Office Project: Futon & Pillows

So, do you remember our futon?

Directly to the right of this sits the newly painted bookshelf. Yeah... not really working together. I knew once I started this project that something was going to have to change about that futon. My family had it for years. Then I brought it to my house in college, and it that whole time it still had the same black cover (I washed it periodically, don't worry!). Overall, I was going for a bright, crisp look in this room so I wanted something much lighter. It may seem dumb to you to pick the color white for a futon cover (since it will inevitably get dirty), but this is what I decided and what I became set on. Bright white was my color.

I searched all over for a white white futon cover, but no such luck! They sell every color you can imagine, including "natural,"  which is basically off-white and totally would look bad with my color scheme. But no white white! There were some on Amazon that I could have paid $80+ for but those may have just been "natural," too. I even started looking at duvet covers, but some of those can be just as expensive, and I really didn't want to pay more than $30 since that's what futon covers go for. So I was mentioning this dilemma to Michael's family, and his mom said she thought she might have a duvet cover to give me. It was actually an off-white/yellowish color, but I figured it was free and I could try bleaching it. So I took it home and it fit!

The width was perfect, but there was a lot of extra fabric that hung off the back:

I made sure it was pulled tight in the front (so there was no loose fabric hanging off the edge where your knees go. which would look tacky), and then tucked the excess fabric behind the back of the futon mattress. I also tucked in the front corners so they didn't stick out like points.

To make it the white that I wanted, I bleached it twice - two times I let it soak overnight in bleach water. And it worked great! It's hard to tell the difference in this picture, but you could really tell if you were actually looking at it. The awesome part about it was that it was F-R-E-E!

Whoops, I ruined the surprise of the pillows! Well, those also go along with the futon update I guess :) Here are some more pictures of the finished futon:

I picked out fabric for these pillows at Johann's, and then took it over to a friend's house to use her machine (thanks Leslie!). I loved that I could make them how I wanted - I'm really loving the white and gray ones with the yellow on back. They look good flipped either way!

There's still a lot more I want to do in this room to make it more cohesive. We actually need a new desk (on the left) because Michael will need a good workspace for his new job, and ours is very small. So I'll be on the hunt on Craigslist over the next few weeks. I also want to:

figure out some curtains

paint the shelf or do something completely different on that wall

paint the legs of the TV stand white

maybe paint the end table as well

We'll see how long all of that takes me! :) Changes on beds and couches really make a room feel different, because they are usually the biggest piece in the room. So for now, at least the overall feel of the room is so much better!

[To give them credit, a lot of inspiration for the colors in this room came from Young House Love's office. While it is turning out totally different than their office, their colors really were the start of my inspiration for these projects.]

I added this post to the Polish The Stars link party.