wash that thrift store smell right out of your chair (giant jeans parlor!)

The chair.

My living room is big for a one-bedroom apartment, but somewhat narrow and dominated by Rob's two favorite possessions: a giant flat screen TV and a giant brown leather sofa. Moving or losing either one of those items is out of the question, so when the time came to look for more seating for the living room, I was kind of at a loss. The giant sofa's giant arms left no room for a regular love seat and I hoped for more than a couple of narrow chairs. Luckily a midweek trip to St. Vincent's thrift store yielded two comfy armless chairs that I was able to bargain down to just $20 each.

They were perfect. And looked great. And were each big enough to fit two (skinny or okay-with-being-cozy) people. The only problem? They were really dusty and smelled like thrift store, ugh. So I did a little research, whipped up a little detergent foam and watched a little reality TV one afternoon and a couple hours later had two sparkling clean chairs.

Whipping laundry detergent is oddly satisfying.

Before I tell you what I did -- a note about upholstery. The fabric on these chairs is anything but luxurious, which is why I went ahead with the cleaning process without spot-checking to make sure it wouldn't do anything weird. If you are cleaning upholstery you are fond of, test a small patch before proceeding with the whole furniture piece.

My assistant, whether I like it or not.

Once you're ready to go, mix 1/4 cup laundry detergent with about 2 cups of water in a large non-plastic bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the mixture on low until the bowl is full of dry, fluffy foam. Lift the foam from the bowl with a metal spoon (plastic or wood will absorb the detergent scent) and apply to the upholstery. Rub the foam in gently with a clean rag. Repeat over the entire furniture piece, rewhipping the detergent mixture to get more foam as needed. Empty the bowl and fill it with clean water. Dip a clean rag in the water, squeeze it out and rub it gently over the upholstery to remove the remaining dirt and detergent. Repeat, refilling the bowl with fresh water as needed. Let the upholstery dry.

And...done! Two clean, good-smelling $20 chairs so we can have even more people over to watch our giant TV.*

Not really an After, since I never took a Before picture. But you get the idea.

*Which is exactly what we did a couple weeks ago when Still Waiting** came out on DVD because Rob has a pretty big part in it. The movie is kind of misogynistic and awful, but Rob is funny, so if you're interested in seeing him on the small screen, rent it. Rob plays Mason, the lisping fry cook with a heart of gold.

**This is not the movie I mentioned previously, the one with Catherine Zeta Jones. That movie is called The Rebound and will be in theaters hopefully very soon.

Tags:

Comments (508)