Upholstering a French settee with grain sack scraps!
I recently made a few changes in the little breakfast room area off of the kitchen. One of those changes included a little french settee that I’ve had in storage. I bought it a couple of years ago at an estate sale and loved the size and details to the wood frame.
What I didn’t love was the upholstery and knew that at some point I would change it.
The French settee is a reproduction, not an antique, probably from the ’70’s or ’80’s, and it was upholstered in a fabric that was meant to resemble tapestry.
It was in wonderful condition, but I definitely wanted to put my spin on it which, for those of you that know me, usually includes antique European grain sacks.
When I started pulling out my grain sack stash, I realized that I didn’t have enough to do a complete upholstery job. I had a couple of larger pieces and a lot of scraps. Antique grain sacks are a little pricey, so when I cut one up for a project, I always save the leftover scraps. I hate to throw them away, and I’m always hoping that I can use them for something.
This was all taking place right before we had photographers coming to photograph our home so I was feeling a little “under the gun” to get this done. Not having enough grain sacks to accomplish the project was not what I had planned, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to solve this problem
I had recently seen a chair upholstered in a patchwork design using different fabrics and decided that I could probably do the same thing using my grain sack scraps {say that three times real fast!}, so I gathered them all up and decided I would figure out a way to make them work.
Before I worked on the upholstery though, I wanted to give the wood a whitewashed look to highlight some of the great carved details, so I mixed up a thin wash of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White, painted the frame, and then wiped off the excess with a damp cloth, leaving the white paint down in the crevices of the carved details. Once it was dry, I took a little bit of gilding wax and rubbed it on some of the carvings.
The above photo shows what it looked like before I started wiping the paint off.
Below is the final look, leaving the paint only down in the crevices and with a little bit of gilding on the edges of the details. This technique gives the wood a distressed look without any sanding.
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Next up was the upholstery. Now I have to tell you, I was in a hurry to get this done, and I really didn’t have the time to take out 10,000 {exaggeration} tacks and staples that was holding the old upholstery on.
Soooooo…..I decided to take a little shortcut…….I glued the grain sack scraps over the top of the old upholstery, using a hot glue gun.
{I prefer Gorilla Glue Gun and Glue Sticks in the full size.}
The old upholstery was going to be removed anyway, so I wasn’t ruining anything.
And, actually, it worked like a charm! I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before!
I just took each scrap, placed it on the settee to see where I liked it, folded the raw edges under, and glued it onto the old fabric.
I made sure to glue it right under the existing nailhead trim. I used old burlap sacks on the back, as well as under the cushion.
I had two complete grain sacks that I didn’t want to cut up, and one of them fit perfectly over the top of the seat cushion, and I placed a king size pillow into the other one and placed it on the back of the settee.
Instead of it taking me several days to complete, I was able to do this in just a couple of hours. And I have to say, that I love the look!
I placed the settee at the back of the farm table in the breakfast room. We had already sanded the layers of poly off of the old oak farm table and had given it a silvery gray wash with thinned down chalk paint.
I also recently painted the wood frames of the cane back french chairs with MMS milk paint in Ironstone, letting them naturally flake and chip, before I sealed them.
I left the original velvet seat covers on the chairs and left the caning in the natural wood color for a bit of contrast.
I love the lighter look and the settee fits perfectly into the curved bank of windows in the breakfast room.
We also, finally, replaced the old wood door that goes out to the patio, with a new, full glass french door, bringing in even more light to this area.
I think I’m also going to hang some curtain panels on the windows, {as soon as I decide what pattern/color I want}, not to hide the view, but to highlight it.
So there you have it, the latest changes in the breakfast room!
Now that the holidays are over, we have started back on the renovation of the foyer. I have been removing the wallpaper, and thankfully it is coming down relatively easy, unlike the other rooms we’ve done.
We finally got all of the old carpet and the nasty rubber backing off of all the steps. What a mess that was, it had literally “melted” into the wood.
Hubby has been a trouper, taking on most of the work in getting that black mess off of the steps. It was slow going, using a flat edge scraper and acetone, going very slowly, one layer at a time until he got down to the wood.
And we are slowly working on removing the old green tile. So progress is being made!
If you loved our “quick and easy” way that we upholstered our little french settee, be sure and pin it!
