Sprucette Stories

Category Archives: Upholstery Videos

Before and Afters!

By Clar | Published April 10, 2012

I bring to you another round of stunning, amazing, fresh before and afters!

Our first makeover had awesome and singular bones to start with. A pair of Mid-Century/Danish wing chairs with some awesome shapes were dated with an 80s floral woven fabric throughout. See below:

And look at them now!

Updated and referential to their place in time. Done up in a multi-color floral jacquard supplied by our customer, and the outsides adorned with a lofty wide-wale pistachio corduroy. Outstanding!

We had a round of blue velvet this month. Here’s a before with huge potential.

A two-piece sectional in need. And then the reveal!

This sectional is fit for a party! Miles of style in a slick shiny Kravet blue velvet. And another blue dream happened next! Here’s the before:

A near match after! Same color, different texture in a Duralee velvety-chenille. Cool in the pool! This is about the longest, heaviest, most stylish sleeper sofa I’ve ever met. Witness its glory!

Last in blue velvet was a from-scratch fabrication. A blue velvet headboard with bright white velvet piping. The client had a bedskirt made to match! Awesome! (Velvets are Duralee.)

We re-upholstered an Eames style lounger and ottoman that was in sorry shape.

The customer chose a cool green leather for the redesign.

Finally a neat update for an aged traditional camel back sofa. There she is below:

This piece got a new lease on life with a gray and white print from Maxwell (“Interchange” in color Pearl.)

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Spruce New Class Dates Available!

By meredith | Published February 22, 2012

Hi Everyone! We are hope you are having a great week We have now been able to nail down the new dates for April through August of 2012. There will be lots of variety for everyone and we will be offering one to two classes a month . Here is a quick list of what we will be offering.

April 27-28th: BYOC Class
May 4th: Bench Class
May 18-19th: BYOC Class
June 15th: Bench Class
July 12-13th: BYOC Class
July 20-21st: Headboard Class
August 10th: Lampshade Class

Check out the link below for the new dates and even register online!

http://spruceaustin.com/shop/classes

We hope to see you in our classes and hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

The Sprucettes

Do It Yourself…With the Help of Spruce!

By Katherine | Published May 26, 2011

I’ve always considered myself to be a do it yourself-er. I find little to be more gratifying than being able to say, “Yep. I did that myself.” I was super eager when Amanda asked me to be the proverbial guinea pig and test out the new DVD. I was perfectly qualified for this task in the sense that I have zero experience in upholstery, besides stripping furniture. The rules were simple; upholster a wrap around chair without asking Amanda, Clar, or Frank for any help. I had to pretend that I didn’t have expert upholsterers within arm’s reach of me and rely solely on the DVD. Simple enough, right?

I brought an old run down desk chair from home (Louisiana) that my sister acquired for free when purchasing an antique desk. The chair was in rough shape. White paint splattered on the wood, ripped upholstery, and just overall a little run down. Despite its flaws, I’ve always thought it had such potential. I love the dark stain, the beautiful grain of the wood, the unique curved back, and its charming brass tips.

Some of you may think that my critique of this DVD might be a little biased, seeing as I work for the person who created the video. Rest assured that the DVD is so incredibly good, I don’t even have to lie about it. Really, it’s true!

Let’s Begin.

The DVD begins, and I am instantly inspired and enthused from the montage of Amanda reupholstering various pieces. One of my favorite aspects about this DVD is the “Getting Started” option on the title menu. I love how clear it is about what tools you need and the little definitions it gives you. Seriously, it’s such a simple concept, but I feel like it is so useful to people who have never seen most of these tools before. So far, this DVD is a HUGE upgrade to the other outdated and dull options out there.

My chair didn’t fit entirely into one category of “wrap around and picture back” or “tight seat and tight back”. The seat of my chair was a wrap around seat and the back was more of a tight back. I was happy that my chair wasn’t exactly like either of the examples because it forced me to really apply what I learned. To make this experiment more authentic, I brought all the tools home to my little apartment. I watched the “Redesign 1” section once all the way through and then began on my seat. I’ll admit that I was a little cocky and thought to myself, “Do I really need a DVD to tell me how to do a simple seat?” Well, I did. Even though the difficulty level was low for this wrap around seat, I was quite impressed with how many really clever tips I learned that I never knew about before, such as sub stapling, pleating corners and curves, and sewing welt cord.

The back of my chair was a little tricky because only the inside back needed to be upholstered. I used some of the information from the “Redesign 2” section to help me tackle the inside back. This DVD is so efficient with very clearly explaining and demonstrating how to correctly perform each instruction that I dare to find someone who couldn’t complete one of these chairs. The journal that comes with the DVD has a section devoted to showing the other types of furniture that one should be able to complete applying the skills that they learned from this specific DVD…brilliant.

So, I say to you, if you have ever had the desire to reupholster something but feared that you would not be able to execute it properly….well, fear no more. Get this DVD and let your inner Sprucette (or Sprucer) shine!

Upholstery Video #1 is Complete!

By amanda | Published May 24, 2011

As many of you know, I teamed up with Chris Hatcher (who produced our TV Pilot) at the beginning of the year to begin work on Spruce’s first upholstery DVD. For years, we’ve been fielding calls from people all over the world looking for ways and places to learn how to upholster. Well, we listened, and the solution we came up with was for Spruce to come to you! Take a look:

Every video comes with a downloadable journal I put together to help guide you through the steps, and I’ve even set up a new section on the website, “DVD and DIY“, for upholstery enthusiasts to find tool kits and a forum where one can log in and discuss upholstery techniques and ask questions.

There are some people, I’d like to credit for their hard work:

Chris Hatcher, my talented partner in crime. Thank you for hundreds of hours spent producing, editing and perfecting this video! I’m amazed!

Dean Schanbaum, First Take Media Director. Thank you for all of your hard work, including managing the transportation and operation of truckloads of camera equipment, turning our shop into a filming studio, and having the patience to watch me do upholstery for dozens of hours.

Gerren Lamson, cover designer. What a wonderful case you created. It’s exactly what we hoped it would be!

Mel Ferro Cole, photographer. I am delighted with the photography, and thank you for creating such a flattering image of me and Spruce!

“Thank you!” to all of you who ordered your copies early. They’re on their way!

Stay tuned for a review of the video later this week by our very own, Katherine Baronet!

Click HERE to order your copy!

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West Elm Event!

By meredith | Published March 8, 2011

If you didn’t get a chance to come to the Etsy “WE Heart Hand Made Art” event down at West Elm, you missed out! We had such a great time with tons of fabulous Etsy vendors from all over Austin. We loaded up Chair-iot with as much stuff as she could hold and headed downtown! West Elm gave each Etsy vendor an adorable area of the store and let us merchandise it with all our goodies. We brought furniture as well as our fun lamp and pillow collections.

Also, we had the almost-complete Instructional DVD running! So many of you and others came over and took a peek at what it will be like to learn upholstery from Amanda. We had such an amazing time! The West Elm staff was so wonderful, the atmosphere was hoppin’ with music, and all the Etsy vendors were delightful. Thanks to Casey, we have a few more photos than just those that we took to show you; what a great success this was! We love how West Elm, a very large retailer, has embraced local artists and craftspeople. Thanks West Elm for including us!