Ektorp sofas and chairs from IKEA are awesome because the covers come off completely so you can wash/replace them. Our two sofas and one chair were ready for a makeover so we asked Santa to bring us new covers this year.
Santa didn't want to get off his wallet for the Idemo Brown covers at $149/sofa and $129/chair. Santa was willing, however, to foot the bill for Blekinge White at $49/sofa and $29/chair.
White sofa covers?!?!?! With four kids. Bad idea, right? Enter Rit Dye which the Elves were willing to ship direct from the Rit workshop for $38.
Check it out
Before pictures
The Recipe for Dying
I skipped the advised prewash step figuring that 100% cotton white covers would be clean enough already.
Split the covers into four equal weight piles.
Fill the washer with HOT water and add:
- One cup Kosher salt - Instructions said not to use Iodized salt so I went for Morton Coarse Kosher. Now our sofas will be ready for Passover;-)
- One bottle Dark Brown Rit Dye
- One bottle Cocoa Brown Rit Dye
Toss in a batch of textiles.
Turn on the wash cycle and set an alarm to remind you to come back and add more time to the wash cycle. The instructions say to let the wash cycle go for 30 minutes. My washer maxed out at a 15 minute cycle so I reset the cycle midstream to end up with 30 minutes total.
Two cold rinse cycles per load seemed enough for the rinse water to run clear of dye.
Throw in the dryer but pull the load out while the covers are not quite totally dry. This prevents shrinkage.
Zip the new covers on.
Repeat the recipe steps for the remaining batches. Run a large load of hot water with soap and bleach to clean the washer.
After Pictures
Savings = $277 ;-)
Dyed covers - total = $176
- 2 sofa @ $49/each = $104 with tax
- 1 chair @ $29/each = $31 with tax
- 8 bottles Liquid Rit Dye (4 Dark Brown and 4 Cocoa Brown) shipped = $38
- 1 box Kosher Salt = $3
Idemo Light Brown covers - total $453
- 2 sofa @ $149/each = $316 with tax
- 1 chair @ $129/each = $137 with tax
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