Interiors: Changing the Colour of an IKEA Stocksund with Dylon dye.

I remember the day my Stocksund was delivered. It was 2016 and I had not longed moved house. Monty was getting bigger and the two seater I owned previously wasn't cutting it anymore for both of us. I’d never owned a ‘proper’ sofa before, it was always make dos.

I settled on the Stocksund because the covers come off and so I could wash out the life of a Labrador - the joy of having him on the sofa with me far outweighed the need to have a pristine sofa. And at the time I loved the blue, blue sofas were having a moment and I was living in a rental where the walls were yellow so decided to lean into it and have a colourful room.

But fast forward to 2023 and in the 7 years I’d had the sofa it’s seen many a dog sit on it and many a bottle of wine shared with friends (pre 2022 when I went sober). The covers had been washed almost monthly and the colour was tired. Add to that that I was planning on repainting and the blue just didn't seem to sit right with anything anymore.

First I pondered buying a new sofa, thinking dark green would be perfect for masking a mutiltude of dog on the sofa sins but then quickly thought to my deposit saving budget and the wastefulness of replacing a perfectly decent sofa and decided against it. Then I remembered Ikea did new covers but none screamed buy me. Next I was ordering samples from Comfort Works only for them to come and realise it was still out of my financial reach at the moment.

Then an idea started forming: I wonder. I have a Hobbycraft near me so I popped in when I was running some errands and grabbed a Forest Green machine pod and when I got home I popped one of the sofa arm covers in the washing machine with it not expecting much - the covers have a good amount of polyester in them so wasn't really expecting the colour to take at all. 50 minutes later I was astounded to pull it out the washing machine to find it was now a gorgeous deep, velvety dark green. The whole process was so easy it was kind of worrying but nonetheless…

So back I went and bought 5 more pods. I used 2 in one load for the two back seat cushions, another 2 for the seat cushions and one for the main body cover. The second arm cover went in with one of the cushion covers. I mean, the worst that could happen is the colour is patchy and I just buy new covers, right? Eeek.

But I was pleased to find that the dye took and it was even and deep all over. I was delighted. And it was so easy to do. I assumed perhaps I’d see a lot of colour fade the next time I washed them but these photos show the sofa after the second wash after dying so it seems to be holding fast.

If you have a sofa that needs a refresh, before you cover with throws or replace perhaps give this a go? You’ll need to check there is some natural fibre in your covers - mine were a poly cotton mix hence the dye taking.

I didn't love that I had 6 plastic pods left over that are hard to recycle but I out them on a Facebook group and a teacher took them for crafts projects. They could also be made into papermache vases.

What do you think? Have you dyed your sofa covers and had a different experience? Tell us in the comments!

Sharing is caring, pin me!

---