Shhhhh! BEST kept home decor secret!

Get ready for your life to change.  I'm not kidding!  My friend Anna sent me an email a week or so ago saying she has been reading the blog and had something to share.  Little did I know it would be earth shattering!

There's no other way to do this then just blurt it out!

THE PRISON DOES REUPHOLSTERY!!!

And no, "The Prison" is not the name of the newest discount fabric store!

The prison as in, drug dealers & robbers!

And you will not believe the prices!

Club Chair $25

Love Seat $35

Sofa $50

CAN YOU EVEN STAND IT!?  HAVE YOU PICKED YOURSELF UP OFF THE FLOOR YET? 

Here's Anna's info on the thrifiness that is Prison Reupholstery! 

She also lives in Richmond but I think this happens nationwide.

As a thrifter myself, I have always cringed at the thought of reupholstering furniture because honestly the word just screams $$$.  I always have wanted to take the plunge and have an old piece reupholstered in a hip and trendy pattern and completely design a room around that ONE piece!  

 A few years ago, we were WAY overdue to have 2 pieces reupholstered.  One was a sofa of my husband's from his first apartment that HE had picked the colors - it was fairly basic but definitely did not fit in with my current taste.  The other....a groovy green velveteen club chair, yes I said velveteen!  This was a chair that was my husband's parent's first piece of furniture when they got married 35 years ago. We had had a slipcover on it for a while, but that was not doing the trick.  I swear part of the nighttime routine was to stuff the slipcover back into the chair to make it look right and it never did.  Only guests were allowed to sit in the chair because I didn't want to have to straighten the slipcover unless ABSOLUTELY necessary!

So, I set out on a mission to find the most inexpensive way to have these 2 pieces recovered.  You'll never believe this, but by word of mouth I found out that they are actually teaching reupholstering classes in prisons....yes that is correct - you, too can have your furniture recovered by inmates!  They do a pretty good job, too!  I ended up finding fabric on ebay for the chair.  The fabric was a pkauffman slubby linen - I think I was able to get about 7 yards for $30!  The other fabric for my sofa came from the Williams and Sherrill Decorating outlet in Richmond and I think in total I spent around $100. 

Here are the pics of my items:



Here are the details of the prison...
Haynesville Correctional Center
421 Barnfield Road
P. O. Box 129
Haynesville, VA 22472
804-333-3577

The only kicker to this fantastic operation...you have to have someone who works for the state of Virginia set up the service.  I used a friend who works in the government offices.  Now's the time to get in good with your teacher friends! :) 

 The prices (I think - unless they've gone up in the past 3 years) are $25 for a club chair $35 loveseat and $50 for a sofa!  The sofa they did for me, I wrote pretty detailed instructions of how I wanted it done and they followed those exactly, contrast cording, etc.  The chair; however I simply sent the fabric and chair and crossed my fingers....who knew inmates were good at "tufting"!  When my husband brought the piece home (oh and you do have to physically take the pieces to them) I was so excited to see that they must have been offering a tufting class that day.  The buttons on the seat back are perfect and make it such a current piece.  Happy Reupholstering and Shhh....we need to keep it a secret, I have many more pieces to be recovered and want them to keep their prices down!

You all can thank Anna for revealing this AMAZING secret by visiting her adorable shop Libbie & Winston where she makes custom onesies, kids shirts, wall art and more!

Okay, so now let's play the "which celebrity screw up would you want tufting your ottoman?"

Lindsey Lohan, Charlie Sheen, or Paris Hilton?

I'm leaving Martha Stewart out of this one because that is just plain unfair ;)

Linking up here!

http://theletteredcottage.net/mouseover-how-to

http://www.thestoriesofa2z.com/

http://www.tipjunkie.com/

http://southernhospitalityblog.com/thrifting-in-port-st-joe/