Antique Settee: From Curb to Wedding

See how a curbside trash antique settee find gets refreshed for the perfect wedding couple seating. Trash to treasure DIY.

Sometimes curbside finds can turn out to be just what you imagined. But they usually need a little work. Okay…they usually need quite a bit of work to be used as you would like. This is the Cinderella story of a forlorn antique button tufted settee sitting out in the rain. How I revived an Antique Settee: From Curb to Wedding.

Antique Settee: From Curb to Wedding

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A Curbside Find

Last spring as I was curbside junking, I came across this lovely green velvet button tufted antique settee. It had beautiful details, but had obviously been unloved for quite a while. Remnants of critters were seen and some of the fabric was stained and tattered.

With my daughter’s upcoming wedding, I quickly sent her a pic and said, “wedding?” She responded immediately with a “yes”! Luckily, I still had room, and a few friendly neighbors helped me lift it into my car.

Follow along on my curbside junking adventures on my IG, HERE.

See all the vintage finds I came home with last Spring, in “Recent Vintage Thrifted Finds (and my plans for them)”.

Refreshing the Antique Settee

I procrastinated working on this settee all summer, because we had plenty of other wedding projects to do. It was going to be a if-I-still-have-time kind of a project. But I knew my daughter was dreaming of sitting in a velvet tufted green settee at the head table with her groom;)

The thing is…I really do not know how to do upholstery. This would be a learn-as-I-go kind of project. I wanted to preserve as much as I could of the original, but wanted it to feel cleaned up enough for the bride and groom to sit on. When you get something for free, what do you have to lose?

Deconstructing Furniture

With a basic upholstery set, a scissors, a pliers and a cardboard box for garbage, I started on the outside of an arm. I wanted the back to have the look of deconstructed furniture, with a clean look. The fabric was very stained in the back, too.

Find basic upholstery tools HERE.

The gimp came off easily because it was falling off already. But taking out the million little tacks was a challenge to my patience. The fabric and cording ripped off easily with the help of a pliers to save my hands. I pulled off the stuffing and this was the mess I saw underneath.

Where should I even begin? I just kept removing pieces I thought could go away without disrupting the basic construction of the tufting and the velvet on the arms and back. I liked the neutral look of the muslin in the wood frame, and planned on covering holes, etc. with green gimp.

Getting the Deconstructed Look

It was looking more like I was picturing for the wedding. I kept removing the velvet, the gimp and meticulously taking out the millions of little tacks.

What To Do With The Seat

I had originally thought I could save the seat fabric, but as I worked on it, I knew the velvet was shot. It ripped easily off, revealing a neutral cream cotton liner underneath.

At this point, I was feeling pretty good about the look. I’d removed all the gross layers and millions of tacks and had the look of deconstructed furniture.

Reviving the Antique Wood Frame and Cleaning Upholstery

Next up was to revive the pretty antique wood frame. I sanded it all over with 120 grit sandpaper, smoothing out the rough edges.

Next, I cleaned the upholstery with THIS handy device. The water was very dirty, so I knew I was getting years of grime out of the fabric. I couldn’t quite eliminate a stain on the seating fabric, but it improved. The velvet turned out looking more like crushed velvet after washing, but I kind of liked the look, and it disguised any stains better.

Lastly, I wiped THIS all over the wood frame, which restored it beautifully.

Adding Finishing Touches to the Antique Settee

With about a week until the wedding, I brought the settee inside to add the finishing details.

First, I glued green gimp all around the edges where the tack holes were. It’s amazing how much more finished a piece looks when you add gimp over all those rough fabric edges. I used THIS glue. The brighter green gimp also brightened the whole thing.

I ran out of gimp for the backside, and needed to be done with this project. But I wanted it to at least not look totally undone from the back. The tufts of stuffing from the button tufts looked weird. I decided to disguise them with vintage buttons. I simply hot glued buttons onto each of the tufts. It was kind of a fun look.

You can see the stain that was left on the seat fabric. But the bride and I decided it wouldn’t be seen with the newlyweds sitting there anyway.

The back of the settee is still waiting to get green gimp to finish it off, but unfortunately I need to locate more of the matching color.

All in all, this curbside find looked pretty good for it’s wedding reception debut! It was a project that involved patience and courage, but that’s what it takes when you work on something you’ve never done before!

See “A Garden Party Wedding with Vintage Style” here.

Another tip for using vintage seating, pulled up to a modern table. Use risers like THESE so they’re not sitting too low. They come in several different heights.

Hope you enjoyed this trash to treasure curbside find refresh! Sometimes you just need to try new things and put one foot in front of the other with these old finds. Anything to save them from being sent to the landfill!

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