Covers for upholstered furniture: what are they and how to choose?

Upholstered furniture is a wonderful decoration for any room. As a rule, it is bought for more than one year, while the products are carefully selected for the interior and the mood of the room. However, any upholstery or covering of upholstered furniture loses its original appearance over time. To extend the life of a sofa or armchair, special covers are provided that reliably protect the upholstery from dirt. Such textiles can have different shapes, these products can be made from different materials, have all kinds of colors.

The living room serves not only as a resting place, but also as a place for a pleasant dinner or tea drinking, so the furniture in such a room is often dirty and wiped off. Children can stain upholstered furniture with chocolate or dirty hands, paint it with felt-tip pens, or play with plasticine on it. Pets are also a threat to the appearance of furniture, as wool and scratches are unlikely to decorate a sofa and armchairs.

The advantages of such textiles include a number of factors.

• The products are easy to care for. Almost all types are machine washed with a delicate cycle.
• The textiles do not require ironing.
• The cost of the covers will be significantly lower than the cost of buying new furniture or even the banner of its upholstery.
• Thanks to this device, you can quickly and easily change the design of the room, choosing the most suitable color for the covers.

The materials from which the covers are made do not deteriorate from exposure to sunlight and moisture, which significantly extends the service life. On average, the guaranteed service life of such a product is 3 years. However, this applies to high-quality, branded models, provided they are used correctly.

Covers for upholstered furniture can be of various types. These include:

• euro covers;
• simple capes;
• with a frill;
• no frills;
• on an elastic band;
• universal;
• removable;
• with carved armrests.

Almost all types are freely available and fit most models of modern furniture. And you can order a special cover if the size or design of the furniture does not fit the standard options.

Tie covers are usually used for chairs or armchairs. Such products are capes with strings sewn along the bottom edge. These straps are wrapped around furniture legs and tied in a knot.

For more bulky furniture, for example, for sofas, such covers are rarely used, since the ties cannot guarantee a tight attachment of the product to the furniture. When stretched, parts of the textile may curl or wrinkle.

Stretch covers for furniture can be called the most versatile and popular option. Thanks to the elastic band located at the bottom edge of the product, the cover is securely attached to the furniture, which ensures a completely harmonious look. In some cases, it is quite difficult to distinguish furniture in a high-quality elasticated cover from furniture with its natural upholstery, so high-quality products repeat the shape of a sofa or chair.

A popular and romantic type of furniture clothing is a cover with a so-called skirt. By "skirt" is meant a ruffle, a frill sewn along the bottom edge of the cover... Such models differ from conventional options only on the aesthetic side. The reliability of fastening in this case is quite high, and with a correctly selected size, the product will not wrinkle and wrinkle. The "skirt" creates the feeling of a free bottom edge, but thanks to the elastic band, the product is securely held on the furniture.

The most popular are euro covers. Such products are manufactured according to European standards. Products are of high quality, all materials used are certified. In some cases, the design of furniture is not suitable for using standard models - in this case, it is necessary to make an order for specific furniture. For sofas without armrests, you should choose a special cover, as the basic sets are often designed for sofas with armrests.

If textiles need to be often removed from furniture, then it is better to purchase models with ties, it is easier to remove them from the product and easily return them to them.

Upholstered furniture covers can be made from different materials.

• Jacquard covers are very popular with many. It is a dense material with good stretchability and a three-dimensional image. Jacquard covers look like natural upholstery and fit well with furniture. This material is resistant to scratches from pet claws.

• Plush covers also look incredibly cozy. Most often, velor is used for the manufacture of such models. Velor products are elastic. This material is soft, pleasant to the touch, and has a small pile.

Nevertheless, furniture in plush covers looks very impressive and stylish, so you should not deny yourself such pleasure, you should only properly take care of such material.

• Microfiber covers have good characteristics. A material in which mites and bacteria are unable to live, which makes it practically indispensable for children's furniture. There are many options for microfiber covers. This material is easy to clean, durable and inexpensive.

Also covers can be made of polyester, chenille, pleated and others. More often you can see embossed and smooth models that consist of natural and artificial fibers.

The size of the covers is selected individually for the dimensions of the particular furniture. Existing sizes have a tensile limit of about 20%. To select the required size, measure the widest part of the furniture - it can be either the back or the seat itself. For example, the back of a sofa is 135 cm wide, which means that a set of covers must be selected with a size of at least 1.2 m and no more than 1.6 m.

On average, the size of ready-made covers for corner sofas reaches 5 meters. There are special coverings for corner sofas. They can be both left-sided and right-sided.

In the case of a non-standard size or furniture design, it is recommended to order a cover specially selected for a specific case, then it will fit perfectly and decorate the interior.

When choosing products, one should consider in which room the furniture cape will be used. A it is also important to consider in what style the room is decorated.

• For the Baroque style, it is best to choose models from gold or silver jacquard. Such furniture is suitable for a living room designed in this design style.

• For rooms decorated in a modern style, as well as in a minimalist style, restrained, muted colors are often chosen. In this case, gray, burgundy or brown is more suitable. Such an interior will be relevant in the home of young people, because it will emphasize their modernity and elegance.

• It is better to choose delicate colored covers for the nursery: blue, pink, lilac. They will decorate the room, make it more sunny and playful.

Universal colors that are suitable for a wide variety of styles will look appropriate and concise, white, beige, sand, light gray or light brown shades are considered.

Every year manufacturers of furniture covers delight customers with new products and improving the quality of products. Imported goods are often of higher quality and more expensive. But not everyone can afford Italian, Spanish and mostly European products, but the price of imported products is justified by their quality.

Models of Belarusian and Turkish manufacturers are considered more affordable. In the past few years, Turkey has been actively expanding the production of excellent furniture textiles. As a rule, there is no doubt about the quality of Belarusian manufacturers.

The first thing to decide on when choosing a cover for upholstered furniture is for what purposes it will serve:

• if the main goal is protection from pets, then the material should be chosen durable, not susceptible to damage;
• in the case when the furniture should be covered from the creativity of small children, then the best solution would be inexpensive microfiber covers;
• if you want to decorate a room, and the main task is an aesthetic function, then you should choose an option from an expensive, beautiful material.

And you should also carefully choose the capes for the overall interior of the room. Furniture should match in color, be in harmony with the design of the room, even the material should match the overall style.

It depends on the correctly selected size of the product how beautiful and tight it will fit the furniture.

A special set is selected for corner furniture. This applies not only to large sofas - even a compact seating area must be measured correctly to find the right cover for it.

Putting on your furniture cover correctly is not that difficult. To do this, you must follow the simple instructions written on the product packaging.

1. The purchased set should be removed from the packaging, find its upper part, then place the cape on the sofa.
2. Next, you need to connect the corners of the cape with the corners of the sofa and fix it. Fasteners can be in the form of laces, buttons or Velcro.
3. When the upper part of the sofa is packed in a cover, you should go to the lower part and follow the same principle. The corners at the bottom are pulled over the corners of the sofa. At the bottom, the cape has an elastic band, which must be pulled over the entire area of ​​the furniture along the lower part.

The kit usually contains special seals. They are placed at the intersection of the back and seat, so that the contours of the furniture perfectly follow the cover. Some parts should be leveled if necessary.

In the next video, you will learn how to put on a Euro cover on a corner sofa.