14-Day Decorating Short Cut Challenge: How to Un-Sag Your Couch Cushion

Do you say couch or sofa?

I thought I said sofa until I started typing this post and my fingers just automatically typed couch.

It’s like my fingers had their own furniture vocabulary.

Today the couch or sofa or loveseat or sectional or chair are all part of the short cut series.

14 days full of tips to make your decorating life a little easier.

We’ve discussed the one thing every lamp needs and how to transform a builder-grade door for under $10 and an easy way to makeover furniture and a unique hardware DIY. and budget centerpiece ideas and how to pick paint colors that make your room smile and how to decorate with thrift store finds and a 10-minute project for each season and eight things to buy at a yard sale for under $5.00.

And today?

We are shortcutting a little sag.

Here is an easy tip to un-sag your couch cushions.

A while ago I wrote a post entitled “Five Decorating Mistakes I Wish I Hadn’t Made.”

The #2 mistake on the list was that I wish I had purchased sofas with removable back cushions instead of cushions that are attached.

Why?

Because cushions that are attached to the back of the sofa sag.

Sag and sag and saaaaaaaaggggggg.

Sag like the Suntan pantyhose my mother used to make me wear in seventh grade.

They don’t tell you about the sagging at the store and you don’t even notice it until you’ve had the sofas about a month and you go to fluff the back cushions and realize saggy cushions are now a thing in your living room.

Until now.

This is the best tip I never thought of.

A reader sent it to me and I thanked her and told her she was brilliant and sent her seventy-two exclamation points and then decided to share it with all of you.

Here’s how to fix sagging couch cushions in the easiest, simplest way you can imagine.

Let’s start with a close-up so you can see what I am working with here.

Super slumperama.

Slippty, slumpity, sloop.

Slimptimity.

Slumpity.

Slumper.

Slump.

Emily Post would tell it to straighten its shoulders.

But it can’t.

Why?

It’s attached to the back.

And when you try to push it up, the cushion stays for a moment and then when your back is turned or someone sits on the couch to eat Captain Crunch or put their stinky socks over the edge, whenever they get up….

….it slumps back in place.

But here’s the thing.

There’s a secret fix to all that slumping.

Something I never even knew was there.

Something wonderful and incredible and amazing that fixed the problem in two shakes of a lamb’s tale.

A zipper.

I know…right?

I’m as surprised as you are. There’s a hidden zipper at the bottom of the cushion that has been escaping my notice for four years. It’s tucked way back inside and you have to awkwardly lift up the cushion to find it, but it’s there.

And when I unzipped it, guess what I found?

Stuffing.

Stuffing that was kind of molded into place and slumpy.

So I twisted it and turned it and fluffed it out of its mold and even added a little extra stuffing around the edges.

And now?

Here’s a little before and after.

Now it looks like this.

Can you believe the difference?

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Especially when they are unslumpy.

And now my couch is fluffed and stuffed and ready for stinky socks and Captain Crunch.

All because of an amazing reader.

And a zipper. 🙂

PS And now a word from our 14-day shortcut sponsor.

You can read the reviews of my first book, So Close To Amazing, here.