$50 Mid-Century Couch Transformation

So this whole project started when I was avoiding my adult responsibilities and drooling over gorgeous mid century couches on Pinterest like this one:

Of course couches like this have a price tag of upward of $1000. Yikes. Not exactly in our price range. When we moved we bought a $25 couch at goodwill and put a slipcover on it. After washing the slipcover a few times it became misshapen and never really looked good. It became our 'laundry couch' where I would unload all the clean laundry. Because who has time to fold and put away laundry? Isn't washing it, forgetting to put in the dryer, washing it again, and drying it enough?

In an ADHD driven attempt to avoid cleaning the house, I impulsively began cutting up our couch. I'm sure my husband was horrified to come home from work and see me sitting on the floor with scissors in my hand, surrounded by couch fluff.

I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but I had an idea of what I wanted. Of course because I was so impulsive, I forgot to take a before picture. Here's the best I could do:

I cut off the back cushions, and began striping off the fabric and batting from the arms.

I cut off the top of the rounded arm for a more angular shape.

I cut a rectangle of cardboard to fit the outside of the arm. I stapled it along the top, and folded it under the bottom and stapled it there as well.

Then I cut foam to fit the top, and a piece of cardboard to fit the front of the arm. For fabric I bought canvas drop cloth from home depot. I love this stuff because it has a really cool texture and it's cheap! I washed and dyed it with Rit - Pearl Gray.

I put batting along the back because I decided I didn't want back cushions. I basically just cut, tucked, and stapled the fabric to fit.

I found wooden furniture legs at home depot and stained them a light pine color.

The trickiest part was all the finishing details like corners and edges. For the front panel of the arms I covered that piece of cardboard I cut earlier in fabric and hot glued it to the front of the couch.

For the corners I folded the fabric and hand stitched it.

For the back of the couch I used tack strips for a seamless finish. Then I added some fabric covered buttons.

I made a simple cover for the cushions, and DONE!

It's not perfect or professional, but it looks way better than before! And with a toddler and a dog I don't want to spend a lot of money because it will be destroyed sooner or later. ;)