Adventures in Slipcovering Part 1

Let me start this off by stating clearly that I love my couch. It was a battle getting Shaun to agree on something for the living room that looked nice and we both liked. Shaun is NOT a fan of button tufting, patterns or really anything that isn't leather. I love leather sofas as well but we already have the leather seating in the basement theater area and I just had my heart set on a cloth sofa.

This is our ZGallerie Prague Sofa, they no longer sell it but have similar options on their website.

and this is Bear wondering why I removed all of his favorite pillows and am now photographing his sofa.

Again, we love the look of it and it is super comfortable but it does have a couple things going against it.

The things that Shaun doesn't like is that since the fabric is such a thick weave, it pills very easily and the main areas we sit down on look worn out and older after a year of use.  It also collects Bears white fur very easily and shows up because it's a deep charcoal color.

The thing that I don't like about it is that it's such a large piece and so dark, it really makes the space look less light and bright, which is what I love about being surrounded by windows and doors. We get pretty good natural light throughout the entire house but the giant dark grey sofa just absorbs the light  and works like a black hole.

My first (and I thought most obvious) idea was to slipcover! I had looked at slipcovers online for a while and none got very good reviews. I wanted something with a linen material in a light tan or grey that would fix all of the aforementioned issues. So one day in Target we were walking down the aisle and I came across the perfect linen slipcover. After some quiet battling with Shaun, we ended up taking it home and I finally got to covering it a day later.

Just as when I change the sheets or make the bed, Bear immediately jumped onto it to test the waters and make sure everything was cool.

What I didn't like initially was the wrinkles in the fabric and the way it pulled together at the back and around the bottoms. 

I tossed it in the dryer for a few minutes on the steam setting and it took out the majority of the wrinkles.  This is what it looked like after wrestling with tucking it in under the cushions and tying it around tightly.

Apparently Shaun is not the only one unsure of the slipcovered sofa...

You can see the un-slipcovered chair (Bears chair) and the difference that the brightness makes in the room. Unfortunately even after leaving it for a few days in hopes that it would grow on Shaun, it didn't and now all of my cushion wrangling and steaming is for nothing. What do you think? Are you a fan or do you like the original? We will probably end up getting a light cognac colored square sofa for this space instead, but at least I tried!