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Thrifted furniture gets a budget-friendly glow-up with creative
Jordan Ferney’s reupholstery secrets.
PHOTOGRAPHY by Kate Jordan
WORDS by Lydia Geisel
DESIGN by Alison Yousefi
Scouring Facebook Marketplace is Jordan Ferney’s guilty pleasure.
On the hunt for cool secondhand furniture, the Oh Happy Day! founder usually scrolls the site with a glass of wine during family movie nights,
even though the ping of her laptop every time she adds a hidden gem to her cart breaks her cover. “My husband’s always like, ‘What are you doing over there?’” says Ferney with a laugh. She’s unapologetic about the ritual; browsing the platform is her way of winding down, plus it’s been a primary source for furnishing their new fixer-upper in Pound Ridge, New York.
Having a trusty upholsterer who works at lightning speed (he came recommended through a local moms’ Facebook group in north Westchester) re-cover a tired floral settee in black and white stripes and old metal folding chairs in Technicolor velvet helps Ferney feel like she’s making some progress on the house, even as the floors and walls are ripped open.
“I am kind of going crazy,” she says—the renovation will take years.
The upholsterer, on the other hand, comes over once a week.
Ferney isn’t shelling out hundreds of dollars on fancy textiles. Rather she takes the extra time to sift through cheap rolls of fabric in New York’s Garment District and on Etsy vendor pages until she lands on just the right thing. Her logic: The stakes of re-covering an antique accent chair with Vans-like checks, for example, are lower when you don’t have to drain your bank account to do it. With countless projects on the books, Ferney is a pro at pushing the reupholstery envelope on a budget. Here’s her cheat sheet.
Mix and Don’t Match
Ferney takes everyone else’s millennial pink velvet sofa and raises them
a rainbow of Facebook Marketplace–sourced folding chairs, each with a different color seat and back. Some of the combinations skew high contrast, like chocolate brown and pale yellow; others are tonal, such as blush with dusty rose. Because the cushions are small, Ferney relied solely on 1-yard scraps from Mood in Manhattan (you’ll find the remnant pile upstairs toward the back of the shop) and had each piece redone for around $70.
“We can store them in a closet until guests come over,” notes Ferney of the versatile seating.
Cue the Corduroy
Think of fabrics from decades ago that might make you wince. Now picture them on the streamlined silhouettes of today. “When you think it feels right in a way you haven’t noticed before, that’s a sign something is about to make a comeback,” Ferney explains, and it’s where she’s at with corduroy. On her punch list: a retro, low-profile sofa and a cozy comforter for her son’s room.
Shop Your Drawers
You don’t have to invest in a 54-inch-wide, 40-yard-long fabric bolt to kick-start your next big reupholstery project. That brightly colored tablecloth you’ve never used can be turned into a bench cushion just as easily. “There are so many fabrics that are handwoven from around the world that you can use,” says Ferney, who recently covered the headboards of two twin beds for about $500 in a Moroccan blanket she had lying around.
Search Party
The joy is in the deep dive. Before making her way through pages 1 to 25
on Etsy or Decorators Best, Ferney will enter terms like vintage, floral,
and woven into the search bar. Plopping broad descriptors in front of fabric will lead you to unexpected motifs. But if you’re sprucing up your living room sofa and you’ve got three kids, as Ferney does, narrow it down by performance textile, such as Sunbrella.
Get Antiques in Line
Say you want to loosen up a Victorian-era love seat that’s got intricately carved legs and a curved back: Shop for linear patterns like plaid or gingham to counteract the swirly, ornate details that can automatically make an antique find feel dated. “There’s so much freedom and accessibility,” says Ferney. No one will ever know your furniture came straight from Facebook Marketplace.
PHOTO by Paul Ferney
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