A sofa cover not only transforms the look and feel of your furniture, but it also offers a way to keep your sofa fresh and clean underneath.
But what should you do when the sofa cover itself gets dirty, either through accidental spills or daily wear? Surely, you can just bang the cover in the washing machine, job done – right?
Well, not exactly. There’s no all-encompassing method for sofa cover cleaning and washing sofa covers the wrong way can actually damage the fabric. Don’t worry though, we’re here to guide you through the best way to wash sofa covers and what to look out for.
Let’s jump in, shall we?
Always check the label
There’s no hard or fast rule about machine washing sofa covers; different types of fabrics have different cleaning needs.
The only way to know for sure whether you can put sofa covers in the washing machine is to check the label on the inseam of the fabric – this helpful clean cheat sheet holds all the key information about how to wash sofa covers, including cleaning codes, drying and ironing instructions.
Take our Fernwood sofa cover, for example. Like the majority of our sofa cover collection, this floral fabric is suitable for machine washing and its label specifies that you should hand or machine wash at 40oC on a short spin – but you should not iron, bleach or tumble dry. Conversely, our Mandalay Stripe sofa cover must be washed at 30oC on a light spin and can be cool ironed.
So, don’t leave it up to guesswork – check the fabric label before washing sofa covers in the washing machine.
What happens if I don’t follow the cleaning instructions?
With a growing to-do list and not enough time in the day, we know it can be tempting to machine wash your sofa cover, regardless of the label instructions. Just one wash won’t hurt, right?
Yet, washing sofa covers in the machine when they’re not suitable, even just once, can have disastrous and expensive consequences. For starters, your lovely sofa cover could actually shrink in the wash and no longer fit on your sofa – especially when the fabric has been made-to-measure. There’s also the possibility of less drastic, but still unsightly, colour fading and tears occurring in the fabric.
If you do have a sofa cover not suitable for machine washing, such as our Italian Stripe, then follow the instructions on the fabric label closely. That little bit of extra time, blotting, brushing or wiping the fabric yourself saves you the money on buying replacements in the long run.
Aquaclean sofa covers
Fed up with constantly washing sofa covers in the machine to contend with muddy paw prints and sticky fingers? Then you should check out our range of Aquaclean sofa covers.
Every single fibre within these Aquaclean fabrics are protected by an invisible waterproof barrier that stops spills and stains from penetrating the sofa cover – all you need to do is wipe them away with water and a cloth. Even tough cleaning jobs are a cinch with Aquaclean fabrics; black coffee, red wine and ink stains all disappear with minimal elbow grease.
Our Aquaclean sofa covers are also machine washable, so you can easily keep them fresh and looking their best for longer!
On the lookout for a new sofa cover to update your living room décor? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Head over to the Plumbs website to browse our range of stylish sofa covers today.
