I'd like to reupholster three out of four of the sofas in my house. Here's an antique loveseat/settee that's about a hundred years old:
It's in this room that is primarily olive green, lime/citron, salmon, and black (ignore the awful tan color on that back wall, that's gotta go):
There's a definite Chinoiserie vibe going on with accessories, and since that photo was taken we've added these chairs (first picture from the ebay seller):
Which don't really go with the rest of the room, but there's no place else for them to live right now. (And I don't blame anyone for thinking they're the ugliest chairs you've ever seen. They're a "love 'em or hate 'em" kind of thing.)
So the question is, what upholstery fabric should I be thinking about for the settee? I don't want to use velvet because the couch above is already velvet. A stripe is probably out since the ottoman is striped. And the rug has a reasonably large-scale pattern so if I went with another print, it would have to be small-scale, which sounds boring.
Would solid black be okay, and if so, what type of fabric if not velvet/mohair or that type of thing?
The other two sofas that need recovering, well, that's another story for another time.
I'll attempt to update this with a picture of the actual settee soon.
I think a tone on tone pattern would be nice... like a quilted black fabric or a black chenille that has some texture/pattern to it, like even a tonal stripe texture. Hope I'm making sense. I say make a trip to the fabric store and see what jumps out at you. Oh, and I think black would be very nice.
I'd like to see actual pics of the sofa before I give a suggestion, but some thoughts are to upholster it in two fabrics. Perhaps a deep dark gold on the back and cinnabar in the front.
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Hi, Suasoria! I remember the chairs, personally loved them! I thought to upholster in either chenille in that blue tone that's on the tip of those chairs' handles ( some kind of a cat?) or a jacquard in the same blue tone, it'll stand out in color & work with other colors that you have, also the chairs will work with it... Will you reupholster or would you like to paint the wood part? Then you can go for either black or chocolate brown ( im still for jacquard) with Chineese red glossy wood trim.
I have updated with two views of the lovesesat. It's currently got a dusty blue-green mohair(ish) upholstery. The color doesn't look bad in the picture, but it doesn't work well in the room - trust me.
Because of its age I don't want to refinish it, although painting it gold or red would be cool.
Tonal stripe or tone-on-tone jacquard is a nice idea. That's got interest but it's still subdued, and wouldn't clash with the striped ottoman.
Blue won't work with the rest of the room - and I don't know if those chairs will stay there, or if they'll move elsewhere, so I don't need to work them in just yet.
I have trouble picturing gold with the lime green couch that's already there, although the rug has a lot of gold in it and it seems to work.
Hi! I'm thinking...maybe guilding that wooden frame might look very grand, however, that will turn the satee into a Louis XIV piece...which is not bad at all, but if you paint it a bright glossy color, red for example, that's interesting...or bright sunflower yellow ( will work with lime, citron, salmon & the rest of the chef's kitchen) with black jacquard...Maybe you can decide on the new wall color first, unless you're arelady decided & we don't know :) If you leave it as is ( it's a really nice piece), then maybe something in lavender/purple or pale yellow ( yeah, I know it comes from me...yellow...) family to work with those limes, salmon & black.
I like the jacquard idea, but if this were my room, I would probably do a red/gold striped silk for the sofa and get a different ottoman. Also, I know you don't want velvet but if it was an option, I would do red, gold or black velvet. I know those probably weren't very helpful options :( but it is what I feel would look best. The antique sofa is beautiful (!) as is the rest of your room.
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