug runner soley for that purpose. My cat loves it - and she can scratcht he hell out of it and it holds up to it because its so strong. As a result, she leaves my sofa alone. :-)

K, it all depends on the cat. They truly are individuals. I've had cats that never scratched a thing. I've had other cats that only scratched their scratching post. Now I have three cats and two of them have claws. They scratch everything they can sink their claws into, nevermind that they have the world's largest and most fabulous Kitty Condo. They scratch there, TOO, but they've also taken my family room sofas down to the wooden frames on the corners. It's lovely. I've resigned myself to the fact that until they are both in Kitty Heaven, I'm just not getting new furniture or carpets. There's no controlling these two when it comes to scratching.
~Monica

summer--i would get the bracket, and get your super to help you install it (he will probably do it for free, or for a small tip).

$50 is cheap relative to having your a/c fall out!

i just moved away from new york, which means i have a lot more room than i've ever had before. i don't have nearly enough art for these walls.

since i don't want to invest in crap art just to fill the walls, i was wondering if there were some inexpensive designy things i could do until i accumulate more things i love.

i'm intrigued by wall decals but my wall is textured and i wonder if they'll stick (or ruin the paint). i was thinking of getting a bunch of cheap canvases and painting them and then applying the decals to those.

does anyone have any other ideas? i hesitate to paint because i'll just have to paint over the design once i have enough pictures to hang.

er, that should read "i hesitate to paint stencils because i'll have to paint over the design once i have enough pictures to hang."

clearly i need more coffee. :)

RE: destructive cats. The best solution I’ve found is Feliway, a synthetic cat pheromone that you can buy in either a spray or a room diffuser. It mimics the pheromone that cats use to mark their territory, and scratching the furniture is often a marking behavior. I bought a diffuser and plugged it in near a chair my cat was clawing on a regular basis. The behavior stopped within a week or two. I recently bought a used loveseat off Craig’s List from a cat-free home, and both of my cats immediately began to make war on it. I bought the Feliway spray and applied it directly to the fabric for a couple of weeks AND plugged a diffuser in the wall closest to the loveseat. I haven’t noticed any new clawing since about the second week. You can buy Feliway at most pet stores, but I find it’s significantly cheaper on-line. The last place I bought it from was www.kvvet.com (just type Feliway into the search field when you get there). The diffuser lasts for about 1 month and refills run about $14-$15 each (initial cost is ~$26 for the plug-in and the first month’s supply of Feliway). The refills can add up fast, but so can reupholstering your furniture!! Hope that helps!

Summer -- you should be able to remove the shell of the A/C so you can install that first without struggling with the heavy weight of the unit.

It should also have a way to screw it to the wall on the sides -- screw holes in a lip that overlaps the window frame in front. If you don't have that, or if the sides don't meet the width of your window, then you might need to rig something up--screw it to some boards that then brace it at the sides and are then screwed to the wall...

Just make sure to use big screws, and to secure it to what is obviously an exterior brick wall, you'll want to use those blue Tapcon masonry screws. Just try to drill pilot holes first, and then they're self tapping. It would help if you had an impact driver (a kind of drill/driver with a small hammering action) for this.

This is all if you can't actually get the brace on the outside. But I really really recommend the brace. You don't want that puppy crashing 4 floors!

Thanks so much for your helpful tips, Michelle and Diana - I'll work on the pieces and hope to send pics in at some point...

thanks to everyone for the cat scratch advice!!

i did buy some scratchers that the cats love, but they still scratch at the furniture. we do intend to reupholster these great mid century chairs we got off craigs, but i'm hesitant! oy!

i will try the spray, then i will try maybe microfiber fabric on one chair to see if they dig into it (thanks for that big long link!)

as for cats will be cats: oh yes! my babies run this house! i've resigned myself to the fact that i will never have anything really nice ahah :)

thanks again everyone!

k the cat lady