June 2016 - Comfort Works Blog & Sofa Resources

Long skirt or snug fit slipcovers?

Posted on June 25, 2016April 28, 2025 by Felicia

Whether you’re looking for a custom made slipcover or just want to update your IKEA sofa, something you’d want to consider is the way the slipcover fits. Something we always ask our customers is:

Would you like your slipcover to have a long skirt or a snug fit?

It seems like most people need inspiration for the various options available on their own slipcover, so perhaps further information will help you out!

If your sofa already has a slipcover and it’s not from IKEA, it’s probably already in a long skirt style. We use this term to describe slipcovers which aren’t attached to the sofa at the bottom, or some people would call it a “Loose cover”. Many conventional slipcovered sofas are made in this style from familiar brands such as Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel.

Crate and Barrel Lounge II Petite Slipcovered 83″ Sofa Pottery Barn PB Basic Slipcovered Sofa Restoration Hardware Belgian Slope Arm Slipcovered Collection

Looking at these above, you’ll notice that they all have long skirts that reach the floor, hence the term “long skirt” slipcover. Pleats are also a common feature on long skirt slipcovers, whether they’re just at the corners like the IKEA Ektorp or have multiple pleats like the PB Basic, but some may opt to get slipcovers customized without pleats for a sleek look. Some slipcovers may be an inch or two shorter to expose the legs, but they can still be considered to have a long skirt.

On the flip side, you have snug fit slipcovers. Many conventional sofa brands such as the ones mentioned above don’t make slipcovers in a snug fit style, which is a shame because it gives you a more sleek, contemporary look while offering the practicality of pulling off the slipcovers and throwing them in the washing machine. That’s pretty much getting the best of both worlds!

However, we can confidently say that IKEA is the one brand that brought snug fit slipcovers to the mass market. Just look at these sofas:

Ikea Norsborg 2+2 sectional Ikea Stockholm 3 seater sofa

These are just a couple of the many IKEA sofas we make slipcovers for. They may look upholstered with the neat and tidy look and exposed legs, but the secret to these is just smart design: it’s just a strip of Velcro on the base of the frame. The corresponding slipcovers have the matching side of Velcro so that when the sofa covers are installed, you just press the Velcro together and you’re all set.

1) What if you have a regular sofa with exposed legs but you like the look of a long skirted slipcover?

If you have something like this:

Ikea Karlstad 3 seater sofa with original Isunda Grey covers

Just customize the slipcovers to have a long skirt so you’ll end up with something like this:

Karlstad 3 seater with custom long skirt slipcovers from Comfort Works

2) What if you want to save your upholstered sofa but want slipcovers à la IKEA sofa covers, i.e. snug fit?

Exhibit A: An upholstered sofa which we can create custom slipcovers for

Let’s say you have a sofa with legs slightly exposed and you really, really don’t like the loose fitted, long skirt style of slipcovers. You like the contemporary, neat, almost upholstered look and don’t mind fiddling around with a staple gun or hot glue if it would help you achieve the look you want.

(We previously covered this topic in our blogpost: How to fix my leather Klippan sofa)

Step 1: Get in touch with us to get a custom slipcover and we’ll guide you through the measurement process. We’ll also ask you to measure the height of your sofa legs :)

Step 2: Receive your custom slipcovers with velcro sewn inside, and put the slipcover on your sofa.

Step 3: Get some help from a friend and gently flip your sofa onto its back, with the frame slipcover on. Fold the velcro strips on the slipcover down, and mark with a piece of chalk where you’ll have to install the other side of velcro.

Step 4: Staple or glue the matching strips of velcro to your sofa frame.

DIY strips of velcro to the underside of sofa

Step 5: Attach the velcro nicely and turn your sofa the right way up. And there you have it, a snugly fitted slipcover for your old sofa!

Photo sent in by a happy customer!

Looking for Blekinge White? What colour is it anyway?!

Posted on June 17, 2016April 28, 2025 by Chris

What is the famous Blekinge White? Why do people want it? What colour is it even anyway! We discuss this and more today.

Que?

Blekinge White is the name of a famous IKEA fabric. Best known for being used in their Ektorp slipcovers, this was a pure white cotton duck fabric. And sadly, the tense is correct as well.

Pourquoi?

Because it was white, it was bleachable, and it gave you a chance at having that elegant country / shabby chic home. Did I mention it was machine washable? Many a mother-blogger took up and embraced this fabric for giving them a chance at having a white sofa even with kids and pets. Plus, a slipcover was pretty cheap.

Shockingly, Blekinge White was never the brilliant stark white that you might have seen around the internet. Blekinge White as it came from IKEA was always an off-white colour, with hints of beige. If you’ve heard of Pantone or happen to have a Pantone book on you, it would be Pantone colour Marshmallow, 11-4300.

This is it:

How do I get it?

