This 1-Minute, Cheap Sofa Hack Will Change Your Living Room for the Better

Maybe your living room sofa has seen better days, but you don’t have the bandwidth or budget to pursue reupholstery or order something brand new. Boy, do we feel you! Sofas can be a huge investment, and even the most well-loved pieces can be difficult to part with for logistical, financial, and even emotional reasons.

So what if we told you that you could go ahead and revamp your sofa on a major budget and in less than a few minutes’ time, depending on how much of a perfectionist you are? Yes, this trick is really that simple, and it’s something designer Emily Henderson herself did in her last house to refresh her white sofa, which you can see above.

All you have to do is find an oversized throw blanket or vintage textile in a color or pattern of your choosing and ensure that it’s large enough to cover the back—or the seat—of your sofa. That’s it!

Here’s how to do it: once you’ve selected your textile, drape it over the back of your sofa and simply start tucking it, inch by inch, into your seat cushion or cushions. Be sure to pull the textile taut, making sure any excess fabric is placed under the cushions to keep it hidden. Strategically add back your throw pillows, covering any lumpy or rumpled spots where the back of the sofa meets the seat, which might give up your trick. And voilà—this one decorating move will transform what’s probably the biggest piece in your living room, no reupholstery required!

If the seat of your sofa is stained or worn, you can camouflage cushions this way, too—all you have to do is wrap them in fabric. In this case, you may want to pin the textile or blanket you’re using in place under the cushion(s), since the fabric may shift a bit each time you sit on the sofa. You can also use this hack on an upholstered headboard as well, as seen in the California bungalow below, where a vintage mud cloth was used to personalize a plain white headboard. Simply throw the a textile over the headboard, and you’ve got a whole new look on your hands—no tucking even required here.

So basically, you’ve been using your throw blanket wrong this whole time. You thought it looked good artfully strewn on your sofa arm or folded at the foot of your bed, but it could be making a much bigger decorative impact this way. The best part about this hack is that if you’re somewhat wishy-washy when it comes to decorating, it’s easy enough to change out your textile again to introduce a whole new pattern or color scheme into your space in just moments. Plus, a tucked blanket adds a super cozy, boho vibe to any space, which is perfect as we enter the colder winter months.