It was time to make a decision about our couch.
On the positive side:
- It was comfortable, very comfortable
- It was the right size for our room
- I liked the shape and style of it, and so did Kyle (he’s surprisingly opinionated about furniture sometimes)
- We already owned it (meaning I didn’t need to fork over $1000 to relax while watching TV)
- It was NOT the couch pictured above
On the negative side:
Back to the positive side – it is covered in memories! I mean look at those pictures! We’d bought the couch used from some friends almost 7 years ago. We’d moved it over 6000 miles, taken it apart and put it back together 5 times. I just couldn’t kick it to the curb! I had looked at slip covers, but none seemed able to fit our removable pillows without looking like a sheet had been thrown over it. I found a book about making custom slip covers – basically it’s suggestion was to reupholster the couch, but at the very end, not attach it to the actual frame. This apparently deemed it as a slip cover and was supposed to make the project less intimidating. It worked – I started shopping for fabric.
I found some great fabric at Discount Fabric Store in San Francisco – only $6/yard, as long as I bought the whole roll. So I ended up washing and ironing 20 yards of HEAVY fabric. It was almost the exact same as the current fabric, just a shade lighter (and with no sun fading or stains).
So I started…
I made one pillow case and then restuffed it with the old stuffing. It was lumpy and still saggy. We found out that if I shredded and fluffed the old stuffing, it brought it back to life and I could avoid having to buy more stuffings.
Each cushion held about 2 trash bags of stuffing – I don’t even want to tell you how many hours were spent shredding!
Then I made the remainder of the cushion covers and filled them with the old stuffing. I could finally toss those stained covers!
With the original cover still on the couch, I sewed my new cover upside down, piece by piece. Then I trimmed off the old welting, so it wouldn’t create bumps and lumps underneath my new one. I turned mine around, ironed it and pulled it down over the couch. That was it! It was complete.
A new couch, covered in just memories, no stains! And all for less than $200 (for fabric, welting, thread and zippers)
I’ll try to get pics posted of the new living room arrangement soon. I finally got to move my other reupholstered chairs into the lime light, not to mention make some room for a rocker that needed moved out of Kade’s room.
