We've been in our house for almost 18 months and I'm finally ready to start decorating our living room. It needs a little freshening up. The two words that come to mind when I think about this room in our house are BLA and RECTANGLE. When we moved in, I just found a place for our furniture and have put little effort into making it a cozy and comfortable room for our family to spend time in.
My major hang up has been our sofa. It was the first piece of furniture my husband and I bought together for our first home and I anxiously waited for weeks for it to be delivered. When the delivery men brought it into the house, I was SO DISAPPOINTED. The fabric that I choose when ordering the sofa looked white in the store, but the couch that was sitting in my den looked more like a yellowish buttercream! BLEH!
For 4 years I have tried to decorate around this sofa, but let me tell you...NOTHING goes with yellow buttercream.
I forgot to take a "before" picture of the couch. Just to give you an idea, imagine an entire couch the color of this pillow. See what I mean? It isn't a white or a khaki or a cream. The nicest thing I can call it is yellow buttercream.
So for several months now, I've been collecting pictures of rooms that I love online for decorating inspiration. Here are just a few examples...
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Do you see a theme developing here?
As I flipped through them one night I realized they all had one thing in common...
A White Sofa!
I didn't even realize I was picking out all pictures with white sofas until looking at them all at one time. I guess I'm just drawn to that look.
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However, I couldn't justify buying a new sofa when ours is in perfect condition.
Next thought, "I'll have it slipcovered." After getting several quotes I realized that having it slip covered would be just as expensive as buying a new one.
Then I had the grand idea of sewing my own slipcover. Ha! I tried practicing on a chair first and quickly became discouraged. (Have I mentioned before that I like my projects to be quick and not too involved...following a pattern is not my idea of fun).
Then one night when I was about to drift off to sleep, I had a crazy idea. I was too excited to relax so I had to jump out of bed to go measure my couch. I remembered seeing a couch on the Ikea website that looked almost identical to my Broyhill sofa. Could I dare to hope that the two sofas were close enough in size that the Ikea slipcover would fit on my couch?????
The dimensions were almost identical, give or take an inch or two here and there. Do you know how much Ikea's white slipcover cost? Drumroll please....
$49.99!!!!!
I ordered Ikea's slipcover and hoped for the best. As soon as UPS delivered it, I tore into the package and immediately started trying the slipcover on piece by piece, holding my breath as each cushion fit perfectly into the slipcover. I didn't let myself get too excited until I put the slipcover over the actual sofa part and wouldn't you know? IT FIT!!!! The girls just watched me in awe as I squealed and danced around the room. Our yellow couch is gone and in its place is a beautiful white sofa!! And even better, it is slipcovered so when it gets dirty (and it will with babies and toddlers climbing on it all day long) I just have to throw it in the wash and it will be clean again.
Oh happy day!!
This is the only picture I have of it right now.
Sorry! After all of that build up, this is all I have to show for it! :)
I'm picking out fabric for pillows and window treatments and will hopefully have the room ready for pictures soon enough.
I just wanted to post this idea so that if there are other people with the same predicament that I was in, they can consider this as an option. The slipcover was for Ikea's Ektorp sofa, which is a very basic and common design that many people have. This idea could also possibly work for recovering chairs if they were close enough in size.
