Fainting Sofa Project (part 2)

(See part 1 here)

Well, I've been continuing work on the Victorian fainting sofa. I originally had thought this stage of the process would involve some meditative pulling of staples. Something like this:

In reality, it was more like this:

Yeah....Stripping off the old material proved to be much more challenging than I initially thought. Whoever did it last used a really, really good staple gun. Those suckers are really stuck in there! They are actually below the surface of the wood, which makes the staple removing tool I bought pretty much useless. I ended up just ripping the fabric up to help loosen the staples, which could then be removed by a pair of pliers (I found needle nose pliers to be more effective than flat-nosed). 

After removing the back and bottom fabric, I realized there was no way to get the front fabric unattached without physically removing the back of the chaise. That was a lot more work than I expected! I didn't want to risk stripping the screw heads, so I ended up dismantling with a regular screwdriver (rather than an electric one). Once again, whoever put those screws in did a very, very good job. My hands still hurt!

Now that the fabric is off, the wood appears to be pine and has had some repairs done over the years. You can see at one point the back snapped and had to be braced:

I found some small specks leftover from a previous paint job. It appears the chaise was at one time an antique green colour. I'm starting to suspect it may have always been painted, and the last owners painted it brown to make it more "wood-like" in appearance. Based on this new information, I've decided to just repaint it, rather than trying to strip and stain it.

There are also holes along the back that make me suspect that the back was originally tufted. I may in the future re-tuft it, but since the current foam is still in good condition, I'm going to leave it as-is for now.

I am enjoying this project immensely! I didn't think it would be so much fun. The fact it is a lower quality piece makes it a more relaxed process, and because it has already been altered means I don't need to worry about protecting the original finishes. I've already bought the fabric to re-do it, although I may not have quite enough. I under-estimated the fabric a bit to try and save on costs. The sections are small enough that if I run out, I can just buy bit more to do the remaining sections without having a lot of fabric wasted.

Now that I am ready to take it outside to sand it (before painting), the rain has been pouring down. Between the weather and my sores hands, the refinishing is taking longer than expected to complete. It's my birthday in a week, so I'm hoping to get it done before then but it will depend a lot on the weather.

That's All.