Feeling Crafty Today – SPRUCE – a review

I have a piece of furniture that needs to be reupholstered or thrown out. It should be thrown out. It is not worth the price it would cost me to have it reupholstered. But throwing it out is a problem. Then again so is having it taken to an upholsterer.  Well, not so much a problem as a very big job.  After all the rooms in the new digs were decorated and the furniture in place, I lined a hallway with several sets of barrister cases and filled them with books. To remove a piece of furniture would involve taking out hundreds of books and taking apart the barrister cases and moving them.

Why did I ever put that couch in there you may ask? It looked great at the time. A tiny slit in each cushion from times my son flopped on it in his motorcycle boots back in the old house where it was in a room that we virtually never used. The problem is, the couch is from the sixties. I got it from a house I sold. It was in one of those living rooms that the owners never used – it was just for show. So I figured the couch was just like new. Nope. The fabric is like tissue. It is just not standing up to everyday use. Those two little slits are now massive tears. And the foam is disintegrating.

I’m crafty. I can sew. I can make patterns for clothes from my own designs. I could reupholster the couch myself. Tried it once thirty years ago. Of course, I didn’t get a book on the subject and there was no internet to look up directions. I just barreled ahead. DISASTER.

But as luck would have it, a publisher was looking for reviewers to review a book about doing your own upholstering!!!

SPRUCE by Amanda Brown

Storey Publishing, LLC

Release Date Oct 3 2013

ISBN9781612121376 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In 2007, Amanda Brown began Spruce, a custom upholstery shop and design studio in Austin, TX. With an education in Architecture and Art History and professional upholstery training, she has combined design and upholstery to create a fresh aesthetic for interiors receiving acclaim from publications such as The New York Times, Metropolitan Home, Southern Living, Good Housekeeping, and Country Living, to name a few.

As resident upholstery expert on the largest U.S. design blog, Design*Sponge, and author of The Spruce Guide to Upholstery and Design (Storey Publishing, November 2013), Amanda welcomes furniture enthusiasts to share in her knowledge and create a lifetime of picture-perfect spaces through custom upholstery. When she’s not working with clients, upholstering, teaching classes, or working on her next instructional DVD, she can be found beating the Texas heat with an ice cold brewsky, hubby and toy poodle, Pixie, in tow. 

BLURB 

This is the only book you’ll need to learn the craft and art of upholstery from start to finish. With clear instructions illustrated by more than 900 step-by-step photographs, the five projects included here are designed to teach all of the techniques and skills you need to reupholster any piece of furniture to suit your own taste and style.

MY REVIEW

This book is fantastic! From tools, to measuring for fabric, making patterns, webbing, tying coils, tufting, sewing tips, working with leather, ottomans to chairs to couches. This book has it all. A fully comprehensive guide to reupholstering. Simple directions – step by step and loads of pictures showing you every step. Whether this is something you have always wanted to try, or like me, you have to take the leap, this is the book to get. (And trust me, I wouldn’t risk trying this, using this book just because I got it to review – I checked out a lot of other books.) I’m off to Lorraine Fabrics in Pawtucket because they have everything needed supply wise. And I’ll be taking pictures all throughout the project and one day I’ll blog about the whole process and show you the before, after and all the steps in-between. You can pre-order the book now.  This book definitely gets ♥♥♥♥♥