Dyeing IKEA sofa covers

[Firstaidnovice]

We have an IKEA sofa with completely removable covers, in charcoal grey. They are looking pretty grubby (I thought charcoal would avoid this issue, but there's apparently lots of light covered stuff that can mark your sofa, argh), so I was planning on washing them. But one end is also a bit sun bleached, so I thought maybe re-dyeing them might help.
Has anyone done similar? Do the machine dyes work? I have a feeling that I've read that no matter what they say they tend to also stain your next wash..

[JanuarySkies]

We have an ektorp sofa from ikea that had white covers - they were a bit grubby so i dyed them grey using Dylon machine dye. They came out fine - maybe a little patchy but not so much that you notice once they're on. I ran the empty machine on a rinse afterwards and the next wash was fine.

[FleurWeasley]

I looked into doing this and in the end decided the appropriate amount of dye would cost about the same as new slipcovers, and if I bought new ones I'd have a spare set for when they were in the wash.

[soundsystem]

Yep, we did ours with Dylon. The sofa we wanted only came in horrible-coloured covers so we dyed them... charcoal grey

[Firstaidnovice]

Thanks all. Unfortunately IKEA no longer make our sofa, otherwise I think I would definitely buy new covers. I think I'll go for a redye, just not sure if I'll do it in the machine or otherwise (in buckets??).

[Firstaidnovice]

Of course, now I've googled, and there's a company out there who makes emerald green velvet sofa covers for our sofa, which are ££££, so I'm plotting, I don't know, not eating for a month? Although, I can't imagine how quickly we could trash a green velvet sofa

[LBOCS2]

That sounds beautiful though.

I have dyed the cover for a mink Ikea poang chair in my washing machine before and it worked well. Nothing got dyed in my next wash - my only comments would be that it didn’t dye the stitching (presumably made of something synthetic) and it did shrink it slightly. Oh, and make sure that the covers are clean before you start the process - it won’t dye properly if there’s dirt on it.

[Firstaidnovice]

There is certainly plenty of dirt on them, I'm sure! Being charcoal that's pretty well disguised, and also the fact I'm just re dying the same colour means I'm not too worried about synthetic thread not taking the colour, but good to know, I will wash thoroughly first!

[Mybestusername]

I bought some velvet sofa covers for my Ikea Ektorp sofa a couple of years ago from a company online called soferia- they are lovely and cheaper than buying a new sofa.

[WeAreEternal]

We have a karstad sofa in the playroom, we got it with textured covers thinking it would make it harder wearing, it seems to attract dirt though.

I wash the covers every few months but I’ve been thinking about dying them or attempting to make new ones for a while as they are starting to show their age, but the sofa it’s self is still in great shape.