I don’t have “before” photos but here are the remakes. I did the needlework about 40 years ago. I was going to toss them out and look for new ones, but when I took a closer look I thought the needlework had held up well even if the velvet backing fabric was definitely showing its age.
So I very carefully unpicked the seams, discarded the old backing fabric. This time I installed zippers, new backing fabric (on two of the pillows I used some of the leftover upholstery fabric from the sofa), and the pillows look like new – definitely refreshed.
What I find so interesting is that the colours I used 40 years ago are still the colours that draw me today! The pillows go fine with the new sofa and daybed fabrics. Didn’t take long to do, either.
jmn 
very nice pillows
I have some old needlework pillows also that I have been thinking of replacing the backing and the cording around them. I am the same way with color. I think it is part of our personality.
Go for it – the hard part was carefully taking the old pillow covering apart without damaging the handwork. I did a small stitch zigzag around the entire edge of the handwork to stabilize the underlying canvas so I could sew on the new backing without worrying about the canvas fraying.
Beautiful!