How to wash your sofa covers to maintain that showroom quality

There’s nothing quite like the sight of a brand new sofa cover, looking beautiful and pristine on your furniture at home. It makes for an especially refreshing change if your sofa’s previously been looking a bit old and tired. But let’s be honest, eventually the hustle and bustle of daily family life can start to take the shine off slightly. Happily, it’s pretty easy to restore that shine, since the beauty of loose sofa covers is that you can just pop them in the wash! However, you’ll just need to take a bit of care to ensure that they don’t get damaged, shrunk, or otherwise spoiled in the process. Here’s the key stuff to bear in mind.

How to wash loose sofa covers

You’ll be glad to hear that all the sofa covers in our range are washable, so whatever colour or style you go for, you’ll have no trouble keeping it clean. Our fabrics can be machine washed or hand washed at the same temperature; normally about 30 degrees.

Before you start though, it’s worth exercising some healthy caution with any clothes that have transferable dyes (like blue jeans for example), as there’s a possibility that the dye may transfer to your covers in the process. It’s just one reason why it’s normally a good idea to wash them alone, for maximum peace of mind.

Here are the next steps to follow:

Check the label that’s been sewn into your covers for more detail on the cleaning instructions

Wash all components of the cover at the same time, making sure to use a no-colour enhancing liquid detergent

Do not bleach or tumble dry the covers, as this can spoil them

Instead, once the initial wash is finished they can be put on a light spin cycle, or simply line dried.

When ironing your covers, bear in mind that you’ll need to use the Cool Iron, so that the maximum temperature of your iron is no more than 110°C. (You’ll be able to find out what each individual fabric’s maximum iron setting is from the symbol on the label.The lowest Cool Iron setting is indicated by as single dot.)

That’s all there is to it! Now they’re good as new and ready to fit right back on to your sofa.

General care instructions

Sofa covers may be easy enough to wash, but even so, it’s nice not to have to do it all that often, isn’t it? So, here are a couple of bonus tips you can use to make sure that your sofa covers stay clean and pristine for as long as possible between washes.

Lightly dust and vacuum your on a regular basis, as this will stop too much debris from accumulating there. It’s also handy for hoovering up any crumbs that might be lurking in places, if anyone in the family likes to eat there!

Avoid (and discourage everyone else from) sitting on the arms, back or edge of your sofa, as it’s essentially putting weight where the sofa’s not designed to take it. That can not only lead to premature wear on the covers themselves, but over a long enough time it could even end up damaging the underlying frame of your sofa

Try and position your furniture away from direct sunlight, as it can eventually cause the colour of the fabric to start fading.

Set firm rules for children and pets, such as no consuming drinks or liquid foods on your sofa. It’ll save you from a lot of hassle when it comes to stains! Of course, pets tend to be less receptive to general guidelines, so if you’ve got any dogs or cats in the house, I published a recent post you might find useful – namely, how to protect your couch from pets!

Ultimately, that old flexible mantra applies: take care of your sofa, and it will take care of you. And if you’re currently looking for the best sofa covers to help you do exactly that, you’re in exactly the right place. Here at Cover My Furniture, we take care to provide a comprehensive range of sofa and chair covers and more in a wide variety of colours to choose from, so that you’ll always be able to find plenty of options to suit you.

And if you’re having trouble making a decision, or you’re looking for something in particular, don’t hesitate to let one of us know. You can get in touch using the contact form on our website, or through our Facebook or Instagram. We’re always happy to hear from you!