Updated Heirlooms: How Upholstery Can transform You Family Treasures

I am incredibly sentimental. So this means I tend to hold onto things that belonged to my mother and grandmothers. But I also love their style. They typically chose timeless furnishings and decor when decorating their own homes. You know what I mean — classic furniture silhouettes, decorative accents that stand the test of time (i.e. blue and white ceramics) and art pieces that don’t scream “trendy!” I inherited a lot of great pieces, especially furnishings.

My challenge, though, has been to update them to tie in with my own personal aesthetics and mix them with new items that speak to me. The easiest way I have found to do this is through upholstery. Fabrics can certainly “date” a piece, and they often become threadbare over time. This is the issue that I had with a few specific pieces that I didn’t want to replace with anything new. It’s true what they say — that things are not made like they used to be. Case in point, my mom had 2 gorgeous, antique settees in a yellow jacquard fabric. She also had a set of chairs and an ottoman from the early 90s. I knew the replacement value of such items that were in an updated or better condition would be out of my price range. And anything new that I bought would not be the same quality.

So…time to shop for upholstery fabric! Where I live we just do not have great upholstery fabric sources. But, while on a visit to Nashville for a concert, my bestie and I decided to visit some fabric shops. They have a lot to choose from, and I ended up finding exactly what I wanted at The Fabric House Nashville. And I had Larry Pettis of Pettis Upholstery here in Dothan reupholster them for me. He even crafted custom accent pillows for me!

Here is the Before & After of the Settees…

I chose (with the help of the amazing saleswoman at The Fabric House) an interesting fabric that has flecks of all my formal living rooms colors — dusty pink, yellow, blue and green. From a distance it reads dusty pink, but up close you can see all the different colors!

For the coordinating accent pillows, we selected a blue velvet with a decorative embroidered tape for a lumbar style pillow for each settee. We then found another tweed-like fabric for another set of coordinating pillows and chose to add pink tassels to each corner. Just perfection!

The chairs and ottoman set I mentioned got a more neutral makeover. Originally, the French Provincial chairs were covered in a very 90s plaid. I selected a cream fabric with hints of taupe and silver. I knew I wanted to use them in my den, and I wanted the larger pieces in the room to be neutral so that I could change the decor and throw pillows throughout the seasons. Check out this makeover! Larry remade the lumbar pillows and also made 20”x20” pillows in the same fabric that I put on the sofa. To me, that ties it all together even when I add my seasonal throw pillows.

I am so please with how both sets of furniture turned out, and I cannot wait for my next foray in upholstering heirlooms! It’s such an easy way to update an item, and it’s fairly cost-effective. Find an upholsterer that really knows what they are doing, and talk about your vision. They can usually accommodate any idea you have!

Some photo sources linked here (commissionable link).