Re-stuffing couch cusions?

[InBetweenDays]

We have a couch in our basement that used to be my parents. Then it sat in our office of our old house for 4 years which is the room where the dogs were kept when we weren't home. Then it sat in the basement of our current house while we remodeled the basement. Needless to say the couch needs some help. We rented an upholstery cleaner and it did wonders, but I'd like to replace the loose fill of the back cushions. Both because they smell somewhat of dog and also because they are all squished and lumpy.

Has anyone done this? Any recommendations on what type of fill to use? Ideally we'd DIY this, and not spend a ton of money on it.

[kaylie]

Yep - we did it for our couch and loveseat that are two years old. I bought stuffing from the fabric store to do the pillows and back cushions. For the seat cushions I bought one of those egg crate things you put on your bed and cut pieces to the size of the cushions. The hardest part was getting the egg crate material in there. We really had to shimmy and push it into the corners. It didn't lay completely flat, but once we put it on the couch and started sitting on it they evened out within a day.

It made a big difference and the couches look new again.

ETA - when using the pillow stuffing material you don't want to put one big lump in. I tore it apart a bit and put chunks of it in the corners of the pillow and around the stuffing that was already in there. Test as you go to make sure you aren't getting weird lumps.

[InBetweenDays]

thanks. What kind of loose material did you use? The seat cushions are fine, it's the backs that we need to refill (and I'm hoping to completely get rid of the old stuffing and start fresh).

[kaylie]

It was a polyester - they sell bags of it by Joann. For a loveseat and sofa, we went through two large bags, but we were adding to what was already in there. You might want to bring a cushion to the store with you to figure out how much you would need.

This looks like the stuff we got: www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM5671262903P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM5671262903