Do you have an old & saggy sofa? Learn how you can easily breath new life into your sofa by using inexpensive poly-fil, quilting foam, and a bit of elbow grease.
Hey, darling! I’m so excited that you’re here with me today. If you clicked on this post, I’m guessing you need some serious furniture solutions…more specifically, you need help with your sofa!
Is your sofa old and dated?
Does it look saggy and sad?
Are the cushions smashed and deflated?
Is your sofa dirty and in need of a good cleaning?
Or maybe you just can’t afford or are not ready to invest in new furniture right now.
EEEEEEEEEk! I totally get it, friend! Not too long ago I would have said yes to all of the above.
I have an old sofa (with matching chairs) and they were in baaaaaad shape. Recently, as I was updating our family room, I was frustrated about the condition of our sofa.
My sofa stuck out like a sore thumb or at least to me anyway.
The old and saggy sofa just didn’t fit in with the new fresh vibe that the room was taking on. I just wanted to buy all new furniture!!!! (Insert temper tantrum, and feet stomping, wahhhh!)
OH, but then I remembered that we’re on a budget!! I just can’t go running off and buying new furniture! So I got a hold of myself and softly whispered, “you’re a smart and resourceful gal, it’s just a silly sofa, you got this…”
(Anyone else give pep talks to themselves….just me? Hmm)
Soooo, I decided to try and fix it up the best I could…and…surprisingly, with a few materials and a little bit of elbow grease, I was able to give our sofa a total makeover.
I’ve dubbed this furniture makeover, “Project Sofa Restoration!” ??????
Now let’s just be real here…does my sofa look brand new? Nope! But OH MY GOSH, it looks a million times better! The cushions are fluffed and taught. The seat cushions are no longer deflated, and the sofa is clean and fresh.
And I saved a bunch of cheddar. Ca-ching!!
I’m excited to share how I fixed up my sofa so you can try it with your own furniture. Let’s save our sofas together!!!
Supplies Needed:
Affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.
- Poly-Fil. I used one bag for each of the back cushions. I ended up using two bags.
- A roll or two of foam. I used this type.
- Resolve Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner
- Gloves
- Scrub Brush
1. Find The Zipper!
The first thing that I wanted to fix was all the saggy and slouchy stuff going on with the sofa. After a little bit of investigating, I found a zipper on the underside of the cushions. There were also zippers on the back side of the seat cushions.
Score!
I unzipped those bad boys and pulled out all of the cushion forms. It looked liked this. (EWW! Don’t ask what those brown stains are. After owning this sofa for 8 years, who knows?!)
2. Re-stuff
Once all of the pillow forms were out, I got busy re-stuffing. The cushion forms even had an opening in the batting so I could easily add more filling. It was if the little sofa elves knew that I’d be in here having to fix up my sofa and they left a little door open just for me! ???
The green stuff is all of the old fillings. I squished that down as far as I could and added a whole bag of the poly-fil to refill and plump up each cushion. My sofa has two back cushions, so I used two bags of poly-fil or one bag per cushion.
I wanted to make sure that all of that beautiful stuffing stayed in place, so I grabbed a needle and thick thread and stitched the batting closed. And I have no idea how to sew-so please don’t judge my sewing skills. lol.
The seat cushions were made of foam. Over the years they had been squished and deflated. I just used my hands to try and reshape them as best as I could. Then I added a layer of the foam roll on either side of the cushions to add some plumpness back to the cushions. You could use spray adhesive to hold this in place if you wanted. I didn’t and it worked out fine.
Use your washer and dryer
While I was restuffing and relayering-I threw the detached seat cushion covers in the wash. Who knew, right? I wasn’t able to do this with the back cushions because they are attached and sewn onto the back of the sofa. But if yours come off- that’s even better. Throw all those cushion covers in the wash!!
For this, I just threw the seat cushions straight into the washing machine. I used regular detergent and washed on delicate. I DID NOT, repeat, I DID NOT use fabric softener! My sofa material is microfiber, and fabric softener will ruin the fibers that make it do its microfiber thing. I’d google it to be sure what to use with your sofa’s material.
Once they were done washing, I put them in the dryer and just dried them on low. This worked out beautifully!!! The cushion covers looked almost brand new! There was no damage from being washed in the washing machine and the dryer shrunk the cushions just a tad, so now they had their shape back. (Sorta like your favorite pair of jeans when you take them out of the dryer.)
3. Scrub, Scrub, Scrub
After everything was restuffed and the seat cushions were nice and clean, I started putting the sofa back together. The back cushions were a little tough to get back in. I had to really stuff the cushions forms back into the attached cushion covers. The cushions were so much bigger with the extra stuffing, that it took some patience to get everything squeezed back together, but it was well worth it! I had to use my hand to reach inside the couch cover and push the cushion into place. I worked up a bit of sweat doing this!
Once I got everything in, the sofa looked fluffed and there was so more sagging! Yippeee!!!
For the rest of the sofa that I couldn’t put into the wash, it needed a good ol’ scrub down.
In the above photo, I’m in mid-process. Some of the cushions were in the wash and I’d already started scrubbing away the dirt-hence the wet areas on the sofa.
Microfiber is weird in that you can’t just use soap and water on it. ‘(Again, google it) Anything with a water base leaves a mark and this has something to do with the evaporation rate. In order to not leave a water stain, the cleaner needs to have an alcohol base because alcohol evaporates much more quickly than water.
I’ve used several cleaners over the years and well as straight rubbing alcohol, but my favorite cleaner to use is RESOLVE carpet and upholstery cleaner. (Totally NOT a sponsored plug!) Honestly, I’ve always received the best results from this cleaner on both my sofa and rugs.
To get the sofa sparkling clean, I put on some fun music, a pair of gloves, and got to scrubbing. In order to not leave any stains from the cleaner, I sprayed in little sections and scrubbed until it was clean. I paid special attention to high traffic areas like the armrests and bottom sections of the sofa.
Put It All Back Together and Do a Little Dance!
Once I put everything back together, I was shocked at just how much better the sofa looked. WOW, WOW, WOWWY, WOW!! And yes, I was dancing!
And just because everyone loves a good before and after shot…
I couldn’t wait to add some pretty pillows and a throw. You can check out how the sofa is looking down in our newly refreshed family room here.
Decor Sources
Sofa –similar
Lamps –similar
Galvanized Tray – similar
Cotton Stem – similar
Wood Bead Garland – Amazon
White Marble Coasters – Amazon
Now get to it!
So, are you ready to makeover your sofa? If you have any questions or need help, leave me a comment below or give me shout on any of my social media accounts or email. I’m here to help!
Now go rescue that sofa! Girl, you got this!
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