Help For A Worn Out Sofa

When your young and first starting out, there is never enough money to go out and buy new furniture. And what usually ends up happening is you get someones old hand-me-down stuff that has always seen better days. This is never more true than with a second hand sofa, if someone you know replaced it, chances are it was because it may have needed reupholstered. Almost always the seat cushions and the arms look pretty bad, sometimes so much that your not sure you even want this monstrosity. But hold on, there may be a solution to this problem, one that could give new life to that old sofa.

This method of "concealment" only works if the back and seat cushions can be removed. You will need a large piece of thick fabric, such as a bedspread or thin comforter. You could even use an old drapery panel as long as it is wide and long enough.

If the arms are torn and worn on your sofa, you can cover them with a strip of the fabric. Cut a piece from each edge of the fabric wide enough to cover the arm and having enough fabric to fold under the raw edge. Leave the strip long and using a staple gun attach the strip to the underside of the sofa end. Smooth the fabric up and put a few staples under the arm where they won't be seen. Then wrap the fabric up and over the arm, pushing the fabric down below the seat as far as you can. If you can feel any part of the frame here, try and use a few staples to hold the fabric taunt.

With the remaining piece of fabric, fold the edges under so that the width of the fabric is the same as the width of the seat and back. Begin by laying the fabric down on the sofa underneath the seat cushions. Place the cushions back on the sofa. When you get to the back of the cushions push the fabric down as far as possible and if you have any doweling or even a piece of PVC pipe, push it down as far as possible to keep the fabric from riding up. Then go up and over the back cushions and push the fabric down behind them. You may want to pin the fabric to the bottom of the back cushions to keep the fabric taunt.

It may be necessary to trim some of the fabric ends so that you don't have excess material behind your back cushions. Do try and find a piece of material that matches the color of the sofa, you end up with a sofa that looks so much better and can last until you have the means to buy a new one. This method also can work for a worn out chair as well.