Marie Claire Maison creates three looks with Habitat's Chester sofa. Of course it helps when you are starting with a beautiful backdrop and a high quality sofa, but the ideas apply to any living room and couch. Try Etsy and other online or brick and mortar retailers for affordable fabric, or you can even use drop cloths and blankets as slipcovers.
Translated, the text describes how the respective styled couches show a combination of colors and patterns (but in a unified palette), a single color with assorted small patterns, and lots of pattern but little color. While mixing patterns can be tricky, the lesson to take away from these images is to stick to one, two, or very complementary colors and then play with scale. Together a solid, a small motif, and a larger print can do the trick. To read more, try this helpful how-to from Decor8.
For the full article see Marie Claire Maison.
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Images by Mark Eden Schooley for Marie Claire Maison
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gorgeous!
I covet all these.
I would love to find slipcovers, Sure Fit does not make ones big enough, for my over sized wing back chairs. They are hard as hell to do as a first time project and the quotes I got are in the $1K range for both chairs and ottoman.
I would love to get a similar look to that first picture. However, as a poor grad student, I'll say that will probably never happen considering how nice the sofa/room is in that photo.
I love the second one. Any recs on a similar fabric from sewers out there? I *really* want to do this for our aging couch, which has really similar lines to that one!
I have always loved "hippie couches". I had one for awhile draped with inexpensive indigo ikats from Bali and pillows done with batiks from Thailand.
Hmmm ... I'm no expert, but from my experience, store-bought slipcovers never fit correctly--they're either too big or too small--and custom-made slipcovers can cost as much (or more) as buying a new couch.
Romo has some linen chartreuse apple color fabric similar to the second picture.
Kimberly K - The closest color matches I've found are decor-weight fabrics that cost about $10-$15 a yard. They might be best for decorative or back pillows, though, since they aren't quite upholstery weight:
http://creativequiltkits.com/hot-mustard-solid-echino-by-kokka.html
http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/3134-Rowan-Fabrics-Shot-Cotton
Loislane: Definitely, custom slipcovers can be expensive. I tried to list quick, cheaper ideas (drop cloths, blankets). Also, if you are buying smaller quantities of fabric or remnants and maybe just covering pillows, as shown, you can lower your cost.
Slipcovers are an awesome fix to update a perfectly good although ugly piece of furniture. However, as someone previously noted - store bought slipcovers aren't so great. They never end up looking as wonderful as one hopes. Custom slipcovers aren't cheap but they are often less $$ than buying a whole new sofa or chair. Plus custom ones fit so well nobody knows it's a slipcover.
Does anyone have a link on how to make a slipcover?
Meanwhile I just made a drop cloth from fabric I bought for my ugly sofa.
The yellow sofa in these pictures is gorgeous.
Custom slipcovers and reupholstry costs are pretty much about the same price. Remember that when you get reupholstered, that the saggy bits are replaced and other things are tightened up as well. Reuphostery, IMO, is the way to go. If you can't do that, then a drape-over treatment would be my second choice.
There's a great free chart for slipcover yardage you can download and wonderful fabrics (the best from the top designer to-the-trade companies at less than wholesale) here. (I"m only sharing this since I've finished decorating my place - otherwise it would still be my secret - but these folks are very good to deal with and helpful too so they deserve the plug)
The website is http://www.restorationfabricsandtrims.com