Update Your Furniture with New Mid-Century Legs

As I mentioned before, our sofa is about 20 years old. One of the first major purchases of my life post-college, it came with a matching chair and ottoman and all were covered in "shabby chic" slipcovers - that were the big thing at the time. 

Fast forward 20 years, the furniture was starting to look run down and dated. 

Not the kind of thing that I wanted to put in our new mid-century home. But I wasn't ready to donate them to a thrift store just yet. Could this furniture be saved?

The first thing I did was remove the slipcovers and ship them off to Trish Banner at Cottage by Design to remake in some elegant fabric such as Belgian linen.

Meanwhile, I have plans for the furniture legs. The original feet are what's referred to as bun feet. The height of elegance in the 90s, they look a bit dated now. And some have become loose and wobbly. Yikes!

Researching replacement legs online, I discovered TableLegs.com, and learned how easy it is to change the style of furniture by simply replacing the legs. (Who knew!)

I chose these midcentury style ones, which arrived unfinished.

And I stained them a dark brown and gave them a light coat of poly. Then I began what I thought would be a tough task of replacing them, but it could not have been easier.

The old legs had embedded bolts that screwed right into the plywood frame of the sofa. And that's really where the problem began. Over time, and several moves, the holes had expanded and the legs were loose. In the past I had tried drilling a new hole. And that worked for a while. But now some corners had several holes.

So, when ordering, I chose a different model that came with these stabilizing metal plates that screw into the plywood with four small screws.

The legs themselves then screw into the metal plate.

I think this method will provide a good solution to the multiple holes problem as well as make the sofa more stable over all.


So, I assembled my tools -- drill, drill bit (to drive the pilot holes), and box cutter to open the packaging, -- and got to work.

Turning the furniture over, I unscrewed the old feet.

Lined up the metal brace and drilled the pilot holes.

Screwed in the metal plate.

Turned the new feet into the center of the metal plate.

Repeated these steps for all four feet on the ottoman, chair and sofa. And voila!

Midcentury modern makeover for a 1990's living room set.