Where to buy sofa covers for your sofa set

Do you have an old sofa that is still functional but does not look physically appealing due to peels and stains? Thinking that you probably need to buy a new sofa set?

Well, you may not need to do so …. as you may read from my experience below:

I have a very old sofa set in my home consisting of a 3 seater, 2 seater and 1 seater. Originally we bought the sofa set directly from a factory via some contacts. The sofa set was made from PVC and it is chipping off a little and makes a person feels uncomfortable seating on it for too long. That is why we had the sofa set but we do not sit on it much (sad isn’t it).

Contemplating to change the set but require something affordable, I visited Courts Mammoth and IKEA to take a look. In fact, one of my previous companies had an IKEA sofa set at the pantry and I did not find it particularly durable or that it is easy to remove for washing.

After trying out on the sofas on display, I figured that the sofa sets for the price that I need to pay, is not as durable that I would like (unless I am willing to spend above RM5k from a good brand).

And none of my family members were keen to have the sofa changed. At the same time I also realized no doubt, my sofa set was an inexpensive PVC set that we bought years ago, it is still in good condition- it is only physically not appealing as there were some stains and chipped layer.

Through more online research, I find that if you do not wish to spend too much to replace your old sofa set, there are 2 ways to go around it:

1. Repair your sofa

There are companies offering sofa repair and upholstery which would cost at least a few hundred bucks. In my previous company, we used to have some sitting sofas that got a little discoloured after few years. A colleague of mine arranged to have the sofas repaired which cost about RM600 (but the seats were simple block designs).

Basically the company would come and collect the sofa and then after you select your required material, they would literally create a new layer on your sofa using that material. The sofa set is as good as new.

For my sofa set as it is huge size, the repair would definitely stretch to more than RM1k and if that is the cost I might as well buy a new set. However if your sofa set is expensive for example above RM5k, and still in good condition but only some leather peeling, etc, then it may be more economical to repair it than to buy a new one.

I have called up a few of the sofa repair companies that I find via Google but they only focus on repair and do not sell sofa covers.

2. Buy a sofa cover  for your sofa

That was the option I did. Basically sofa covers are the slip on cloth that are normally elastic in nature where you can slip onto your sofa. Then you reverse your sofa and tie the strings at the bottom and insert foams within the sofa gaps to give it structure (therefore if you want the overall effect to look nice, your sofa must have gaps that you can push the thin foams into).

Now in Malaysia it is not easy to get sofa covers. I have seen a furnishing store selling over RM200 for a one seater (so if I were to buy the whole set it cost almost RM1k). If you want to get a reasonable price, you have to buy online.

Through Google, I managed to find 2 contact numbers and sent Whatapps to both the numbers. One of the sellers replied me quite promptly and I ended up buying from the seller.

First, the seller sent me the available sofa covers in stock. I was sent a number of pictures and one of the sets are shown below:

Note: There are plain colored ones as well.

At first, I had assumed I would buy the sofa cover for the 3-2-1 seaters since my sofa is the 3-2-1 seater type. But the seller asked me to measure all my sofa based on the measuring method as per below:After providing the measurement, I was informed that I would need to purchase the larger set which is for the 4 seater, 3 seater and 2 seater instead of the 3-2-1 combination. Reason being from the measurement the seller could tell that my sofas were larger in size- which is not surprising as nowadays, a lot of sofas are made in smaller sizes so that they are not so bulky. Had I purchase the logical 3-2-1, it would not have fit my 3 seaters.

I wanted dark brown but the seller had no stock for the 4 seater. I then selected one of the design which looked like cream colour but the seller informed me that the sofa cover is actually pink in colour and not cream. The seller said it could be lighting that made the cover looked like cream but it is actually pink.

Over the fact that the seller took the initiative to request for measurement so that I would not end up buying the wrong set and the seller also told me that the design I wanted is in pink – I like the honesty of this company and decided to buy from this seller.

The entire set for seater 4-3-2 cost below RM300. Nowadays, sofa covers are widely available online, for example from Shopee.com.my.

How to put on the sofa cover on your sofa:

You may refer to the YouTube video below:

My experience in installing the sofa cover on my sofa

It is true what the seller said, my sofas are larger and my 3 seater did need the 4 seater sofa cover size. My 2 seater actually require the 3 seater sofa cover size.

After installation, you are supposed to push the foams into the gaps of the sofa to make it look tidy. Done properly, the cover looked as if it is part of the sofa. However, it is probably the maketh of my sofa that does not have deep enough gaps for the foams to remain hidden. They tend to come out until I decided not to use them at all- which of course make it a little untidy.

In fact, all I was initially hoping for was some kind of cloth wrap that I could use on my sofa to cover it up. This has already exceeded my expectations.

Still, after placing the sofa covers, everyone in the family including me seems to be using the sofa more often, including taking naps on it as with the sofa cover, as well as a sofa liner that I placed on the sofa made the sofa no longer heaty and uncomfortable.