Raise your hand if you’ve ever been blessed with a hand-me-down piece of furniture that you never really liked but definitely needed…?!!! Sure, we’ve all had that “vintage in all the wrong ways” kind of piece, but today I’m going to show a little hack that made mine MUCH better. While I’ve had many hand-me-down furniture items, I’m specifically chatting about some hacks for the IKEA SODERHAMN sofa that my friend donated as a “for now” piece in my apartment. It’s a sofa we’ve all seen, know, and love (nice depth, sexy chrome legs, cute lil pillows) but it definitely has room for improvement since it screams “HI I’M FROM IKEA!” If you don’t have this exact sofa, don’t you worry darling because some of these hacks will likely work on many different sofas. Look sometimes you gotta put lipstick on a pig and call it a day. Here is said pig:
Now, I think we can all agree this has seen better days. A sofa should scream “Come sit on me and get cozy” but instead this one is giving “Weird Barbie”. It’s definitely that toy you played with too much but don’t want to get rid of because it’s sentimental. But just because she’s been through the wringer doesn’t mean we can’t give her her spark back! Now let’s talk about ways you can revive a piece like this back from the dead.
But hold up. Let’s back up a little because this whole “I’m gonna give this IKEA sofa a makeover” bit started when I saw this reel on Instagram and I felt SO inspired. That was until I clicked that link in bio and my dreams were shattered. My heart sank when I saw that these sofa covers were $500-$800 after tax and shipping (which is the same price as the sofa itself). Devastation struck but I also understand creating custom cushions and shipping them from Europe costs a pretty penny. Nonetheless, the sadness still crept in as I wept that my sofa could never be so luxurious as the ones on the internet…and then it hit me like a semi-truck speeding with a hungry driver. I remembered: hey! I’m a scrappy gal and if I could figure out how to DIY this headboard I could definitely figure out how to make this IKEA sectional sexy and skirted for less. So here’s what I did:
The Sofa Cover + Bed Skirt Hack
TADA! She’s pretty, no?! I ordered a SODERHAMN sofa cover. From my research, these covers generally cost around $175-$350, the one I ordered above was on the pricier end of that spectrum but the velvet tone is very pretty and not too saturated like some of the other covers on the market. But look, ordering a cover is not revolutionary, but have you ever ordered a BED SKIRT and then WRAPPED IT AROUND A SOFA?! This was where I got creative and I couldn’t believe how pretty it ended up looking! I found this tonal blue bed skirt for $16 and the queen size fit PERFECTLY around this two-seater sofa. The best part is since this sofa is so easy to take apart, you can take the back of the sofa off, wrap the bed skirt around (this is where the headboard straps of the bed skirt were, so no need to cut the bed skirt or do anything janky to it) and then put the back of the sofa back on and it just sits perfectly in place. The other reason why this works with this sofa is because the cushions are zippered into the base and there are no arms so the bed skirt’s elastic just snapped right into place and was super secure without having to glue it down or anything.
Here’s a little visual bed skirt step-by-step:
This is a very light room for a very dark sofa but imagine how cool this would look in a tonal blue moody little office, library, movie room…the possibilities are endless. If you had a sofa with say, arms, you could definitely do something similar to the above but you might need to cut the bed skirt to size and then sew, glue, staple, or fabric tape it. It might not be as easy or as seamless as a sofa without arms, but I genuinely believe this could be the ultimate hack to upgrading any boring old sofa!!
The Neutral Sofa Cover Hack
The hack above is so fun, but it definitely leans more traditional/eclectic in style. If you’re more of an organic modern, contemporary, and/or neutral sofa person here’s another option for you:
So upon doing research, I found out IKEA sells a bunch of sofa covers including this one which I’m a big fan of. While I do like the chrome legs on the SODERHAMN sectional, they’re very recognizable and can definitely scream “IKEA!”. That’s why I believe masking the legs of this sofa is what really breathes new life into it and this is EXHIBIT B…
I just love how streamlined and simple this is – especially when you don’t want your hand-me-down sofa to necessarily be the center of attention. I will say I had this cover on my sectional when a friend came over and she said, “omg this is my dream sofa where is it from” and she was SHOCKED to find out it was IKEA. I’m telling you – covering up those legs makes a difference! Speaking of legs…
A Simple Swap Of The Legs
If you don’t want to cover up your sofa legs with a skirt, another way to elevate this sofa is to just swap out the legs altogether. There are SO many different options available out there it’s incredible. Here are some I really loved:
Now obviously this is a photoshopped version but these legs are in fact real and they come in a bunch of different heights and sizes which rocks. If you’re on the taller side, this could be a good move to go with a higher leg because the IKEA SODERHAMN is relatively low to the ground. I love the look of these wood legs with the blue velvet cover – it kind of reminds me of Em’s blue sofa in her LA living room. Very elevated, classic, demure, and mindful (sorry, I had to throw in at least one TikTok reference here).
So there you have it! Make sure to check out our IG for a reel of this sofa hack if you want to see it in live action! Thanks everyone for reading all of this and I can’t wait to show you more of my apartment transformation journey! Hope this helps love you bye xx