This is basically a photo-dump of a project I’ve been meaning to post about for a while. In October 2020, I bought a used La-Z-Boy reclining loveseat for $75 off Kijiji. The couch was astonishingly ugly (what even were the ’90s??†), but it was a good deal and pretty comfortable. I covered it with a blanket and, later, with an approximately-fitting tie-on cover, but always had the idea of re-upholstering it properly in the back of my mind, since both covers looked pretty bad.

In July 2021 I had some time off work, so I eyeballed the surface area of the couch and bought 10 yards of heavy fabric (at $20/yd!) and a staple gun. I had intended to remove the existing covering and just kind of drape and staple the new fabric to the frame, but I quickly realized that that lazy approach would not produce a quality result. I borrowed a sewing machine from a neighbour and began what would turn into a 14-day effort to restore the loveseat (nearly full-time the first week and in the evenings after work the second).

†Interestingly, according to the tag, the couch was manufactured in October 1999 in Waterloo, ON, about a kilometre from where I was living at the time I bought it. La-Z-Boy shut down its Canadian manufaturing operations in 2005.

1) The original couch. What were they thinking? What was I thinking?
2) Much improved.
3) More convenient, but a step back aesthetically.
4) Basically a brand new couch. 🎉
The disassembly begins.
A look at the loveseat's skeleton.
I labelled all the pieces and took a lot of pictures like this one to record how they fit together.
The fabric for one seat back laid out for tracing.
Starting to cut.
The sewing begins.
Some fancy pinwork.
The resulting pleats.
Having a second seat back to compare to while sewing was very helpful for supplementing the pictures of the one I took apart.
Stuffing the new seat back.
One down.
Two cardboard and fabric flaps cover the space between the seat and the floor at the back of the couch.
I spent about 10 minutes hand-stitching new fabric to the cardboard before giving up and hot-gluing it.
A bit of a mess...
Trying to straighten out a bent footrest support.
The seat cushion and footrest (note: spring support).
Armrest.
I washed some of the foam to freshen it up a bit.
Unassisted, upholstery foam takes a very long time to dry (don't try this at home?).
The upholstery fabric is held to the frame by a lot of staples.
Starting to come together.
I raised the couch onto two tall chairs to be able to work on attaching the seats and footrests from underneath. (Image distortion from bad panorama stitching.)
Ta-da!