How to Cover a Couch With Fabric & a Stapler

Few people have the means to buy a new sofa every time they redecorate their home, but when you make drastic color palette changes, your old furniture needs a little lift, too. A simple way to extend the life of your old furniture is to cover it in new fabric. Slipcovers, new cushion covers or simply stapling fabric over the existing cushions all provide ways to breathe new life into an old couch. When stapling fabric over old upholstery, it's important to get the measurements correct to avoid bunching in the cushions and uncomfortable lumpiness.

Needle-nosed pliers
Cotton batting
Sturdy fabric
Pencil
Scissors
Straight pins
Staple gun
Staples

Instructions

- 1
  Remove old fabric from the sofa with needle-nosed pliers. Start along one end of the furniture frame, and remove all the staples and upholstery tacking, pulling up the fabric as you go. The old upholstery fabric forms a template for the new covering fabric, so take care not to damage it too badly during removal.
- 2
  Lay cotton batting over the exposed cushions. This helps fill out the new upholstery and gives the look of a new sofa once it is covered.
- 3
  Lay the old upholstery fabric on top of the new covering fabric, placing the front side of the old fabric to the front side of the new one. Using straight pins, pin the pieces together securely. Using the old fabric as a template, cut around the edges of the old fabric to create your new sofa covering.
- 4
  Lay the new fabric, front-side out, over your cotton batting-covered couch. Begin stapling the fabric into the wood frame at the back, pulling the fabric taut as you go to avoid bulges and wrinkles. Finish by stapling the fabric into the wood frame beneath the sofa, pulling any extra slack fabric taut to finish the covering.

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