The Art of Failing: Slipcover Gone Wrong


Sometimes thing just don’t go the way you expect, or want, them to. Take these homemade brownies I tried to make with a can of black beans. Definitely a mistake. Thankfully, most of these things aren’t disastrous by any means, just mistakes. Well, my friends, I have come close to disastrous with this new little experiment I tried. As you all know, I am working to make our carport room into my Mego Cave. You can see its progress when I began making it over by starting with this fabric artwork project, then got this steal of an antique door desk, and changed around the layout. When I got the new, super, awesome FREE chair, it kind of changed the direction I was going in the room. Originally I was going to get a chair that complemented the blue loveseat. Now that I have this electric blue chair, I think the combo with the soft blue loveseat is just a little too…blue. And you know we don’t want any blues in that room!

So I had this super-great idea (or so I thought). I would bring the blue loveseat to the basement to complement its blue walls down there and bring the more modern lines of the basement loveseat upstairs. The only problem was this loveseat was horribly ugly. It is a hand-me-down from the in-laws (from a looong time ago) and hopefully there are no hard feelings that I just called something they bought ugly. Although I am pretty sure I have told them that before. Moreso in the words, “It’s just not my style.” Anyways, we were planning on slipcovering this guy anyways, so I thought, why not bring it upstairs and slipcover it to fit my Mego Cave?! Makes sense right?
I know, I know. You are thinking, “Duh, Megan, slipcovers always end in disaster.” Well, I’m not a believer in that. I just have a really hard time getting rid of something that is in perfect shape just because it’s not pretty/my style. There has to be something I can to do it to make it pretty! I thought perhaps going with a high-end slipcover (aka me not cheaping out!) would be a good solution. Then, if it didn’t work then I would feel slightly better shoving the old loveseat out the door. So after quite a bit of research, I settled upon this slipcover.

Boy was I excited when this came in the mail. So excited that I don’t even have pictures of the packaging. After I found it waiting on the front porch for me after work, I ran into the house, ripped it open, and practically flew down the stairs. Soon cushions and covers were flying around the room as I worked to get the new slipcover in place. Although, I did have a little inkling in my head that this wouldn’t work, so I had picked a place with free shipping for both delivery and returns. I also made note of the packaging before opening it, so I could best replicate it and get my money back if I returned it. Weird that I had that foresight but didn’t actually take pictures of it. Did I mention I was excited?

Before I knew it the seat cushion covers were off and the t-cushion slipcover was on. It looked promising, right?

Then came the more challenging part of fitting the second cover over the loveseat. You had to find the tags marked “Front Center”, “Back Center”, “Left Arm”, and “Right Arm”. Then it really wasn’t that hard. Just push and pull a little bit. Then it was time to sit to see the result.

It was wrong. All wrong. It wasn’t even a Band-Aid solution. It just wasn’t a solution at all. Although I knew this was a real possibility it also made me sad. I let it sit on there for a few hours, but I knew it wasn’t the perfect solution. I didn’t want to settle for “okay” or “it will do”. I wanted to scream and shout for joy at the result. Done are my days of filler pieces. I want everything brought into the house to make me oh-so happy and be absolutely right. So off it came and back to the store it went.

I guess it’s just one of those live and learn moments, right? Although, I still haven’t written off slipcovers for good. I think this loveseat was a challenging fit, especially with the t-cushions, which are a lot harder to find slipcovers for than the box cushions. I think slipcovers would also work better for more plush couches. This one had thinner arms and a straighter back, so it didn’t fill out the slipcover enough (even though the packaging said the slipcover would fit the size). It’s sort of like baggy pants on a really skinny person. It’s just an odd look.

So what’s the plan now? To save up for a loveseat that I not only love now, but will love for many years. I am looking for an investment piece, one that will make me jump up and down for joy every time I see it. So that’s what I will be doing for the next few months: saving and searching for that right piece. Gosh, it feels good to not cheap out for once. Some things are worth the wait.

What about you? Any mistakes you made that eventually led to something better? Or taught you a lesson along the way? Or just made me you at its ridiculousness?