much needed couch makeover

Back in early December my friend Maria asked me if I’d be willing to re-cover her love seat. It’s probably the world’s most comfortable love seat, and it’s holding up considerably well, seeing as though it was an inexpensive purchase from IKEA at least 5 years ago. We passed it on to Maria and her roommates when we got new furniture. It was once white and I re-covered it in red a while ago, but as you can see, it’s seen better days.

Before re-covering it I read a few different tutorials and decided the best way to go about it was to follow the tutorial on this blog. This tutorial was for a slipcover, so I followed it the best I could and then just kind of made up the rest of what I did as I went along. So it’s definitely not the most perfect couch re-cover but it’s functional, looks good and will last for a while.

First, I removed all of the red fabric, leaving the lining of the couch.

Then I began measuring, cutting and sizing the pieces to fit the couch.

Next, I sewed the fabric, stapled the underneath and screwed the leg holders into place.

When Maria and her room mates moved over the summer the legs to the couch were lost so we replaced them with these unfinished, decorative ones.

The fabric we used I scored at a consignment store for $12… for the entire spool! It was about 6 yards in total and this fabric is currently selling at Joann Fabrics for $24.99/yard. Due to the great bargain we got we had no control over the amount of fabric so we were short about 3 yards. We could have bought it at Joann’s but we got a bit more creative and cost effective instead.

We decided to cover the one cushion in a solid, green color fabric. Here was the final result after Maria added the fabulous throw pillows (found at Target).

So? Not half bad. Some day I’m going to learn the real way to reupholster a couch, instead of my way which is more like, read about it, kinda follow directions, and make up the rest. I was entirely pleased with the final result though and so were Maria and her room mates.

Have you slip-covered or reupholstered anything before? Please do share with me if you have any tips!