Futon couches offer an advantage that traditional sofas do not – you can change the covering completely without sending them out to an upholsterer at significant expense. Change futon covers and change the most dominant feature of your room decor.
Caution: Of course, the futon frame stays the same, so choose carefully when you purchase the frame.
Never mind the fact that the futon is a sofa that opens to a bed at night. This is all about room design!
If you look at any guest room or even living room, very likely the sofa and the carpet are the dominant features in the room. We all use other, smaller design features, like pillows, wall decorations, lamps, side tables, and chairs to accessorize around the predominant color scheme.
Once that traditional sofa covering has become tired, faded, or soiled – that’s it! Your only options are to re-stuff and re-cover it or buy a new one.
Futons offer an entirely different scenario. When you tire of the colors or pattern of the futon mattress cover, changing it is as easy as 1-2-3! When your cover fabric becomes tired or soiled beyond your interest in cleaning it, a brand new look is a heartbeat away with a surprisingly small investment.
If you do not have a furniture store nearby selling futon covers, you can visit a web site selling futons to see hundreds of futon fabric offerings to select exactly the right color and pattern combination’s that are right for your room. Swatches are available to ensure that you have the right color hue. If you intend to spend some serious money on new fabrics (not necessary, but fun if you have it), purchasing fabric swatches first is a good way to go.
You do not have to limit yourself to what you had before. Because fabric manufacturers are, in essence, design people, new futon cover patterns, fabrics, and colors are introduced every year, and older ones are discontinued. In other words, fabric designs and hues come and go every year, so you may not be able to find the same color/pattern anyway. Only the best selling futon cover fabrics stay around year after year, so your offbeat color will probably not be currently available anyway.
Start fresh! Breathe some life into your room by selecting designs and colors that are both new and vibrant. There are literally so many hundreds of futon cover offerings that you will likely find something that will blend well with your current accessories.
Fabric quality, sewing workmanship, and durability follow the general rules of common sense. Futon Covers are like anything else — you get what you pay for. You can spend more money on a fabric that has a more elegant design, more vibrant colors, stronger stitching, have a stronger 3-sided zipper, and fit better.
In terms of design, you can do some incredibly beautiful things with the gorgeous futon cover fabrics currently available, including fabrics from top American designers. Futon Cover sites offer many hundreds of simple prints, elegant upholstery fabrics, and beautiful and breathtaking weaves depicting natural scenery and ethnic designs.
Many futon cover manufacturers also offer accessory sewing as custom orders. You can purchase the same or coordinate fabrics for chair covers, ottoman covers, draperies, sofa pillow shams, bed caps and duvet covers, and more.
The best manufacturers will create anything to your specification in any fabric you choose, including those you have purchased independently and can ship to them. Not every web site will handle such orders, but the ones most concerned with customer satisfaction will make these services available. With so many hundreds of fabrics available, you probably do not need to purchase your own.
Look for a web futon cover retailer whose customer service can help you get quotes for your custom products. Naturally, you want to know your dimensions and fabric choices before you call.
Web profit margins are relatively low, so you will be amazed how reasonable the pricing is, both for on-demand futon fabrics and custom sewing.
However, if what you are interested in is durability; that is, something that will survive the kids and dogs, then a less expensive twill fabric futon cover will last longer, resist fraying, be easy to launder, and be readily available. Remember that, just like upholstered sofas, futon covers should fit snugly, so there is usually no need to iron after laundering.
Whatever your preference, you have a lot of affordable choices and flexibility with futon covers that you do not exist for traditional furniture upholstery.
Check out the futon cover web sites when you want custom sewing work. It can be like having an expert seamstress with a large inventory of fabrics at your immediate disposal.