This Little Couch of Ours

Our Ikea Klippan 4-seater couch is turning out to be not quite the easy-peasy couch we thought it was when we bought it last year.  Granted, it was only $400, which is in no way pocket change, but for a 4-person couch.  It doesn't get much cheaper.  In that $400, was also included a white slipcover which is somewhere in the garage.  The thing is toast. 

We washed it a lot--because it was white, we had to--but it still held onto stains and with each wash a new hole showed up, until one fateful wash, there was a hole right on the middle of the couch cover.  No bueno.  So we're using it for a dropcloth now.  We later found out Ikea discontinued their Klippan 4-seater all together, without even a head's up, so we teamed up with Comfort Works to outfit our couch with a new slipcover.

First, we went with a Kino slipcover. The fabric was so choice and the fit was perfection but the color turned slate blue in our darker digs which we weren't digging...at all.

Because Comfort Works custom makes each slipcover we weren't sure if we were going to be able to return it, but fortunately we were (on our own dime).  To be sure we weren't going to make the same mistake again, we ordered a slew of free swatches to test out in the room and Chris landed immediately on the white leather one.  He deemed it "The safest."

When it arrived last week, I panicked and sent this photo to Chris:

It was ill-fitting and really, really wrinkly. I could feel his panic from across the county (he was in Philly on business) with a simple "ekes" response. Over the next couple days, the leather smoothed out a little bit as I continued to tuck and tuck and pull and tuck.

One perk of the leather is it is completely wipeable which makes us breathe a lot easier when thinking back to our last, poor, shredded, over-washed, white slipcover.  Also, the leather is super, SUPER soft, which was a happy surprise from bicast leather.

As for the color, it is...bright.  Even whiter than our fauxdenza cabinets.  I am sure our deep dark walls are making it appear even brighter than it would against a lighter shade.  But, let's just say, our eyes are still adjusting.  We are still used to seeing our nude, natural Klippan so it might take a few days.

 The wrinkles have eased up over the weekend (thankfully!) and I am hoping that with a few more days of tugging, the fit will be more glove-like.

Through all of this, Comfort Works has been a peach.  We love the idea of taking a basic, cheap sofa and revamping it and giving it new life or at least a better wardrobe.

That being said, we're saving our pennies for a forever couch (at least one we can hang onto for a decade or more!) for the living room.  After buying our Lounge sofa for the family room, we are starting to understand why sometimes it pays to invest in a good, quality piece of furniture. I've got my eye on a really, beautiful couch, but the Klippan will have to do until I can convince Chris we should splurge.  Hehehe.

How was your weekend?  How was the rest of your week last week?  Thanks for letting me slip out for a few days to take care of things.  Everything is just fine over here--some things are just more important than home decor.

We are so grateful to Comfort Works who provided the slipcover for us to review, but did not pay me to write a positive review, if that wasn't obvious. ;)  All opinions are my own.