Sofas

And without outdoor space or a washer/dryer!

Re-Nest reader Abigail recently sent us her super thrifty sofa upgrade: A hand-me-down from her parents, she’s been living with the sofa for 3 years trying to disguise it with a floral slipcover and lots of pillows.

This thrift store find has great lines, but the rest of the piece needed a bit of work. Kate from Centsational Girl put a little bit of love and a whole lot of elbow grease into fixing this piece up. Check out her cane chair transformation into a timeless piece for her living room.First things first, she took apart the chair until only the frame was left. Then she gave that a good coat of glossy white paint. For the fabric, she went with a soft yet durable fabric in a taupe color.

Using a $20 garage sale settee as a base, Suesan over at Frou-FruGal wanted to create a family heirloom map furniture piece. Using a drop cloth, some incredible hand painting skills and some elbow grease she has created an unexpected decor element.Whether you like the look or not, this is so much more than just your typical piece of furniture. As Suesan describes, It’s unique to our family and I’m happy with the look. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fast.

Upholstery is one of the those projects you start with really good intentions, but they often peter out before the piece is totally done. Sibylle knew that recovering her newfound loveseat would be a pain in the ass, and decided to go a totally different route. Behold! A painted upholstered sofa! Yep, Sibylle went to town on both the wood AND the fabric parts. Using textile medium, and matte black paint, she transformed this vintage loveseat into a more modern piece of furniture.

IKEA’s Ektorp sofa is a safe choice, and about as basic as you can get in the living room. Aga of Patchwork and Co. decided to kick it up a notch and deal with her bland, beige cover. Want to see what she did? Aga decided to dye it, and chose black for a more dramatic statement. With the added eclectic assortment of pillows, her living room now has a Bohemian vibe that is far from boring. Many thanks to Aga for sharing the project!

This is the weekend! Finally take that vintage/free/found/Craigslist chair, sofa or stool and pull out its potential! If you’ve been sitting on a DIY seating project because you just weren’t sure what to do with it, we’ve got 10 real-life examples of taking an old piece of furniture and adding a zing of personality. Perhaps one of these ideas will inspire your own makeover this weekend? Pictured above: 1.

The Apartment Therapy Sofa Squad shopping guide has me dreaming about green velvet chesterfields and tailored mid-century modern sofas—prompting me to give my basic white IKEA couch some serious side-eye. Before tossing any couches to the curb, I set out to find affordable DIY fixes. As it turns out, even if you’re not ready to make the splurge on a brand new sofa, there are several inexpensive solutions that allow your good taste and your wallet to compromise.

It looked and worked better than anyone thought.

This estate sale sectional had its issues, but what it lacked in legs it made up for in mice. Don’t let the beautiful backdrop distract you: This sofa needed some serious (read: professional) TLC to go from threadbare and disintegrating to refined and rodent-free. Here’s how this sofa was acquired: The day before I moved 1,000 miles to my current home, I spotted a mid-century sectional sofa at an estate sale and bought it for my new place.

You asked us to test out Joybird's online-only sofas, so we hiked on over to LA and put 17 models through the ringer. Here's what we thought.

Although her boyfriend was not convinced that this was the sofa for their apartment, Miranda had big plans. First to go, that dated skirt: With a black slipcover, a graphic black and white fabric, and an ottoman to match, the sofa feels fresh and modern with more room to stretch out. From Miranda: We looked for a couch for what felt like forever!

This sofa has seen better days. Honestly, it takes a lot of vision to think it’s got any potential! Tinca took this sofa home and changed it for the better — plus made it ultra functional for a home that happens to house pretty cute pets. From Tinca: Maybe we found this old sofa on a curb and then dragged it inside or maybe we didn’t. 🙂 But we did decide to give it a complete overhaul. Originally this was a sofa bed you could stretch out.

Many of us love the look of authentic mid-century modern sofas and furniture but not all of us can afford their sometimes steep price tags. So when Natalie got this couch for free, she loved the shape, but wanted to show off the lines with a more modern fabric. From Natalie: After recently moving into a new place, I was on the hunt for a new couch. I’ve been in love with the mid-century style for awhile now but the ones I had been looking at were $2000+. Not ideal for a 23-year-old.

Megan fell hard for a semi-circular, midcentury tufted sofa she spotted at her local coffee shop but when she tracked down the source, the retail price was an unfathomable sum, only slightly less than the down payment on her house. Yikes! Once again Craigslist saves the day.

This chair looks like it’s on its last leg. Um, literally. The leg on this chair had rusted through and the whole thing was bent out of shape. No wonder it was sitting out on the curb, waiting for the garbage collector. But wait! This chair hasn’t quite reached the end of its life just yet …Rachelle, from Adventures in Creating, saw this old metal chair on the curb and decided to rescue it from its garbage heap fate.

When my friend Rachel was given this chair — a secondhand hand-me-down from her sister — she was able to look past the ratty old upholstery and worn frame and see its true potential. With a little paint and new upholstery, the chair looks brand new.Says Rachel of the chair makeover: “I got this chair as a secondhand hand-me-down. My sister gave it to me after she had been given it from her older, quirky neighbor who she calls “Mr.