Tag Archives: Couch

The Apartment 3 months later: The Couch

Well, I made a promise and I have certainly tarried with the deliver of it, but now here it is. This post is part of a series on what we did to the apartment. View all the posts here. You remember the apartment when we moved in. And we spent the first two months really setting up shop. One of our very best friends moved to Austin shortly after we did, and was looking for a short term and affordable place to rent; the perfect answer was our second bedroom. So, our “formal dining” room became my new office, we always have our friend around and it’s worked out perfectly. On today’s edition of “The Apartment 3 Months Later” we are taking a look at the new couch!

While not exactly a project, I’m in LOVE with this couch from Rooms to Go. It’s the first non-ikea piece of furniture we’ve ever bought new, and it was worth every penny. The cats seem bent on destroying it, but I’m enjoying it while I can. You like it? You can get it here. Also, for the record, I pretty much gave Josh carte blanche with the above the couch art and he went hard on the nerd vibe, so yeah those posters are covers of vintage comic books.

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Sunday, the 5th of October, in the year 2014 by Adora Mae

Update on the couch (slipcover)

Well… actually an update on our couch. I told you here that my mom was coming to help me make a slipcover. She came, she saw, she sewed. I helped…a little. So, now I present to you the slipcover that my mom and I sewed BY HAND in one weekend…and the cushion covers that I sewed. My couch is all right angles and the duck cloth we made the slipcover with had finished sides that looked nice enough to me so we carefully (cleverly) planned the entire thing to have minimal sewing required. The back and sides of the couch were one long cut of the cloth that even came over the top of the back and ended where the seat meets the back of the couch, another piece went from the floor over the front meeting the other seam. Then we had diagonal seems at the top of the two corners, and some in the front where there are rectangular pieces. We ran out of cloth to cover the ottoman, so I put it in the guest room closet for now and I got to say, I think the room looks much bigger without it. So, for about 22 yards of duck cloth (yes, we had to hit up 2 different’ Joanne’s) and upholstery thread and needles I paid about $150. Not too bad, and much cheaper than any new couch, or buying a 13 foot long slip cover. I threw some skinny dowels into the recesses making the couch fit tighter and my mom iced her swollen fingers and we ended up with this beauty…

TA-DA!

The dashed lines mark the seams. The seams are identical on both sides of the couch because the couch is symmetrical. There is an angled seam at the top of both corners of the couch that runs down to meet the seat area. A seam along the back of the sitting area, as well as the two sides. We gave extra room for these when sewing and stuffed them down with dowels to keep the couch taught. Then there are square seams on the front of the couch arms.

back corner seam

Front of the arms of the couch, square seams

I love it

So what do you think? It was easier than I thought it would be, we got it done in a day and a half [BY HAND] if we had used a machine, it would have been a few hours tops. Do you want to try something like this? Do it.

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Thursday, the 13th of June, in the year 2013 by Adora Mae

Hold on to your butts

How beautiful our couch used to be

…because you may actually fall into my couch these days.

When we got our 13 foot long 8.5 feet deep couch of craigslist it seemed like the greatest deal we’ve ever scored. And it was! For two or three solid months.

The the cracks started. And continued.

Then the cats discovered the feel of fake leather under an extended claw. That continued.

Then cracks gave way to full on tears on well worn sections and the simple peeling away of the top layer in other sections. And so on and so on.

Then I read some random blog where the woman said tent repair patches will blend in to the leather and stay on. She lied. The patches however did take off in big chunks the parts of the couch that were just starting to peel. Thats… helpful.

Now I’ve resorted to ducktape, which you may be thinking is hideous looking, but it literally can’t make this couch look worse. My goal is at least to close the giant gashes and stop the peels from falling on the floor by ducktaping all of them together.

All because, hope is on the horizon. Hope in this case, is my moms amazing talent at anything she’s ever attempted. This talent extends to sewing. My mom and Dad have promised to come and visit Josh and me soon. My mom already knows that as soon as she gets here, operation couch cover goes into effect. I have no talent for sewing and zero experience making slip covers so we will see how that turns out. I promise I’ll post whatever we come up with, no matter how bad it turns out.

Time will tell, do you sew? Do you sew slipcovers? Do you want to sew my slipcover?

xoxo,
Adora

| Posted on Monday, the 15th of April, in the year 2013 by Adora Mae