The Sofa of Genius

We had a tear in our 6 year old, very well used, quite loved leather sofa. TRADGEDY! We also have no money to replace it unless my husband goes out and works himself to death doing overtime for at least three months.
I was all for getting credit etc, but he didnt want the added burden of more financial hassle. I do see his point, and agreed that we should hold off buying a new one for a while; but only if he could come up with a way to fix the sofa.

On the three seater, the tear was between two of the fixed seat cushions, and was very noticable when one sat one's massive butt on the sofa. also, things kept falling into the gap only to be lost forever in the base of the sofa. here's the three seater, circa 2009

the two seater, at this time, was in our kitchen.

here it is, yesterday, in my livingroom

Back to 2011... So, my husband; an engineer by career but a designer by training, set to work trying o work out what to do.

We had a matching two seater and three seater set bought in 2005 when we moved into our first flat. they were cheap. they were badly constructed and within the first year he'd had to fix them.

bodge repair circe 2006 lol

ok. here's some pictures of the process....

jim unbolting an arm form the three seater, after having taken off the base part

the scariest bit was this, then he had to cut the broken piece off the end of the three seater. basically, it was torn so we'd not lost anything if it went horribly wrong at this stage.

Sophie was used as extra ballast. and for cute appeal.

once he'd done this, I could mend the tear as best I could. it'd later be hidden by the arm of the sofa being bolted back on, but i needed to be mended so that the leather which was folded under and stapled had enough strength. one big needle, one pair of pliers, ten hurty lady fingers lol

ummmm... this bolt? or this one?

ooooh! coming together...

under the back, right hand, corner bit is a box made from scrap wood which supports the cushion of that particular bit of the three-seat side. It's not there for security, just cosmetics. it will eventually be used for storing the laptop when not in use I think.

nearly finished!

the corner part was made from the non-torn portion of the torn cushion, and is supported with scrap wood and green elastic strapping from the deconstruction of the three seat. The padding is made from our daughter's old cot-bed mattress lol. woot! recycling!

enter a large lady in a onesie to upload pictures of the new sofa, and to test out the corner. mwaaaaaaa!

tomorrow: burgundy boot polish + two brushes + chamois = new looking leather.