Tips & Tricks for Slipcovering a Recliner

I am five weeks from my due date, and trying my best to finish up projects before the baby arrives!

I wasn’t dead-set on anything particular for the nursery, but I did know that I wanted a comfortable upholstered recliner!  I shopped around last fall, and was shocked that 1) upholstered gliders are really expensive, and 2) they don’t usually come slipcovered.  I wasn’t prepared to spend upwards of $800 for a chair.  I also couldn’t believe that a piece of furniture used primarily for nursing didn’t come slipcovered!  Wouldn’t the fabric get gross over time?!?

I perused Craigslist for several weeks, and eventually came across a $50 glider/recliner.  When I went to check it out, I found it to be the perfect size for my petite frame, and super comfortable.  Sold!

Now came the hard part…making a slipcover.  I’m not going to walk you through making a slipcover here - there are very talented people out there with excellent instructions.  But I do want to share some tips and tricks I came up with along the way that took my slipcover from “gets the job done” to “pro-style”!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you: making a slipcover is not easy, or fast, or even cheap (8 yards of fabric adds up quickly!).  But if you have the skills and patience, it can be very rewarding!  This project cost $80 in fabric, another $20 in supplies like velcro and elastic, and about 15 hours of work.

1. Buy more fabric than you need

I googled the suggested yardage needed for a recliner slipcover, and ultimately ordered 8 yards.  I had a little over one yard left over, which I plan to use to make a matching dog bed.

If your fabric is directional (mine couldn’t be turned 90 degrees without losing the pattern), and especially if it can only be placed in one direction (up must be up), you should order more fabric than suggested.

 

2. Pre-shrink your fabric

The reason you’re making a slipcover is so that it can be washed.  Many upholstery fabrics recommend dry-cleaning only, even though they are 100% cotton.  This is because they shrink.  A lot. 

Cut a sample of your fabric and run it through a normal wash and dry cycle to see what happens.  If it comes out OK, wash and dry all of your fabric to pre-shrink it.  I cut my fabric into two 4-yard pieces to wash it.

My fabric shrunk 5%.  If I hadn’t pre-shrunk it, it probably wouldn’t fit on the chair again after its first washing!

3. Start with the largest pieces first

The smallest pieces can be made from scraps at the end of your project if you're running short on fabric, but you can never get those large yardages back once you cut them up!

Cut the pieces for the largest parts of your slipcover first.  You won’t regret it!

 

4. Decide on a centerline for your fabric

I had two options for my fabric - the shapes with the flowers inside, and those without.  I photographed the fabric with both ones on the centerline of the chair, and the shapes with the flowers just felt right.  I made sure to use those shapes as the centerline for all the largest pieces of the slipcover.

5. Pin your pieces together on the chair

Why take it off and on a billion times?  Just fit the pattern to the chair!

I wasn’t quite sure how to handle the odd-shaped back of the chair, so I pinned the flat back on first, then draped the front piece until everything looked right.  I never would have designed a pattern this way, but it just felt right when it was all pinned in place.

Also, start with huge seam allowances.  If you have 2-inch seam allowances to start with, you won’t be short on fabric if you have to make adjustments later.  You can trim these down once you’re happy with the entire slipcover.

6. Use any removable pieces as patterns

The seat of my recliner is removable, and even had a zip-off cover.  I removed this and used it as the pattern for the slipcover. 

On top of that, I salvaged the zipper from the original seat cushion and reused it in my slipcover.

Having a separately-covered seat cushion makes a slipcovered piece look much more professional.

For the front “legs” of the chair, you can make a paper pattern by holding up a piece of paper and lightly tracing the edges with a pencil or creasing with your fingernail.

 

7. Make a separate cover for the foot rest

The downfall of many recliner slipcovers is in the foot rest.  If you have a snug slipcover, the foot rest won’t want to function.  You can fix this by creating mini slipcovers for the foot rests.

Mine looked like hairnets, essentially long rectangular boxes with an elastic band around the edge.  They still didn’t want to fit nicely, so I also added straps that secured with velcro around the back, to hold them in place.

