If have been following August Blues on Facebook, you have already seen this couch. I completed it just before Christmas, for our family room (my boys had been living with a flowered couch for long enough!). Here is a quick look at the before and after...
$20 on Craigslist - solid, comfy, not stinky or stained (hardly used, actually!), and we could get it home in the back of our SUV!
Much better, don't you think?
The biggest part of the change was the blue slipcover. I also updated the style by changing the front arm panels (see the difference?). But there was another change that improved the comfort of the couch. Can you guess?
Yep, we added risers (sorry for the blurry photo)!
We found that the couch just sat a little low compared to what we were used to, so we used a trick I used a lot when I worked as a community occupational therapist - wood risers. In this case, the almost 2" height of a 2x4 added just the right amount of height - enough to be comfortable, but not too tall to throw off the proportions of the couch (especially since I added a longer skirt). We added narrow pieces of wood (found with the dowels in the lumber department) around the edges to make sure that the legs would not slip off the risers - safety first! We used one long piece of 2x4 for the two legs on each end and a shorter single piece for the one leg in the middle. I had considered just getting new, longer legs, but these legs were built right into the frame of the couch, so there was no removing them.
And just for fun, here is an updated picture of the couch after being in (heavy!) use for a month...
I have washed the seat cushions once, but otherwise the cover has hardly been straightened or "primped."
And, in the spirit of keeping it real, here is how the couch really gets used (that is my oldest son hiding out under his heavy blanket for a sensory break; the pillow fort between the couch and the coffee table belongs to my youngest). Yep, these slipcovers are made for real life :)
So, so you have any tricks you use to make furniture work better for you?
Sherri