By: Dominica Morris

When we first moved into our new home a few months ago, we wanted to make it a fresh start. This included buying all new furniture for each of the rooms. I was in particular excited to redo our living room and get rid of our old couch. The couch we had was my husbands from when he was in college so I was ready to get rid of it, but then Covid happened and we didn’t get a chance to go furniture shopping like we wanted to. So we lugged all of our old furniture pieces all the way from Atlanta to the coast of Mississippi. To say we were disappointed was an understatement, but then we got creative. Not knowing how long quarantine and social distancing was going to last I knew that I still wanted our new home to look nice and to feel like we were starting anew, so with some ingenuity and elbow grease I decided to breathe some life into our old furniture. And I will say that it worked out wonderfully.

The Couch

Caleb had bought our sectional years ago at Crate & Barrel when he was in undergrad. Two dogs and a few moves later this couch had seen some better days. The cushions had started to sink in, and the design of it made it extremely uncomfortable to sit on. For one it had very short 1 to 2 inch legs, which made it sit very low to the ground. This made it difficult for us to sit on without feeling like we were dropping all the way down to the floor. Getting up from it was even more difficult. Especially for our older parents. Besides that the fabric started to pill. Since we couldn’t go couch shopping I decided to see if I could redo it. My first thought was to see if I could reupholster it myself. After a long Google search I realized that that was an unrealistic expectation, so I deiced to see if I could do some minor cosmetic changes to it. I first decided to shave the pile on the couch. This took me a good 2 days to do, with me working on it on and off.

My next task was to add new legs. I found some couch legs on Amazon for $65.00 and hoped that they would fit. Luckily for me they did and wow, was I surprised how much more comfortable the couch had become. Next I bought a steam cleaner since none of the hardware stores were doing rentals, again due to Covid. I was able to find an inexpensive one on Amazon for under $50.00 and hoped again that it would work. Almost immediately I could tell a major difference in the look and feel of the couch. The fabric was softer and the color had completely changed. It also looked so much cleaner. I bought a steamer, legs, and fabric shaver for under $100. Much cheaper than the $2,500 couch we were looking at. It took me about 2 days to add the legs, get the whole entire couch shaved, and steamed, but what a difference it made.

Items used for the couch

The TV Stand

The TV stand was also an item we didn’t want to take with us. We were ready to donate it to Goodwill but again, going furniture shopping was not in the books for us. So, we decided to repaint it. Our goal with our living room was to give it a beachy/boho and relaxed vibe. The TV stand we had was everything but that. My husband had gotten it from a furniture consignment store while he was in college several years ago, it was bright red and while it was of good quality and in excellent shape, it just wasn’t our style. Repainting it was easy once we realized that we could spray paint it. We decided to go with Montana spray paints since they have a large assortment of colors and are some of the best spray paints on the market to date. After narrowing it down to a few colors we decided to go with their Trout color, which is a beautiful light blue with grey undertones.

We had to first sand down the TV stand to spray the first layer of paint on it, which wasn’t too difficult. From there we sprayed two coats of paint onto it. We finished it off with an acrylic spray to prevent the paint from chipping in the future. Because we used spray paint we let the TV stand air out outside for a while to get rid of some of the fumes and smell.

After about three hours we took it inside and I have to say I’m really impressed and really love how it came out. Originally we were going to change out the drawer handles but once we painted it we didn’t think it was necessary anymore. The color is even more beautiful in person, and it really gives our living room that beachy/boho vibe we were looking for.

For the Walls

One of the first things you see when you walk into our home is our couch and the wall behind it. So it was important for us to have a picture or some kind of artwork behind it that really catches the eye without being too bold. After looking for months we finally found the perfect picture but it just didn’t fill the whole entire space behind the wall. Then it hit me. Caleb had been practicing playing the guitar with Carter as a fun little game that they both could bond over. The guitar itself was something that was gifted to him years ago, by someone who found it for $20.00 at a Goodwill. I decided we could hang it on the wall next to the picture. Not only would it fill in the empty space but it would make it easy for Caleb to grab when he wants to play it with Carter, while at the same time it is decorative. The best part is that if Carter breaks it somehow it’s not one of Caleb’s more expensive guitars. So far it’s still holding up and we get a lot of compliments for it.

What I’ve Learned From All Of This

2020 has been full of lessons, and moving and furnishing our home has been full of them as well. Working on making our home comfortable and nice during this time has taught me to let go of having everything be perfect. With us having a baby who’s now a toddler we wanted our home to be nice but also functional for family life. Reusing and refurbishing our old furniture does just that. When Carter spills his milk all over the couch I don’t freak out, because I know that it is old. Had I bought the $2,500 one I would be stressed all of the time trying to keep it pristine. The worry and anxiety would’ve taken my mind away from what’s most important, spending quality time with my son. Having an old guitar on the wall that Caleb can take down to play with Carter has increased their bonding time as well, and because the guitar is old Caleb’s perfectly fine with Carter exploring it, even if it’s just him banging it against the wall. 2020 truly has also taught me that you don’t have to purge the old to make a fresh start, sometimes you just have to appreciate what you’ve got and show it a little bit of love.

Shopping Links

Couch Legs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K1SLZ6V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cost: $18.99

Fabric Shaver

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KIUX30G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cost: $19.99

Steamer

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XHXFHWG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cost: $39.99

Montana Spray Paint

https://www.dickblick.com/products/montana-black-spray-paints/

Cost: $7.65

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