  

 

8. Use velcro instead of a hemmed skirt

My chair didn’t seem like a good candidate for a skirt around the bottom.  To give it a clean edge, I velcroed the fabric around the bottom of the chair.  One side of the velcro was attached to the slipcover, and the other side of the velcro was stapled to the inside of the chair.  This gave the finished product a beautiful and clean edge, but the slipcover is still 100% removable.

 

9. Secure all your seams by zigzagging or serging

All those raw-edge seams hiding inside your slipcover are going to ravel when you first wash the slipcover.  You can prevent this by going over all the raw edges with a zig zag stitch or with a serger.

10. Take care of problem areas

One reason the people listed this chair on Craigslist for so cheap was that the recliner lever had torn through the cushion seat.  This was because the rubber cover had torn, leaving raw metal exposed.  I fixed this by making the lever it’s own padded slipcover.  Look, it's camouflaged!

If you notice problems like this before you purchase the furniture, make sure you have an idea for how to fix them.  I knew I could fix this, so I wasn’t worried about it!

 


Look how well it turned out!  Snug-fitting, clean lines, the pattern matches up - you can't even tell it's slipcovered instead of reupholstered.  I can't wait to spend many hours in this chair with my baby girl!!!
 

Hopefully these tips will help you make an awesome slipcover for a chair in need of a little love!  I’m so pleased with how this one turned out - for a fraction of the price, I have a comfortable, custom recliner/glider for my nursery, and it’s washable!!!

You might also be interested in these posts:

Facelift for a sad sofa
Overdye a comforter for a new look

Bonnie Projects

Small Space Solution: IKEA Hemnes as a Buffet

It looks like we finally have some easily-accessible storage in our little dining room!

Remember all that junk that was constantly taking over our dining space?  No more!

This handy guy is less than 9" deep, and because it doesn't have back legs, fits snugly against the wall.  The slim design allowed us to have something like a buffet in our dining room.

Except, it's not a buffet.  It's an IKEA Hemnes that's actually made to hold shoes!  Rather than drawers, the compartments tilt out for access.  My computer and accessories nicely fit in one compartment.  We have magazines in another, and there are still two empty that we can use for whatever may come.

At $100, I'm really happy with this new addition to the dining room!  It's cute, sturdy, slim, and holds all the stuff.  Perfect!

I have to be honest though, this thing was a complete pain to build and install.

Tommy has a LOT of experience building IKEA stuff (his 10-person office is all IKEA), but it took him a several days to build this thing.

Then, when we went to install it, the back didn't quite clear the molding.  What do you do when your IKEA Hemnes is too short for the molding?  Add length to the legs!

I bought 6 different options at the hardware store (everything from wooden buttons to drawer pulls), and plain wooden drawer pulls ended up winning.  I spray painted them with plain ol' primer, and affixed them with wood glue.  If this piece were going to move around much, I would have used something stronger, but since it's screwed into the wall and the knobs will only have vertical force on them, I think the wood glue will do just fine.

There's more staging to be done, but I'm pretty excited about the ducks!  We have lots of wildlife on the lake behind our house, but the ducks are our favorites.  Now we get to have them inside, too!

You might also be interested in these posts:

Painting the Dining Room
Hiring a Decorator

Bonnie Projects

Investment Property: Maintenance

Did you know that Bonnie Projects has a side business?  Yep!  Welcome to Bonnie Properties!  Just kidding on the name, but that's what my husband calls it when I'm messing around with real estate.

I've never mentioned this on my blog before, but I have an investment property.  It's a 1987 condo near where I went to grad school.  I bought it when I started grad school because I couldn't find a rental I actually wanted to live in (that wasn't horribly overpriced).

It has two equal-sized bedrooms and bathrooms, and a surprising amount of storage space.  It also has free parking and was one block (albeit up a 20 degree incline) to my graduate office.  Perfect for students!