Sadly, unless you’re lucky enough to stumble upon one of the Ektorp covers on Ebay or Gumtree, you’re out of luck. IKEA discontinued the Blekinge White at the end of 2015 (except for the lucky Brits). Their replacement is the Vittaryd White, which is a polyester blend and not the same colour. It also costs 3x the price of the original Blekinge White.

Don’t despair, though, we’ve recently updated our popular Gaia White fabric to be closer to the Blekinge White. We’ll be using Pantone colour Bright White, 11-0601.

Here’s a showdown shot:

Of course, if you’re worried, I’d suggest heading over to our fabric samples page and grabbing a pack of our 100% cotton Gaia fabrics. If the Gaia White isn’t close enough to what you dreamed of, you could even bleach the covers for that “white” white look, and it’s available for every sofa model that we make slipcovers for (and even some custom sofas that we don’t show on our website ;)

Hope this helps, now go forth and live your dreams of your classic white sofa!

Why I’ll never buy a Pottery Barn sofa – Review

Posted on June 11, 2016April 28, 2025 by Chuck

It’s quite hard to decide with so many reviews giving Pottery Barn such low ratings. But with some objective reasoning, I’ll settle this once and for all.

A few months ago, we reviewed whether the Pottern Barn sofa collection was worth recovering or not – click here to find out.

Today, I’d like to review this more personally, and actually come to a sound conclusion by the end of this post.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Price
Online credibility
Aesthetics
Cost of maintenance
Conclusion

Price

As with any product, how much an item costs is almost definitely the first thing you’d consider before making the purchase. Sure it’s subjective and relative at times, depending on your disposable income.

At the end of the day though, what we should really look out for is whether it’s “value for money” and whether it has a good price-performance ratio.

Let’s quickly break down average spending if you were to go to Pottery Barn for a sofa.

– Cameron Roll/Square Arm Sofa: $889 – $2,329
– Beverly Upholstered Sofa: $899 – $2,299
– Carolyn Loveseat: $899 – $1,199
– PB Comfort Roll/Square Arm Upholstered Sofa: $1,099 – $3,099
– PB Basic Slipcovered Sofa: $1,099 – $2,999

This is just to name a few of the more affordable ones as the rest are definitely beyond $1,100, which is way above (my) budget. On average and depending on fabric selection, the minimum you need is a $1,000 and could possibly end up spending around $2,000 if you’re going for a slightly fancier fabric.

Many people would say that you pay for what you get, and I truly believe that Pottery Barn sofas would definitely be of decent quality. By that, I mean I’d expect it to last for a good 10-12 years.

For the most part, I just don’t really like the “classic” round-arm look so as durable as they might be – I’m quite hesitant to part with my money just yet (I would go for their discontinued Solano series, however).

Online credibility

Now with Google and social media becoming our main communications and news feed, it’s very easy to purchase things from the Internet as well as review them. As per my previous investigation on Pottery Barn Reviews, I had found that Pottery Barn was a pretty decent furniture retailer a few years back but because of poor customer service, their name had gradually deteriorated.

Reviews play an integral role in determining whether or not to make a purchase with a brand or not. If Pottery Barn doesn’t improve their digital reputation in the years to come, people will pretty much boycott the brand altogether unfortunately.

Aesthetics

The Pottery Barn sofa series are all very standard and while most people would call it classic, I’d call them a little dated.

There was a discontinued series called the “Solano” which I’d definitely call a timeless piece, regardless of which century you’re in I feel strongly that it’ll work in that living space.

A simple, single seat cushion with square arms, but because it’s fairly rounded it just looks very comfy overall. The closest thing to this would probably be to hack a Karlstad and get a large single cushion instead but alas, the Karlstad has been discontinued and is now an endangered IKEA sofa.

Apart from the “Solano”, I’d probably go for the PB Comfort Square series which look fairly close to the IKEA Kivik. If you’ve checked out our Kivik sofa review, you’d know that we’re a strong advocate and when it comes to price and performance – the Kivik is an incredibly strong contender.

The Pottery Barn PB Comfort Square Arm sofa is pretty similar but the most obvious difference would be the width and height of the armrests: The Kivik has very wide and low armrests which can easily accommodate another person to sit on the sofa should the need arise.

Kivik 3 seater in Kino Orange fabrics — Image credit: Comfort Works

Cost of maintenance

So if you do end up getting an upholstered sofa from Pottery Barn, you’ll realise that it’s going to need cleaning by year 4 or 5 depending on how OCD you are (I’m fairly domesticated with a no food policy on the couch).

Well with upholstery, you’re pretty much out of luck – you either get something to hide the stains (like a custom slipcover) or you’ll basically have to throw out the sofa. Such a waste right?

Most people would get the slipcovered alternative, so when the sofa has become thoroughly soiled – all we need to do is pop out the original slipcover to have it dry cleaned or machine washed, whatever the care instructions are.

