Yes I am still here... slipcover washing

  I'm sorry I missed last weeks "Inspiration Friday" post, I blame it on the kids still being out of school and I have no idea what day it is most of the time.  I have also been busy with my makeup blog at www.makeupbykimporter.blogspot.com if you want to check it out.  I haven't done anything new around the house the only thing was recently I decided it was time to finally wash the slipcover on our sofa.  You can read about the love affair with my new slipcover here.
  Our black lab, Zoe, likes to lay with her hairy self all up against the sofa and it was covered with black hair.  I had been putting it off for awhile because it is so big and I had no where to hang/lay it to dry.  But it had come to a point that it was really gross and the dog shedding was just awful.
  You can read about the awesome laundry detergent that I used here.  The only thing about that detergent is it really bleaches out whatever stains you are treating.  I left it sitting on one of the cushion covers for too long and it turned it white, so lesson learned, don't leave it sitting on the fabric.
  It is super easy to remove the cover, it's attached by Velcro on the sides and back but comes off with no problem.  I just pre-treated some areas and threw it in the washer.  When is was done washing I folded up in half and laid it on our guest bed, flipping it once, and by the next day it was ready to put on.  It is best to put on when slightly damp so it is easy to stretch and the wrinkles will come out easier.

Rowe Nantucket slipcover in Natural.

It took this many lint brush sheets to remove the mounds of dog hair at the bottom of the sofa.

This is the super cheap, and super effective laundry detergent.
It has removed blood in 2 seconds flat from a cushion cover!!

So now the sofa is nice and fresh again... I will never live with out slipcovered sofa again!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

~  Kim :)

cheap and effective... I like it!

  So you know when something works so well that you just have to tell somebody about it?  Well I have this chair...

older picture of dirty chair

I bought it off of Craigslist for $150.  It's a Pottery Barn Comfort Square with down cushions and the price tag that was left on the leg said $899.00.  I felt like I had gotten a really good deal EXCEPT that the previous owner had let her large Husky dog hang out on it, and the arms were discolored compared to the rest of the chair.  It's a very comfortable chair and I love it, but I have no intention of paying the $449 to replace the current slipcover for a new one.

So the other day I doused the dark spots with Shout and stuck the slipcover in the wash with some bleach, and then I added some more bleach, just in case.  When I took the slipcover out of the wash to hang dry it.... it was YELLOW!!!

I was beside myself worried that we were getting ready for my son's 4th birthday party and I would be stuck with a yucky, yellow chair.  So I went into the garage to look for something to fix the problem and I discovered this...

A super duper cheap laundry detergent that I had picked up a while ago because it was 2/$5.00 and I felt like being cheap.  I read the instructions and it said I could use the liquid detergent straight from the bottle onto the fabric, so that's what I did. Praying the whole time that I wasn't ruining a perfectly good slipcovered chair.

And when I pulled the slipcover out of the washer it was clean... I mean CLEAN.  No yellow in sight and it had removed a lot of the discoloration that had been there before.  CLEAN.

So there ya have it... a cheap and effective product that can remove stains AND yellowing from using too much bleach.  I'm sold.

~  Kim :)

** I would have taken a picture of the clean chair but after 5 days, it's lookin' kinda grungy again.
White slipcover + (2) children = grungy furniture... time to break out the Sun plus Oxi!!!

Family Room Slipcover Round #2

*** I want to apologize ahead of time if anyone is sick of looking at my Family Room, it's new to me so I am excited to show it off... the newness will wear off soon.  I promise :)  

 I was looking at the pictures from yesterday's slipcover reveal and I didn't care for the placement of furniture.  It felt lopsided to me.  So I messed around with the room today and it went from this:

To this:

 I think there is more symmetry to this layout.  One day I plan on doing two matching side tables with matching lamps, but for now this will have to do.

 Our dog, Zoe, she was comfortable so I didn't want to move her.

  I left out the Pottery Barn chair (on the left) in yesterday's post because the slipcover was being washed.  I thought that the two fabrics would match perfectly but the sofa slipcover is a much creamier color than the chair slipcover.

 I created a little display on the wicker trunk of books, shells, and a green potted plant.

Okay, so I have a question and would love some feedback.  Below is a picture with the yellow garden stool that I purchased at HomeGoods.  It is very yellow and I'm not sure that I want to keep it that color.  If you compare the two pictures below one has the stool and one doesn't.  What do you think, keep the stool yellow or spray paint it another color?  And what color do you think?

 With yellow garden stool.

With out stool... I definitely plan on incorporating it somehow, just unsure about the yellow.  What do you think?  

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Family Room Slipcover

  I am in love, I am in love with something that can not love me back...I know this and I still love it so.  I've thought about it, dreamed about it, and imagined it with me.  :)  It is my pretty new slipcover!!!  I love it.  It is exactly what this house needed and I feel like finally all of my hard work to make this our airy, beachy, modern style home is coming together.

  I saved $500 on a brand new slipcovered Rowe Nantucket sofa.  How'd you do that you ask??  Well let me break it down for ya!

New Sofa $1,100 + cost of upgraded fabric = around $1,300 when all is said and done.

I paid $810.00 for mine!

 This is how... I paid $165 for the sofa with existing cranberry slipcover off of Craigslist awhile ago and I paid $645 for a new slipcover.  Ridiculous I know, but I'm saving $500 here in the long run!!!  When you think of it as paying around $800 for a quality, name brand sofa that will last for years, most people wouldn't even blink an eye at that price.

Some people I know...(Mom and DH) think I'm crazy for paying that much for a slipcover when "the other one was perfectly fine".  Well yes, the other one was not in terrible shape but it was CRANBERRY for goodness sakes!!  I lived with a red leather sofa for 8 years (bad design choice I know, I was young).  I am so OVER red.  So that's how it happened and I am so happy that I did it.  We might be eating mac n' cheese for the rest of the week, but we'll be stylin' while we're watching the tube! :)

So here is the before picture of the sofa:

Not terrible but everything in our house is blue or white.  

It just didn't go with the style of our home.

And here she is all dressed up in her new slipcover!!!

 I made the pillows today.  I didn't even bother buying new pillows, I just stuck some old ones that weren't being used into the new case.

 A crate found at Goodwill.

 The lighting is hard to work with in this room in the afternoon.  For some reason the pictures come out dark when it actually really bright in here.  Speaking of lighting... the fan is hideous, I know.  I have plans.

Okay now watch this... you see this little person walking by, watch what happens...

Do you see the blanket?  He did that on PURPOSE.  Just walked by and pulled it down and kept on walking!!!

 The garden stool is from HomeGoods.

The view from the kitchen.  Sooo pretty! :)

So I put the slipcover on late yesterday afternoon and by last night there were already shoe marks and jelly. JELLY.  on it.  It was a total accident that the jelly got onto it but still I was like are you kidding me?!!!   I need to ScotchGuard this sucker ASAP.

Thanks for looking, I hope you all like it as much as I do!

~ Kim :)