What I learned from Trading Spaces

Confession time: I used to watch Trading Spaces on TLC every day after school in Junior High.  I greatly believed the first host was much better than the second host, who now does RC Willey comercials. Neighbors have a few days, a carpenter, a designer, and $1000 to redo each other's rooms. I can't say I liked every room the show ever did (I don't remember all the designers names, but I remember I thought some did weird stuff), but I liked watching every room they ever did. It was fun to see how they re-purposed stuff.

I think it was around this time I kind of wanted to be an interior designer. I guess I am living out that dream on my own living room.

One of the things that appeared in almost every episode was making slipcovers.  They never went into much detail on this, but I remembered the footage of whatever piece of furniture with the slipcover fabric pined wrong-side out around the whole thing.

I decided to make a slipcover for the sofa we bought out of the same curtains I covered my bench in.  I decided on a slipcover probably for many of the same reasons they did so on trading spaces.  They are actually easier than reupholstering and they require less fabric. In my case, if I were to reupholster this sofa I would have to have enough fabric to cover the fold-out bed which is three times what you see as the seat cushions. I did make the decision to cover the body of the sofa separate from the cushions as one of the big downsides of slipcovers is that they can make furniture look like one big block.  The other downside is that they slip around a lot and bunch up.  I think I still have a bit of tweaking to do, but having separate pieces that are made specifically to fit each part does help this a well. 

In other words, they aren't so bad if they are custom made for your sofa, which really isn't that hard for the sofa I had. If your sofa has lots of curves and such it would be a lot harder, but this one had mostly straight lines.  I just draped fabric over the various parts and pinned the edges, removed the fabric and sewed.  One thing to note about this method is that the fabric I pinned over the left arm ended up on the right are when right side out (and vice versa), so if you are doing something asymmetrical, it will require a bit more work and planning. 

Because my sofa folds out, I decided to make the front panel that goes under the cushions detached from the sides.  It is held on by Velcro.  That way, I don't have to remove the whole slipcover to fold out the bed, buts the front panel and seat cushion covers.  Now to make some throw pillows (the one on the couch is just a pillow I already have with the pillow case from the sheet set folded around it).