The thing is, a typical slipcover from Pottery Barn are just as pricey as the sofa. Taking the PB Comfort Sofa as an example, its slipcover can range from $560 to $1,660 which is about half the sofa’s price. At $560 it’s still reasonable, but at $1,000 you can definitely purchase another decent sofa elsewhere.

Conclusion

All in all, even though a Pottery Barn sofa might not have the most contemporary look, and may have questionable post-sales service – it still is not too bad a product, seeing how popular it actually is. It’s even made its way to Australia!

So while I’ll probably never buy a Pottery Barn sofa, I’d definitely consider one second hand simply because it most likely won’t cost as much.

And if you ever need a replacement slipcover for your Pottery Barn sofa, slipcover makers such as ourselves would be readily available to provide some at a very affordable rate.

Wondering what our slipcovers feel like in person? You can order up to eight fabric samples for free to try them out for yourself and see how you like them.

IKEA Norsborg sofa review

Posted on June 6, 2016April 28, 2025 by Chuck

After the discontinued Karlstad, many speculations have been made as to what its successor would be. Some have speculated the Landskrona, which is surprisingly similar to the Karlstad but it was only available in bycast leather.

Today, we’ll be reviewing the latest hybrid sofa that’s a cross between the Karlstad and Kivik – the IKEA Norsborg.

Quick Rundown ‘n’ Overview

So just like the Kivik and Karlstad, and as a potential successor to the Karlstad, you can definitely expect it to be another modular sofa with many pieces that can be separated and/or combined to create various configurations.

The Norsborg currently boasts 12 different options on their site, and is available in most countries across the world.

I might even consider getting a dual chaise lounge combo for movie nights but let’s weigh out the pros and cons first shall we? :)

Aesthetics

The IKEA Norsborg only comes in 5 colours: Edum Dark Blue, Edum Light Blue, Finsta Dark Grey, Finsta Red and Finsta White.

Pretty generic colours that would be fairly well received by the public I reckon, but I’m a little skeptical on the Red.

Moving on to the legs, I’m actually pretty happy how they offer these modern-looking rounded wooden legs as well as the grey cylindrical ones. Personally if I’m going for something contemporary I’d say the Norsborg fits into any current living space quite well.

However pulling off a vintage look might be a bit tricky.

Comfort

At 5’5″ (165cm) I’d say the first thing I noticed when I sat on the loveseat was the deep seating. I’m short, no doubt about that – but compared to the Kivik, I didn’t like how the seat cushions were so solid. It just didn’t feel comfy and I’d say my feelings were as comparable to Jeremy Clarkson’s when he drove the Perodua Myvi.

The armrests were a bit high compared to the Kivik so I’d say it loses some points there as I can no longer sit on the armrests without feeling as if I’d break it.

In terms of comfort overall I expected a little more. I mean look at it, wouldn’t you be thinking “Oh my God it’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!” too?

Not depressed, just disappointed.

On a good note though, I believe this is the sofa for those with a height advantage. Structurally it also felt pretty solid, so I think that’s where the trade-off happened.

Price

So here comes the determining factor for most people. In the US, the Norsborg sofa (3 seater) starts at US$499, but if you were to go for the Finsta Dark Grey it’d be US$599.

Comparing apples to apples with a Kivik Sofa in Dansbo Dark Grey at US$549, I would personally be happier with a Kivik – but that’s just my two cents.

Meanwhile replacement slipcovers vary depending on your configuration, but we make Norsborg sofa covers (3 seater) that start from US$339 in 100% cotton. Not bad for a whole new look!

Hackability

Okay I’m probably biased because I’ve always liked the Kivik, and this review was supposed to be about how the Norsborg supposedly replaces the Karlstad so I apologise for digressing.

IKEA seems to have made something new with this sofa, which are the armrest pockets at the side.

Pretty handy! Now you can always have your magazines, remote control and iPad close by your side :)

Note that this applies to ALL Norsborg sofa armrests though, so if you have seen the U-shaped sectional you might want to think it through carefully. If you lean towards a simpler, minimalist style, I’d recommend opting out of the armrest pocket option if possible.

But wait, there’s more! You can swap the legs out for some super slim mid-century inspired sofa legs which fit the Norsborg sofas for a different look.

Last but not least, we did a little hack recently (in 2017) where a custom asked if it was possible to make a long-skirt version for the Norsborg. We tried and this was what we got:

Overall Conclusion

All in all, I know this was quite a bit so here’s the short version:
– Aesthetics: 7.5/10
– Comfort: 6/10 (Durability: 7/10 arguably)
– Price: 7/10
– Hackability: 8/10

It’s not the most comfortable sofa out there from IKEA generally but it isn’t too bad a sofa. If you’re after a very Scandinavian looking sofa and wish to impress friends without them staying too long in your home – this is the sofa to get ;)

Hope you’ve found this review helpful and if you did, don’t forget to share it :)

If you’ve found this review helpful and want to find out more about other IKEA sofa models, click the button below for the best IKEA sofa reviews!

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