When I bought it, the condo had been a rental for over 20 years.  Gross.  I actually rented it from the seller for a few weeks before closing - otherwise I would have been living out of my car!  It was so gross that I tore the carpet out before closing.  A risky move, I agree, but I just couldn't deal with that carpet.

Over the two years I was in grad school, I completely remodeled that condo.  Maybe I'll share some projects sometime!  By the time I graduated, the condo was cute, functional, and from what I understand, a desirable place to live!  Instead of selling it, I decided to rent it out.

I wasn't attached to my college furniture, so I left it all there and rent it furnished.  There are pros and cons to this.  Pros are that I can charge more for rent.  Also, because the tenants aren't moving furniture in and out, I feel like the condo stays in better condition.  Cons coming later in this post.

So enough back history!  On to the drama!!!

Twice a year I travel to my college town to visit friends and check on the condo.  I test the appliances, chat with the tenants, and make any necessary repairs.  For the past four years, this has worked out really well, and mostly all I ever do is fill in nail holes and touch up scuffs on the paint.  Maybe some light cleaning.  One time I replaced the deadbolt.

Y'all, those four blissful years of owning a rental property just came to a screeching halt.  You ready for this?

Bless her heart, I thought I'd walked into the wrong unit!!!  What happened to my beautiful apartment?!?!

What follows is how I spent two insane days getting this place back in shape.

1. Appliances

Once I could breathe again, I chatted with the tenant (actually a subletter) about the state of the appliances.  She informed me that the dishwasher didn't clean, the clothes washer didn't wash, the dryer didn't dry, and the AC wasn't cooling.  And, oh yeah, the bathroom fan didn't suck.  Awesome!

I took a peek in the laundry closet.  Once I unearthed the washer and dryer from a thick layer of detergent slime, I started assessing the problems.

For starters, the clothes washer was original to the unit, making it 26 years old.  I decided it was time for it to graduate, and I'd suck it up and get a new one.  A hilarious conversation with the appliance lady at Lowe's  left me choosing a Maytag washer that doesn't require high efficiency soap.  Apparently putting non-HE soap in an HE washer can kill it.  Undergrads hardly know how to wash clothes (at least I didn't), so I wasn't going to count on them using the right soap.  First lesson in rentals - keep it simple!  The washing machine also came with free delivery and installation, which saved me a few hours of work.  Crucial when you only have two days!

out with the old ...

... and in with the new!

Next, the dryer.  it turns out the dryer had been shoved back against the wall, crimping the vent.  I checked the vents for lint blockage, and they were fine.  I reassembled everything, and left the dryer farther out from the wall.  Then I remembered.  Keep it simple!  To prevent this from happening in the future, I installed a block of wood behind the dryer.  Now if it gets pushed back, there's nowhere for it to go, and the vent can't get smushed.

smushed!

smush prevention

no more smushing!

I took a look at the AC filter, and became immediately convinced that it maybe, just possibly, had never been changed by these tenants.  In their defense, it's in a weird place, and the size isn't standard.  But seriously?  Every bill comes with a reminder to change it out!  You'd think they might have said something over the past two years.  I called the AC guys, and they came out bright and early on Day 2 to clean the AC unit.  I also ordered a 12-pack of these apparently weird-size filters, and had it delivered to the condo.  The new tenants have no excuses!

The dishwasher.  I'm a little attached to the dishwasher.  It was my very first appliance purchase.  I bought it used on Craigslist for $100 for my 23rd birthday.  I was even cheaper  more budget conscious back then than I am now, and refused to pay more than the appliance to have it installed, so me and DIY Network spent a few cozy hours together installing it.  Well, it wasn't new when I got it, and it's six years older now, and it might be time for it to go.  I disassembled the insides hoping it was simply a blockage or something, but no such luck.

