Cats vs Karlstad: Replacing upholstery for arms of an Ikea sofa

October 10, 2024 8:58 AM

Over the years my cats of shredded the upholstery of the arms on my Ikea Karlstad sofa. I'd love to be able to buy replacement covers for the arms in Isunda gray to match the rest of the sofa. Considering that this is a 10+ year old Ikea sofa I'm not going to spend more than the cost of a new sofa on a whole custom re-upholstery job.

Not a fan of a slipcover to go over the whole sofa either. Really just want to know if there's a way to replace the upholstery on the arms.

posted by forkisbetter to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Not sure what you consider "the cost of a new sofa" to be (iirc Karlstad was one of their cheapest), but there are lots of companies offering complete aftermarket cover sets for IKEA sofas in the $200-500 range (Comfort Works, Bemz, Masters of Covers, Comfortly). For what it's worth, I think this is the only way to handle recovering an IKEA sofa--the quality and design of the frame makes "traditional" custom reupholstery work infeasible. Note that these are not the sort of one piece, shapeless covers that go over the entire sofa--they're the same cut/design as the original IKEA cushion and frame covers.

Some of these companies do appear offer "arms only" slipcovers. The colors and fabrics match their other offerings, though, and not the original Karlstad fabrics.

If you are set on matching the original IKEA fabric, I think the best option is to look for a complete OEM IKEA slipcover (they did sell replacement slipcovers for the Karlstad) on eBay or similar. If you're really scrimping, you may be able to save money by only purchasing the part that covers the back and arms and not the cushion covers. This is the part IKEA refers to as the frame cover.

That said, we owned a secondhand Karlstad and my recollection is the original fabric was not particularly durable in general. It faded quite a bit and eventually started to fray on the edges of the cushions. If you otherwise like the sofa and plan to keep it for a while I think end-running the question of matching the arms to the rest of the upholstery by replacing all of it might be worthwhile.
posted by pullayup at 9:46 AM on October 10

I've been really happy with my Comfort Works slipcovers, and it looks like they make arms-only slipcovers for your couch...
posted by thatone at 10:41 AM on October 10

Alternate suggestion: have you considered visible mending? There is a whole subreddit (r/Visiblemending) devoted to it and many people apply beautiful embroidered or appliqued pieces to cover cat damage, often creating something more beautiful than the original! Pre-made embroidery pieces are all over Etsy, some even iron-on if you aren't handy with a needle and thread. Here's an example, and another one
posted by SinAesthetic at 11:20 AM on October 10

I have cats and used to have this exact sofa and slipcover set. One day while walking around my neighborhood I saw someone had put out an extra set of the gray slipcovers on their stoop. They were a bit stained, but had enough fabric in good condition for me to cut a panel to cover the scratched arms. I just used my hot glue gun to attach them, and nobody could tell without a close inspection. I did the same thing to my mom’s couch years before when my cat had scratched her couch; we sacrificed one of the matching throw pillows for the repair and no one was the wiser.
posted by Fuego at 11:34 AM on October 10

the quality and design of the frame makes "traditional" custom reupholstery work infeasible.

With the caveat that I've never had a Karlstad specifically, the build looks similar to a different Ikea sofa I had where I took off the arms, reupholstered by stapling* fabric to them (sounds janky but that's how the original worked) and then reassembled. If the Karlstad works the same way then the only issue is finding identical fabric - but maybe you could pick an accent fabric instead.

* Some years later I did it again but with velcro so I could easily take off the upholstery and wash/replace it.
posted by trig at 11:35 AM on October 10

(Just checked youtube and the arms work exactly like they did on mine - relatively easy to remove and upholster.)
posted by trig at 11:43 AM on October 10

We have cats and a Karlstad. We did a replacement cover from ComfortWorks a few years back which has worked out pretty well. You can order samples to pick out the color/fabric beforehand, too.
posted by damayanti at 12:44 PM on October 10

EBay is often good for IKEA slipcovers. If you know someone handy with a sewing machine you could by some other Isunda Grey something-or-other and have covers made for the parts in question.

If the frame cover for the three seater is what you're looking for, there's one for sale on eBay right now. I'm not familiar with this sofa so I couldn't say if the frame cover covers the arms.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:02 PM on October 10