Has anyone given their sofa a makeover?

[GinAndOnIt]

And is it worth it?

I've had my eye on a Loaf Crumpet for a long time now after living in a house with one and deeming it The Most Comfortable Sofa In The World.

They're not exactly the cheapest of sofas though are they? And how are you supposed to even begin the choose a fabric out of all the options? Plus, we have animals and live in a working farmhouse, so the sofa does tend to take a bit of a beating.

Anyway, getting back to the point, we have a sofa that is almost exactly the dimensions of a Crumpet sofa, but it's about 30 years old with a 30 year old pattern to boot. I've covered it with a cheap cover for now, and it looks fine, and I've restuffed the cushions with what I had lying around, but I'm wondering about getting it professionally renovated, and whether that could be a cheaper way for me to achieve a Loaf sofa!

So, I think I'd want two covers that actually fit properly, and I'd want the seat pads restuffed. I think Loaf have a foam pad with feather surround - the current sofa is feather stuffed, but has the tendency to sink and forever need fluffing. I'd also want to add legs to the sofa.

How much do you reckon that would cost, and how much could we do ourselves? I'm wondering how difficult it can be to stick a foam pad between the feather stuffing, but there must be more to it for Loaf to be charging over a grand...

[GinAndOnIt]

Here are some pictures if it helps. First one is how the sofa is originally, and second is how it's been covered. I'm not sure if it might look a bit silly with legs, as the base is quite deep? The structure of the sofa is sound and it's so deep, it seems a shame to replace it when it's just looking a bit tired.

[FritzyMousey]

I am after The Most Comfortable Sofa In The World so I might have to find somewhere to try the Loaf one! I'm not sure just restuffing the cushions is really going to make yours that much more comfy? Defo worth getting some quotes though I think it will be quite expensive, I feel for you though, the sofa I have my eye on is £1600 from Anthropologie!

[WobblyLondoner]

We had a much loved and originally v expensive sofa, but after 15 years it was looking a bit - ahem - tatty. I couldn't quite bear to throw it out so got a couple of quotes to recover it and make new back cushion pads (the old ones had lost their puff).

I'm afraid it was really expensive, especially once you factored in the costs of the upholstery fabric (which has to be fire retardant etc). I don't have the quotes to hand but I think it was iro £1000. We live in London mind you and it was a big three seater...

We bought a new sofa.

[trickyex]

It might be a better bet to spend some cash on a lovely throw and cushions to make your sofa look more fancy.
I quite like your own renovation job on it, a professional one would be pricey.

[GinAndOnIt]

I potentially could make a cover myself which is probably the most expensive part. It is a comfy sofa, but the original material on the sofa cushions is so heavy which stops it fluffing back up. There's also no foam in there at the moment, just feather.

I wonder if I should have a go at making a cover, and if that goes to pot, then just sod it and save up for a new one. DP will be unimpressed, every time I mention replacing it, he says he's been sitting on it most of his life.

Would I need to do the fire retardant thing for a cover I make myself?

[123fushia]

We have a big 3 seater sofa that I bought off my sister years ago. Last year we got new removable covers from Plumbs which made it like a new sofa. £700 - cream, linen look covers.

[trickyex]

Go for it, no need to get fire retardant if you do it yourself.
You can get foam chippings on Amazon which you could dd to beef up your feather cushions too.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

I had my huge 10 year old Tetrad re stuffed by a company called All Shapes. I chose foam wrapped in feathers. I just sent off measurements. It was £400.

There are companies that do the same on line with covers- you have to send in an old cover and they copy it. Works out much cheaper than local companies ime.

[GinAndOnIt]

£400 sounds bloody loads to restuff a few cushions, it can't be that hard surely? It's only the two seat pads that need doing, and surely I can cut a foam pad down to size and stuff feathers above and below?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

It's a huge sofa, I'm nearly 6ft and I can stretch out on it easily. The feathers are wrapped around the foam in channels so they don't clump together.

