Friday, September 5, 2014

White Ektorp Slipcover Debacle: An Ikea Slipcover Tradegy

My white Ikea Ektorp slipcover. I bought it, I loved it, and then I washed it....

A while ago, I wrote this post about how it was wearing and swore to post an update after it's first wash.Well, here we go!


After we moved into this house, I knew immediately that I wanted a white slipcover for our couch. In fact, even when we lived in our old house in Annapolis, I put this mood board together hoping to convince my husband that we should get the white slipcover for our Ikea Extorp sectional. No dice.



But when we moved into this place, we got a gift card at closing from our bank. I guess when you plan to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of a loan in interest alone, the bank decides to give you $200 back as a "thank you" gift. So I took that as an opportunity to spend $99 of it on my coveted slipcover.


It has made it through its first wash and now looks like this:


I could cry. (And not because there are little feet injuring tiny toys sprinkled all over the floor. Darn My Little Pony jewels!) Despite following the washing directions, our white slipcover looks like someone attempted to tie-dye it yellow. What. In. The. World. Happened?!

I've tried bleaching it. No luck. I've tried washing it and putting it out to dry in the blinding sun. No luck. So, in short, my review is simple: I am NOT happy. I followed the washing instructions and my lovely white slipcover is ruined. Poop.

And now Justin says it is so ugly that we can't put it back on the couch. I'm stuck with Old Blue once again...


Many years ago, Old Blue once was part of a Pottery Barn wunnabe mood board, but it's a little past it's prime now. I don't like it as much in this room, and especially not with my new Ikat pillows and paint color.





Old Blue once looked like this in all its glory:


Old Blue even had this mood board created around it:


But Old Blue just looks too old and worn now, and it is just not cutting it.

Does anyone have any tricks up their sleeve in regards to saving my favorite white cover? Or should we just scrap the idea of ever having a white couch and dye the ruined white cover another color? Navy? Gray? Let me know what you think!!

13 comments:

  1. Drats! How disappointing! I think dying it navy blue would be beautiful- & would work well for your family life.

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    1. I think we just might have to salvage it by dying it. Time to do a little research!

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  2. I have the Ektorp slipcover in white for a chair- and our washes just fine. I'm sorry you didn't have the same experience! I wonder if you called IKEA if they would do anything for you. But if not, I'd dye it gray. Maybe a dark gray like your curtains. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks, Valerie! I am definitely going to try giving them a call and seeing if anything can be done.

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  3. Try washing it in Borax powder it gets the yellow out of sheets. Maybe it will do the trick.

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    1. Thanks, Sarah! We happen to have some Borax, I will give that a try.

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  4. Oh no! I don't have any tricks sorry, but I don't think the blue ones are totally ugly. Maybe you can incorporate a touch of coral for pillows to make it look different. Something like this.... http://www.target.com/p/room-essentials-circle-texture-decorative-pillow-coral/-/A-15090180#prodSlot=medium_1_1&term=coral+throw+pillows

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    1. Oh, I like that idea! I do love coral. Thanks, Jessica. I know my husband would much prefer to keep the blue over white anyway :)

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  5. That is so disappointing! I hope someone can give you some pointers on how to get it back to white. If not, I think gray would also look really good!

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  7. That's a bummer. I've never been brave enough to cross over to white couch with 3 kids. I vote for navy. I have such a crush on Navy right now. But, warning!! I used a Navy blue Rit dye on 100% cotton, followed directions to the letter and everything turned out bright purple. -Jess

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    1. Oh no! Thank you so much for the heads up. I thought we would try to go Navy, but I'm not too sure now.

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