How to Dye a White Ikea Ektorp Sofa Navy Blue
Did you happen to catch my blog post a few weeks ago about myDenim Sofa Love? I have wanted a denim sofa for years, but as you may know, I have this whiteIkea Ektorp sofa. 
Okay, now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my white sofa, it's just that sometimes I want to change things up a bit, especially for the changing seasons, and denim just feels so fitting for fall. At one time Ikea carried a denim slipcover for this sofa, but I wasn't quick enough to get one and it has since been discontinued.
Back when I got my sofa years ago, a blog reader advised me to pick up an extra slipcover for it. The white slipcovers only cost fifty dollars, and it's just nice to have an extra set on hand while one is in the wash or whatever. SO because I had an extra slipcover, I decided that this could be the perfect opportunity to have both, a denim/navy and a white sofa.
Win! Win!
So I went to my nearby Albertsons and purchased two bottles of Rit Navy Blue dye and two bottles of Rit Black dye. I wanted my slip cover to seem like a truely darkish denim and this is why I determined to combine the navy with black.
I did a little research and then I basically just followed the instruction on the Rit bottle and these are the steps I took to dye my slipcover. Now I should also warn you, this process took hours!! I pretty much spent my whole Saturday dying my couch, but it was SO worth it!
STEP 1. PRE-WASH
The instructions say to wet cloth first, however due to the fact my slipcovers have been grimy, I gave them a brief wash in washing device. It takes me two masses to clean all the covers.
I then sorted the moist covers into three piles; two piles of 3 cushion covers each, and one pile with the large frame cowl, and then I dyed every pile one by one with a total of 3 hundreds.
STEP 2. DYE CUSHION COVERS
For my first pile of three cushion covers, I set my pinnacle load washing system to Medium load and crammed it up with the Hottest water putting. As it turned into filling up I added half of bottle (half Cup) of the military dye and half bottle (half of Cup) of the black dye, and 1 Cup of salt. I permit my machine agitate for a minute to combine after which I brought my covers. As instructed, prolonged the wash an extra half-hour by means of resetting the cycle earlier than it is able to rinse. Rinse in cold water.
I'm not going to lie, it was kinda scary to see such a dark color in the washing machine. The water also looked super purple-y which had me a bit worried.
STEP 3. WASH AND DRY COVERS
Once the full cycle was accomplished, I introduced laundry detergent and washed the covers with warm water.
Since the weather was nice, I took my covers outside to line dry. Once my covers were almost dry, I brought them in and put them back on the cushions. I don't know if you already know this trick, but when you put your covers on while they are still a bit damp you can smooth out all of the wrinkles with your hands and it's also easier to put them on the couch frame because damp fabric stretches more.
STEP 4. REPEAT
Follow my guidelines in Step 3 for the following pile of 3 cushion covers.
STEP 5. DYE LARGE FRAME COVER
Now for the remaining pile, which is the huge body cover, I did basically the same steps as while dying the cushion covers, however this time I set my washing device to X-massive load. And I brought a complete bottle of navy and a full bottle of Black, and again, 1 cup of salt.
At first I was worried that the dye would stain my washing machine, but it didn't. The instructions say to run a large load with detergent and bleach, but I didn't. I just made sure that my next load was of all darks.
I am really excited about how my slipcovers turned out. I feel like I have a brand new couch!
You may be able to tell from this picture that my frame cover turned out a tiny bit darker than the couch cushions. I think the reason this happened was because I didn't extend the wash cycle on those first two loads, instead I let the covers soak for fifteen minutes. So if you do this, be sure to follow my instructions above and extend the wash cycle.
I may additionally re-dye my cushion covers in a single load with a complete bottle of each the navy and the black because it without a doubt would not be any hassle.
I seriously can not believe how easy this was. I had SO much fun dying my slipcover that I've been looking around the house trying to decide what to dye next.... sheets, duvet cover, curtains, pillows, clothes...... the possibilities are endless!
Thanks for stopping via,
I wish that I actually have inspired you to dye something too :)
*Emily
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