Our living room furniture has seen better days - much better days. We have five kids and three dogs and the couches have really taken a beating. It's not in the budget right now to replace these pieces and I'm not sure I would want to until the kids are a little older. So here is how I made them look pretty in the meantime.
My approach to fitting our couches was very similar to if I were going to sew these pieces together, however, because I can only sew a simple straight line on our sewing machine at this point, I'm going to show you how we've been living with this no-sew option (just a handful of safety pins!) for TWO YEARS now. It's worked just fine for us. And when I finally learn my way around a sewing machine, I may come back and show you the 'real' way to get a slipcover done. If you don't know how to sew either, you could extend the life of your couches with this little no-sew hack as well.
You can certainly accomplish this little project for $100 or less. Depending on the size of your furniture, this could be done using 2-4 panels. (Here are some drop cloth panels on Amazaon: https://amzn.to/2UKgk8z. I have also bought panels at Walmart for $10 a piece. And here is a heavy duty no sew bonding tape: https://amzn.to/2DzvibO if you prefer to go that route.) I have not tried to cover a sectional so I'm sure that would double the price, but this still makes for a very budget friendly option. Drop cloth is so inexpensive that you may even be able to do this for half the price of buying a generic slipcover.
I first bleach my drop cloth panels, which makes them soft and white. Click the image for that tutorial if you would like some pointers ~ if you have had issues getting that soft white look, check out the video description for reasons that may be happening.
And here's how to do the slipcovers. Click on the image below to go to the video tutorial ~
I hope you found this tutorial helpful! You can see in that video just how bad our couches are - lots of rips and stains and far too unsightly not to cover. But with just a handful of safety pins, attaching the drop cloth panels to the couch, we've extended the life of our furniture for two additional years, and hopefully one or two more!
Until next time!