Cheers,
Cindy
Update: I owned this precious settee for four years before selling it. During that time, the upholstery stayed intact and I didn’t have any issues with the upholstery coming loose, and we used it almost daily in our breakfast room. The great thing is, even if something had come loose, it was an easy fix with the glue gun!
I love your style! Thank you for the suggestion to piece and patch with a glue gun. I have been scouring Facebook Marketplace and the consignment shops here where I live looking for some fab French chairs. The upholstery on everything I’ve looked at is not my style, so I kept saying in my mind, “I bet Cindy has reupholstered something with a glue gun”…which I can handle. I cannot sew to save my life You have made me empowered to believe I can actually do it myself!! Thanks for this great post!!
You can do it, Beth!! ❤️
Hi, I have an old settee that I would like to upholster and I would like to know, how is the fabric holding up, almost a year later? Because I like the idea of saving time and gluing the fabric . Thank you very much , and I’m in the lucky situation that I live like 4 hours drive away from Paris so there is plenty vintage linen to be had, but I have no time to shop for it or upholster it extensively, sometimes life is crazy like that, isn’t it ? Greetings from Germany K.H
Hi Karin! The settee is holding up very well! I’ve had zero issues with the fabric coming loose! It looks as beautiful today as it did the day that I did it! I hope this helps!
Love your white painted table and chairs. And the transformation you did with the antique love seat, is done beautifully. I always enjoyed your postings.
Thank you for sharing, the gluing is such a great idea. Thanks.
beautiful
I love the idea of not spending hundreds of hours pulling out upholstery tacks!!!!! What a great idea! Looks fantastic ❤️
Hello! I have been searching websites to find the best way to recover my chair. I don’t have any grain sacks but I suppose any fabric would work. I’m going for a Bohemian look. My question is what do you think about using spray adhesive on the back of the scrap fabric along with the glue gun? I was considering painting the fabric but I like how you did this settee. I would appreciate your feedback. Thanks!
Hi Ann! The spray adhesive would probably work, as well as fabric glue!
Love it! I have a couple pieces I’ve wanted to do but keep postponing it because they look so difficult but I can use a glue gun! Just wondering how they’ve held up?
D’Ann, it has held up great! No issues with them coming off at all!
Wow! What a great use of your leftover grainsack scraps, Cindy! Love it!!! I have a couple of grainsacks in storage that I picked up pretty inexpensively several years ago and have been saving for a future project, then I found a blue one last fall while out at High Point Market. I might make a pillowcase out of it for now, like you did here. Good idea until I find its “final home.” Love how you inset the round brick flooring into the hardwood ~ I’m going to remember that. Yes, definitely pinned to my Drop Cloths and Grainsacks board, DIY Projects {OMGosh… brilliant idea to just hot glue. Done that with gimp but not the whole dropcloth before. :)}, and Crafts to Make boards. Thanks for the inspiration and the settee turned out beautifully!
Barb <3
Wonderful, Barb! Thanks so much for commenting!
Beautiful piece. I love the simplicity of it and you did a get job.
This is so lovely!
And you did a beautiful job..
Thanks for sharing,
Helen H
Thank you Helen!
Oh, Cindy. These are so lovely. I have grown to love grain sack decor by seeing your lovely pieces. Thanks so much for linking up to Friday’s Furniture Fix. Susie
Wow, this is genius! Only you would have thought to GLUE the grain sack pieces to the settee! And what a beautiful settee it is!! You are truly amazing and an amazing talent. Can’t wait to see the drapes and then the foyer!!! What a team you 2 are.
i have an old loveseat that was my grandmothers…i have had it reupholstered twice and well…you know the cost. i have a few old grain sacks so this sounds amazing. i am so on this. fabulous!!!!
Yes, upholstering furniture can get quite expensive! Good luck, it’s so easy to do!
What a great blog you have….not to mention your talent. I only wish you posted twice a day. Keep up the fine work.
Thank you so much Gray!
I want to do the loveseat at my table, how do u find one the right height for seating level for table?
Debra, try to find one that is approximately the same height at the seat, as the height of your dining chairs. This settee was a couple of inches shorter than I wanted, so I added vintage looking casters to the legs to make it taller and that made it perfect!
Cindy, You are AMAZING! Every time I visit your GORGEOUS blog I come away totally inspired!!! I adore the settee and the idea of gluing your upholstery on to the original piece. What an unbelievably smart idea. I love love love the patches on the settee too. Perfection, my friend!
