Choose Your Own DIY Adventure! Sofa Edition

Today’s makeovers are coming to you “Choose Your Own Adventure” style! Here we go!

We begin in your living room. Something is not right in here. Something is the opposite of right. Something is wrong.  You take a good long look around until your gaze rests on your sofa. Suddenly it all makes sense. The culprit is your fuggo sofa. Realization dawns that you’ve been unhappy with your sofa for a long time. It’s old; it’s worn out. You can hardly stand to look at it, let alone sit on it. It’s time for a change. Do you:

A: go buy a new sofa.

B: figure out a way to restore your sofa.

If you chose A., go to the furniture store. Bye.

If you chose B., congratulations! Your journey continues.

You decide your sofa can be saved. But you don’t know where to start. Let’s start by touching your sofa. Run your hand over it. What do you feel?

A: leather.

B: fabric.

C: gross, I’m not touching that thing.

If you chose A., scroll down to this sofa from Eden at DIYHER. Notice the worn and faded leather. Can it be saved? Is there any hope?

Heck yes there is. You order yourself a bottle of leather dye and bring that baby back to life in a snap. You remember to wear gloves and do it outside because leather dye is potent, but also crazy affordable, hey! You are thrilled with your results and live in a blissful state of happiness for the rest of your life.

If you chose B., turn your attention to this couch from Tamara at Provident Home Design.  The droopy brown fabric brings you down, and it’s pretty stained too. But you have company coming to visit soon, so you decide now is a perfect time to try painting upholstery. You mix yourself a homemade batch of chalk paint, look up a few online tutorials for tips and tricks, and  …

… you paint that couch.  It’s now a lovely neutral gray, and when your visitors arrive they are amazed. They can’t stop commenting on your wisdom, problem solving skills, and DIY expertise and nominate you to run for President, and you end up winning, and wow, now you are the President. Congratulations!

If you chose C., your sofa may look something like this loveseat from Christy at 11 Magnolia Lane. You remember how thrilled you were to find it at a thrift-store for $14, but have been overwhelmed by the task of reupholstering it, so it has sat unchanged in your home ever since. But seriously, it grosses you out.

But today you bite the bullet. You decide to take charge of your life and conquer your fears, and you teach yourself how to reupholster your couch. You do an amazing job! You decide to help other people conquer their fears too. You record your philosophies on a series of audiotapes and sell them on late-night infomercials. You become a world famous motivational speaker/life coach/furniture re-upholsterer. All of your dreams come true.

THE END