Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Inside A Sleeper Sofa

Got you with that title didn't I?!? You will see in one of the pictures below why this post has the title it does.

This sleeper sofa was very dated and tired. It's fabric had seen it's better days. I didn't take a before picture, but it matches a love seat that I had done earlier. You know the blue/burgandy/green plaid that was very popular a few years ago......when we were all about jewel tones!

Check out the new fabric. Soft, cuddly, curl up on the sofa.... creamy off white linen. The fabric was bought at Fabric Solutions on Market Street, here in Wilmington, NC. Fabric Solutions has most fabrics for $7.99 a yard. If you get by there tell them that I sent you!

The sofa had attached backs, which I removed and made cording and in some cases moved some stuffing around inside the cushions. After you have sat on the cushions for a few years, they tend to get flat, and the back cushions are all "whoppy jawed" as me and my friends say. Don't ask me where that saying came from...it's one your grandmother says, so you just pick it up and start saying it also.

Here is the "Inside A Sleeper Sofa" part!! I had to open the bed, lift the head part of it and crawl inside the sofa where I stapled velcro on so that I could attatch the tuck ins! I felt like I was in a casket! At one point I had this terrible realization that I was inside and what if I couldn't get out! Nobody else was home at the time! When my daughter came in, she took this picture! Well the one thing you can say about this position inside a sofa....you can see how it is made. Quite simply atually. I even looked around and thought that I could make one of these. Then I quickly let that thought go to a place and never to return!

I added ties that reach down and around the legs from the inside, depending on your sofa, you may be able to staple velcro instead of using ties.

This shows the inside back corner where the velcro is attatched along the inside back tuck in. That part velcros to the part I was stapling when I was in the sofa.


This photo shows, all parts tucked in, velcro'd and tied.

Here is the final look of the work completed on the decking. As you can see, my client wanted to be able to use her sofa as a bed for her guests, with the pretty slipcover still in place. So all she has to do is take off the cushions and lift the bed out. The velcro and ties will hold the slipcover in place. How divine! (As Candace Olsen says)

Here is the new slipcover on the sofa back at home. My client had purchased some khaki pillows to go on the sofa and she is on the hunt for the perfect blue pillows, so she can pull colors from her beautiful oriental rugs. Alas, my adventure in the inner workings of a sleeper sofa is done, and my husband is glad that he didn't have to lift it another time. And I have another happy client!




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9 comments:

  1. Thank you for this, Gina. It looks great! I have a loveseat hide-a-bed that needs a slipcover and I have been trying to figure out how to do it so I can use it with the slipcover still on. I was thinking velcro and now I know how - thanks!

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  3. Thanks for these tips! I have a love seat sleeper and a chair and a half sleeper that I've been figuring out how to slip. Like your client, I don't want to take the slip all the way off to use it and pretty much had it figured out but hadn't thought about velcro inside. That surely would hold the flaps down. In the photo of you inside..I'm a little turned around. Is that the inside back on the right in the photo and the arm above your head? Can't wait to slip my two sleepers. Thanks for the tips!
    xox
    Nancy

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  4. Beautiful job! But weren't you scared to get down inside of that thing? Instead, I turn mine over. If you tip it forward slowly, the bed will tip out a little. Then you can balance it on the front end. With the bed tipped out, you can get back in there and staple the velcro.

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  5. wow, nice work. You should get this patented. I have never seen slipcovers for sleeper sofas.

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  6. can you make white slipcovers to fit over a red sofa without removing the red fabric first? I have noticed that some people reupholster in a neutral color or in muslin first. is this necessary

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  7. Wow is that amazing! You are some kind of talented. I'm so glad I found you today :)

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  8. Gina-
    This is awesome! I live in New York City and am looking for a slipcover for a sleeper sofa. Need something just like this! Any thoughts on where I can turn? Any companies that might make something like this that I can buy?

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  9. Wow I'm so glad you posted this and was told from Pink and Polka Dots to come and check this out because I'd like to make a slipcover for my sectional that has a sleeper sofa on one of them. Thanks!

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