SUNBRELLA SLIPCOVERS AND A GREAT VIEW

This sofa is one of the hardest I've ever done. It doesn't look like it, but looks can be deceiving. What made it so hard was the shape of the back cushions, which you can't even see in this picture. Normally, the box on a cushion is the same width all the way around. Not these. The bottom is more like a bolster/wedge and so is much wider. I, thank goodness, took one of the cushions with me because I knew I was going to have trouble. Having it didn't make it any easier, but without it, the covers would never have fit properly. Even the side cushions are a strange shape. You can kind of tell from the picture that they sort of bend.

The back view. My client didn't want a skirt at all. Her real reason for wanting slipcovers is to protect her Roche Bobois furniture from her 10 month old daughter and her nearly 3 year old son. She chose Sunbrella for obvious reasons.

A closer up of the front. Ths sofa slipcover was delivered yesterday, as planned. When I was there installing the covers, a big problem presented itself. In my last post I said what a pain it is to re-do someone's work. Well, it's not a lot better having to re-do your own either.

The chair slipcovers would not go on. I didn't realize they needed zippers. Not the worst thing, but a real hassle. I had to come home yesterday and cut open the back side seam on each slipcover and then, because there is welting on the bottom edge, I had to cut through the welting, too. Putting the zippers in wasn't too bad and I kept wondering why it is I hate zippers in slipcovers until it occurred to me that the reason this was relatively easy was because there was no skirt. It's the skirt that makes it a real pain to have a zipper. In the case of these chairs, though, I wouldn't have done buttons down the back. The condo is way too contemporary and the style of the chairs would have looked dumb. I just wish I had realized they needed to be put in when I did them the first time.

You can't really tell in the picture, but the welting is the fabric from the sofa.

The last part of the job that I did have to finish yesterday was the dining chairs (6).

This is an ultra suede-type fabric, again chosen with the children in mind.

The bar stools look exactly the same as the dining table chairs, except they are smaller. It's a good thing I checked the template I cut for the dining chairs on the stools. Otherwise, I would've been fixing those as well.

My client's mother said she didn't like the 'fullness' of the skirt. I told her it was a flat skirt, there was no fullness at all and you couldn't get it any flatter. Sometimes people should really just have things reupholstered.

And now for the best part of the the whole job - the view from their condo. They live in Mexico City and come to Coronado for a couple of months in the summer. They are on the sixth floor and the view is spectacular! No matter which direction you look!

Looking toward North Island.

Lovely Coronado Island Beach and Point Loma in the distance.