Monday, January 28, 2008

Tie-Dyeing the Furniture

Tie-dyeing the Couch!

Recently I met someone from Google who is actually more into tie-dye than I am (my close friends all gasped when they heard that). He has a huge wardrobe of tie-dye, but had never actually tried it himself before doing it at a group activity I ran at Google. And then he was off and running...

He later told me that he wanted to tie-dye his IKEA couch! It's a big L-shaped couch, and he got a white cotton slipcover for it (the great thing about IKEA couches is the availability of slipcovers).

We got together at my place to work on it. It took about 4 hours to tie (separate pieces for each cushion plus the body), another 4 hours to dye, and another 4 hours to wash out. We went through nearly 2 gallons of dye!






It's hard to see from the picture of the whole couch, but each seat cushion is a spiral. The couch looks even more fabulous in person than it does in the picture!

More Furniture!

Big chair with blue and green tie-dyed slipcover
This used to be an ugly orange chair left over from an old housemate
I liked his results so much that I got off-the-shelf slipcovers from Sure-Fit for my own sofa, loveseat, and chair. Like the first couch, this took about 4 hours to tie, 4 hours to dye, and 4+ hours to wash. This project also took about 2 gallons of dye. Now I finally have matching furniture, and I love them!
Long couch with blue and green tie-dyed slipcover













The back also continues the pattern:






8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow I just love the furniture! I was pondering the possibility of tie-dying my two couches (that don't match...) and it gave me great hope to see yours! Now if I can just have the patience to try it myself.

Anonymous said...

I've seen some other tie-dyed furniture, and usually it just looks very badly stained. Yours looks great!

Seattle SEO said...

Wow... That is totally awesome. Would love that in the home office. Way too cool...

R. Jones said...

I shared the URL to your blog to the message board at www.itiedye.com. I thought some of them would enjoy these photos.

R. Jones said...

I shared the URL to the message boards at www.itiedye.com. I thought the couches were awesome, and the folks on the board would enjoy it.

merlinhoot said...

I like your version much better.

Pine Wardrobe said...

Wonderful creations with majestic looks. It's really a great work of excellent and appreciation.

dining furniture said...

Wow!!! That is one truly remarkable outcome of dyeing...
a tricky pattern on those furniture really made it an outstanding one...