Thank you so much Yvonne!
Hey Cindy! I am always so excited when I see you have up a new post! Your home is so beautiful and inspiring. I absolutely love eveything and your breakfast room is just stunning. You and your husband make an awesome team. How nice for the both of you that you can do something together that you enjoy. Looking forward to the reveal of your foyer! Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us! Adele
Thank you Adele!
Oh, beauty of course. Now must set my sights on a small settee!!! Question, did you clean the upholstery before covering and if so, with what? Thank You !!! Cheryl
Thank you Cheryl! I didn’t clean the original upholstery. The little settee didn’t appear to have hardly any wear to it and no odors. If it had, I would have probably tried cleaning it with good spray foam upholstery cleaner prior to adding the grain sacks.
the entire setting is gorgeous! Love that brick floor. I will now be looking at old pieces of upholstered furniture in a new light. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Thank you Lynn!
Wow just gorgeous! It looks just perfect. I need to pin this!
I sure wish I’d known about chalk paint and your “distressing” technique before I painted my old chair! Now I’ll have to work harder with more steps. Oh well, live and learn, right?
I can’t wait to see the foyer done! Yay to wallpaper coming off easier! Goodness, the stairs sound like a nightmare. It’s going to be stunning, I just know it!
Thank you Cecilia!
Cindy, you bet I pinned it! Can’t wait to give your easy solution a try. I think the burlap bags section are probably my favorite part of the makeover.
Awesome! Thank you so much!
I once made my bedroom window treatments by using hot glue, rubber bands and a staple gun, so I am indeed impressed by your gutsy use of hot glue! Adorable!
Thank you Leslie Anne!
Ummm…that’s perfection. The bay window was made for that settee. The chippy Ironstone looks perfect. The table looks like it calls to you to enjoy another cup.
You know what I am super excited about? The door in your foyer. What a fantastic vintage door. I can’t wait to see that space come together. So inspiring.
Thank you Nancy!
Cindy ~
First Happy New Year, and blessings in 2016 !!
I was just wondering yesterday where have you been?!!?! missed seeing your lovely home and any updates !! I looovveee the settee, she is beauty ! I have been wanting to recover parson chairs and you just have made that so much easier for me:)
I’ve heard people painting over wallpaper (I have been thinking of doing that but alittle nervous) , could you have done that possible in your foyer??
is the brick flooring real bricks?
Have a super Day
Paula
Thank you Paula! Happy New Year to you! Yes, you can paint over wallpaper and we actually did that in our master bedroom renovation. The wallpaper would not come off in that room so we primed and painted over it. However, the paper in the foyer is coming off very easily so I wanted to remove it. Yes, the brick flooring is real bricks original to the house.
Wow!…you certainly found the most wonderful solution to makeover that settee in such a short amount of time with what you had on had…that said…you did an amazing job!…Love, love it and pinning!!
Thank you Shirley!
Love it! What color guilders wax did you use..it looks like gold?
Thank you Vicki! I used Rub N’ Buff in Gold Leaf.
How completely brilliant to glue the grain sack on the sofa! It looks wonderful!
Thank you Jane!
love the settee, but is it practical with just glue, can you sit on it without the grain sack coming loose? I do love the look with the settee in the breakfast room. xxx
Hi Danielle! I guess it depends on what you mean by practical. We’ve used it for a couple of months and so far nothing has come loose. At this point, even it something did, I would just re-glue it. But so far, there have been no issues.
What a clever idea to leave the existing upholstery and just glue the new fabric over it!!!! I might have to try that sometime since removing nails and staples is always such a chore and takes what seems like forever!!! I love the scraps you used to create a patched look too. Your breakfast room is stunning!!!!!
~Des
Thank you so much Des!
Clever girl! It’s true…necessity IS the mother of invention! The changes look great, and I just loooove the way your painting technique ages the frames. Great job. Can’t wait to see what you do with the window treatments.
Thanks Marie!
Genius! I was going to go over the fabric on the new old bergere chair I got but never thought I could just try glueing it on. So Now I am super excited that it could be faster and easier than I dreamed. Your settee is a charming addition with its own special Cindy style. xo
Thank you Amy!
What a beautiful settee and a gorgous room to put it into. The whole set looks really nice and refeshing!