[trickyex]

Or add these to the existing feather inners?
www.amazon.co.uk/d/Home-Kitchen/Foam-Chips-Packing-filling-Upholstery-foam-medium/B008186G10/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483270333&sr=8-1&keywords=foam%20chippings&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[slinkysaluki]

Not a Loaf sofa but have you seen the Somerton sofas at Argos ? Sounds naff but they are lovely and look just the same. Sorry I'm useless with techy stuff don't know how to link

[slinkysaluki]

Sorry its the Sherbourne not Somerton

[Bundao]

Yes, we bought an IKEA sofa 13 years ago. It was shipped twice when we moved abroad and like yours, lived in a farmhouse with dogs, cats and three children. We took it to a sofa restoration place and it cost 600 (different currency) to fix it, so we could have bought a new one, but the options where we live are crap and one thing I love about our sofa is all the fabric is washable. It was worth it, it is as good as new!

[GinAndOnIt]

slinky thank you, I will have a look. I've had a look at a few cheaper alternatives, but the sofa we have now is so well made and sturdy (it must be to have survived numerous dogs, kids, teens sleeping on it etc over the years!!) that I don't want to get rid of it for something cheap which might break in a few years IYSWIM. I know it looks rather hideous but it seems a shame to chuck out something that is still sound.

I kind of figure I may as well have a go at trying to do a cheap-ish makeover of it, and then if it still looks shit, we could think about just replacing with a cheap sofa. So I will look into that's Argos one as our back up!

[slinkysaluki]

No im with you on refurbishing a good quality piece. I wouldn't know where to start making covers ! Recovering professionally is so expensive. Please post pics of your sofa when you've done it

[GinAndOnIt]

If you never see pictures, it's because it went horribly wrong

[slinkysaluki]

[Chasingsquirrels]

Just coming back to this - when I got my current sofas I wanted foam seat cushions but the model I wanted only came with fibre ones. They were fine for the first few years and I planned to get foam cushion when they lost their plumpness. That happened about 3 years ago and I've still not got round to doing anything!

Last night I put old pillows inside the cushions under the fibre cushion - it's made an amazing difference, the cushions are all plump and firm again!
I used 2 pillows per cushion which was pretty much the same size as each cushion, so each pillow is just fitted flat between the fibre cushion and the cover.

It does mean I can't really turn the seat cushions as I've put the pillows on the underneath side which isn't noticeable, but as there are 2 pillows per cushion and they aren't the best pillows I think it would be noticeable and not as comfy the other way up. But that's not really a problem.

I've done 4 of my 5 seats and am getting new pillows for our bed anyway so I'll do the final one with my old pillows then.

[GinAndOnIt]

Chasing thanks for the great tip!

I'm desperate to get on and start upholstering, but I cannot for the life of me decide on a sofa colour. I really want a light colour like cream, but we have two black furred pets. That's just a recipe for disaster isn't it? What other colours (not grey) could we do?

[Chasingsquirrels]

Depends if you let the pets on them!
Duck egg blue?
Lilac?
Teal? (obviously not light!)

Mine are grey & plum, and I'm looking at getting a corner sofa for the playroom as the floor space isn't as needed as the kids get older and will probably get grey as the carpets are grey and it's easier to find grey ones than plum to match/tone with the lounge sofas and curtains (it's a through room lounge - double doors - playroom)

[GinAndOnIt]

I'm half tempted to stop letting the dog on the sofa... but he might hate me for that!

We have a green wing backed chair and a brown leather armchair, so I feel like another colour mixed in might be too full on. I wonder if a light cream might work if I could make two sets of seat cushions - and then one could always be on a hot wash while one is on the sofa!

[GinAndOnIt]

Quick update if anyone is still interested...

I've started stripping the original sofa this week and made some adjustments to the foam. I've started reupholstering the main frame and am gearing up to do the arms! Have also pinned up some seat cushions which just need running through the machine. Keeping everything crossed that it all goes to plan, otherwise we will be back to the original navy cover with a lot of time wasted

[Chasingsquirrels]

Sounds a lot more hard work than my old pillows stuffed into the seat cushions!
And probably a better overall result too, are you going to post after pictures?

[mixedpeel]

oh, good lord, gin, I've just googled Loaf sofas, and now nothing else is going to do when we replace this one. Sadly, as I told Basil on a different thread, our current sofa is only four years old and nowhere near knackered enough to justify a new one.

Well, if I start a Loaf savings account, maybe we could have one in a decade or so.

Hope your HomeBakedLoaf is going well.