Finally, the bathroom fans.  It's funny, I'm great at changing air filters, but it never occurred to me that a bathroom fan might also get dusty.  People, these things are a fire hazard!!!  Over the 26-year life of this thing, it had sucked up dust and hair, and created a lovely little hairball around the motor.  That sad little motor just couldn't power through anymore, and it was kapooey.  Luckily, new ones are available for $14, and don't even require flipping a breaker!  It's a few screws and plugging it in, and it's done.  Only one of the fans was toast, but I replaced them both just so the same problem doesn't happen again soon.  Guess what I'll be cleaning in my own house this weekend? 

2. Paint & Holes

In a small apartment, or probably any home really, walls get scuffed and scratched.  It happens.  People also like to hang stuff up and create billions of tiny holes in the walls.  It happens.  So every time I work on the condo, I make sure to bring putty and paint.  I go through every room, and fill every hole.  Once it's dry, I sand it smooth and slap on some fresh paint. 

The past four years, this has worked like a charm.  This time...not as much.  Something happened to the paint, and now what's on the walls is a smidge darker than what's in the can, even though it's exactly the same stuff.  The difference really bugs me, so I guess I'll be painting everything pretty soon!  I had hoped that paint would last more than 6 years, but I guess with renters you just never know.


3. Furniture

Just like everything else, I've gotten incredibly lucky that all the furniture has held up through years of abuse.  If you're still reading, this will come as no surprise - it was awful this time!!!  Well, not everything, but the sofa and chair were really really yucky.  Like, don't keep scrolling if you're eating.

The chair was a garage sale find that my Mom helped me recover eons ago.  It wasn't savable, so it got relocated to the curb.  I found this cute replacement at World Market.  Between their sale and my coupon, it was only $90!  I think the grey will hold up a lot better than the old cream-colored chair did.

The sofa was another story.  It's a La-Z-Boy microfiber sofa, and it's structurally in great shape.  I'm not quite sure what happened to the fabric though...

I tried my usual trick of taking a wet rag to it, and miraculously it came off without a fight!!!  I googled around a little and found some people who had thrown the cushions covers through the wash with good success.  This gave me a chance to test the new washer, so I was in!  I tested a throw pillow cover first to be sure, but it worked and so everything else got thrown in too!  A few tough stains still linger, but overall it's about a million times better.  And now my skin doesn't crawl when I look at it.

4. Blinds

Oh my god, what happened to my blinds?!?

It's simple, really - the cord condenser broke.  They're just cheapo little plastic snap-together thingys.  Some of the cords had come out of the mechanisms all up in there, so I had to do some re-stringing.  I installed fresh cord condensers.  For a more permanent fix, I also tied all the cords in a knot, just above the cord condenser.  This makes it so that all the pressure that was previously on the condenser is now transferred to the knot.  

5. Safety

I tested all the smoke alarms, and they all worked!  One success.

I've provided a fire extinguisher for years, but this time I finally took the initiative to attach it to the wall.  All it took was two screws, and was super easy.  I should have done it sooner.  I also added this to my list of stuff to address at my own home.

Locks and keys were in working condition, too.  Hooray!

6. Other

The old washer had a lid that opened sideways - the hinges were on the left side.  The new washer opened away from you, with the hinges at the back.  Those cool storage shelves I installed above the washer years ago?  Yeah, they prevented the new washer lid from fully opening.  So with my oodles of free time, I drilled new holes, moved the support, then filled and painted the old hole.  Whew!

7. Is it worth it?

This past slew of issues with the income property really added up, both in terms of money and stress.  That said, when I run my numbers on whether a property is a good investment, I budget for maintenance and repairs.  This year they are higher than the budget, but when averaged with past years, everything still looks really good.

As for the stress, I mitigate that with holding babies (my friends in town have two babies that are so adorable that you completely forget about cleaning slime from a sofa) and getting lunch at my favorite campus spots.  Thankfully they're as tasty and successful as ever!  The restaurants, not the babies.  Plus I got to wander around my alma mater a bit.

You might also be interested in these posts:

Kitchen Update: Plantation Blinds
Half Bath Reveal
Sofa Facelift
Updating the Condo (Mirrors and Doorknobs)

Bonnie Projects