Furniture

There is nothing functionally wrong with the furniture that I own. It's just that almost every piece of furniture I own is a hand-me down from the college years. I have thought about upgrading, but I always feel guilty because the only reason I want new furniture is to have a more pulled together look. I dream about my house looking like what you see inside the covers of home decorating books or magazines. Of course, I am too practical or cheap I guess to actually bring myself to buy new furniture. So, I came up with some inexpensive ideas for how I could have a more pulled together look but still use my existing mismatched furniture.

The first thing that I thought would be easy to do was to recover our 20 year old, hand-me down, striped, multi-colored couch. I wanted it to match our tan, microfiber La-Z-Boy recliner which is the only piece of furniture that was purchased new for us by my MIL. I thought about re-upholstering or making a slipcover. As I researched both options, I discovered that it would be very expensive to recover the couch as upholstery fabric often costs in excess of $10.00 per yard. It was also expensive to purchase enough yards of fabric to make a slipcover. I estimated that I would need on the order of 17-26 yards of fabric depending on whether or not I wanted a skirted look for the couch.

I looked on ebay, craigslist, and other online sources for clearance slipcovers. I finally found a loveseat slipcover and sofa slipcover at Wal-Mart for less than $100.00 for both. The slipcovers were a light tan, microfiber material so they would match the recliner. I found a clearance brown and red accent pillow that I liked which I used as inspiration for other accent pillows. I was able to purchase 2 brown microfiber pillows for $5.00. I took apart an old curtain that I had and made three additional accent pillows (2 plain and one with fringe). I had an extra couch cushion that I took apart and re-used the stuffing for the 3 pillows. If you can sew a straight edge, you can sew a pillow or cushion.

To keep the slipcovers from "slipping," I stuffed rolled up magazines behind the cushions. A slipcovered look does not look as nice as reupholstered furniture or new furniture, but it is a simple and relatively inexpensive way to update the look of your furniture.

Here is a before picture of the couch before it was slipcovered (at a different house). If you could see it close up you would see that the cushions are worn and some of them are ripped. I also wasn't wild about the stripes and multiple colors. It is a very comfortable couch though and has a sturdy construction so definitely worth keeping.

The "after" photo of the slipcovered couch with accent pillows. I also painted our thrift store coffee table that was scratched and discolored in some places. It was an easy "fix" to get a more updated look. The new rug was courtesy of my parents so it didn't cost me anything.

I have lots of other "project" ideas for things that I want to do around the house such as fixing up some old cabinets and dressers. But, of course, these things take time so it will be a work in progress.