How to Save a Sofa (with a Rustic Touch)

It was the talk of the dinner party: how could she save this sofa?

My client Suzanne had a beautiful old red settee which had belonged to her grandmother. Unfortunately the legs were falling off, and she was afraid to let anyone sit on it. She couldn't let it go, but she couldn't use it. What to do?

She was talking it over with her dinner guests one evening when suddenly the idea popped into her head: why not replace the legs completely? Then she remembered the Rustic Industrial Hutch which I recently built for her, and the inspiration was complete.

We had a great time working on this project together, and since Suzanne was there to help me out, I got lots of pictures. Here's how we did it.

We started by flipping the sofa over and cutting off the legs. I just used a simple Sawz-All for this step.

I was very careful not to cut into the fabric, since Suzanne didn't want to have to reupholster the settee.

The cut was flush with the bottom of the settee. This step was quick and easy.

The next step was to cut a set of plywood gussets and screw them to the corners on the bottom of the sofa. These would serve as sturdy attachment points for the new legs.

Here's a photo showing a gusset attached, along with the upper flange of the new leg so you can see how it will all connect. As you can see, I painted the edges of the new plywood corners with dark gray paint so they would blend in.

Each leg is made from plumbing parts: two flanges and a pre-threaded length of blackpipe. I bought these pieces as-is from the local hardware store and simply twisted the flanges onto the pipe.

We also added felt pads to the bottoms so the legs wouldn't scratch the floor.

This was a very rewarding project for such a minimal investment of hardware.

If you've got a simple furniture repair that can be done onsite, I'll be glad to discuss it with you. Give me a call today to get started.

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