Thank you Mary!
Dear Cindy,
All I can say is that I completely drool every time I open up one of your posts AND you are gifted and talented beyond words!!! WOW!!! Wishing you and your husband a beautiful and blessed New Year renovating your gorgeous Home Sweet Home!!! My hearts beats a little faster every time I see a post from “you!!!” 😉
xo,
Libby
Aw, Libby, thank you! Your kind words mean so much to me! Happy New Year to you!
Cindy first let me wish you a very Happy New Year….I soooo look forward to every new post….
I have ta say you are one talented chicka….lol…..I really loveeeeee the way you transformed your pretty settee you did a great job it looks so pretty in your breakfast area…
And your entry way is coming along nicely can’t wait to see your finish project….it’s going to be gorgeous I just know it, like the rest of your amazing home…you and your hubby make a great team….
Have a great day….
Smiles~
Mari
Thank you sweet Mari! Happy New Year!
Very pretty! Love the brick floor. (Visiting from Blogtalk/Funky Junk FB page)
Thank you so much Victoria!
You amaze me. Love,love,love your blog. Thanks for sharing, the settee is darling and can’t wait to see more of the foyer.
Thank you so much Sue!
Looks fantastic. I’m wondering how the fabric is holding up after sitting on it? Did you glue just the edges or the entire piece of fabric? Your blog is wonderful!
Thank you Lois! We’ve been using it for a couple of months and so far, so good! I glued all the edges, but also randomly ran the glue underneath the entire section of fabric.
This is so gorgeous! I’ve seen items like this in catalogs, but had no idea I could do it on my own. All kinds of ideas are percolating through my head. Thanks for the tutorial and for opening my eyes 🙂
Awesome Donna, thanks for the kind words!
Very nice. Eager to try this on chairs. One question; will the glued upholstery hold up to
use?
Jonelle, this has only been done for a couple of months, but so far, so good! If something does happen to come loose, it would be an easy repair…..with the glue gun!!
Wow! You did an amazing job on the settee! I can’t wait to see how the foyer area will be completed. I get so excited when I see new posts here!
Thank you Sandy!
Not only do you find the BEST items but you do the best job with your redo projects! I love it and will pin soon…
Thank you Janet!!
Cindy, that was genius! You’ll have me looking at old upholstered pieces in a new way now that you’ve shown us an easy way to get a pretty look.
J did a great job with the wood on the stairs…it looks old, but new. Perfectly de-gooed wood. Yes, I made up a word.
Miss you guys!
Judy
Judy, de-gooed is the perfect word for that task! What a mess! We are hoping {fingers crossed} to make it down to the estate sale soon!! Miss seeing you!
Cindy, I love the settee! I recently saw a similar one at a flea market but didn’t buy it because I knew it would be expensive to recover. Seeing yours I now have big regrets. I am sure your foyer will be just as beautiful as the rest of your home.
Thank you Sherry! I know what you mean…I have passed up pieces because I didn’t want to tackle the upholstery job! I wish I had thought of doing this a few years ago!!
Happy New Year Cindy! Beautiful little settee! I love the lines of it – so pretty! So, you didn’t sew anything? Not even the vertical seams in the back? All glue? That’s amazing!! Looks perfect in your nook!!
Celia
Thank you Celia! Nope, not a stitch! Everything is done with the glue gun!
Love the layered look! I have been looking for a settee for my dining room table but haven’t found one I adore yet…but yours looks so wonderful, I am inspired to keep looking! And your foyer is already looking brighter! Can’t wait to see the final outcome.
Thank you Amy!
Beautiful!!! Now to find a cute settee like that 🙂 Love the whole table set up another beautiful job!
Thank you Candy!
Wow! I love finding faster ways to decorate, what a stroke of genius.
Thank you Sarah!
Love the settee, of course, and looking forward to the foyer reveal. Y’all are such hard workers and do a fabulous job. Happy New Year!!
Thank you Kim! Happy New Year!
Hmmm. I never would have thought of doing it that way. Now I am upset at us getting rid of a chair because we didn’t want to remove the 10,000 tacks and staples.
The results are stunning Cindy.
Happy midweek!
Thank you Gee!
I love this look and would love to have it all through my house.
Thank you Betty!
Cindy..you are amazing! What talent my friend!
Thank you sweet Marcia!