Jack Knife Sofa
Our jack knife sofa was relatively clean and in good shape. Since we have bunk house and there is no need for anyone to ever sleep here I wish we could remove the sofa and replace it with a more modern sofa. Unfortunately our camper’s rear bed slide out requires a sofa that lays flat. We also have storage space and part of our AC underneath. Once we accepted that we were stuck with this sofa we decided that we needed something durable and easy to clean.
My first instinct was to reupholster with one of the fabrics we chose for the dinette. we ended up opting out of this because while the seat vinyl is easy to clean and great for sitting on while eating, it’s not something we would want to lay on. We love the dinette back cushion fabric we chose but it is rather stiff and we did not think it would lay well over the sofa’s curved surfaces.
We debated on sewing a custom slipcover but work and life started to become very busy and we needed a temporary fix. I tossed an extra queen sized fitted sheet over it. This ended up being more than a temporary fix. We loved how it looked and that we could easily toss it in the wash after each camping trip.
The vanity panel below the sofa was removed and upholstered with the same navy blue vinyl as the other accent pieces and dinette seats. It took about 5 minutes to cover over the existing fabric with a scissors and staple gun. There is a seam down the center because we only used the fabric we had left and did not feel like ordering more.
The only notable advice I have is to remember to leave the fabric looser if parts have to bend. In the above picture the whole piece is laid flat and looks loose and wrinkled. Below it is installed and stretched tight.
The plastic AC vent was painted black using spray paint made specifically for plastic. We used the same paint for several of our vents located close to the floor. We purchased the same spray paint in white for our ceiling vents. So far with all of the vent turning we have done it has held up fabulously.
We used the remaining bit of navy vinyl to cover several other pieces in the camper.
We were initially nervous about the upholstery snap on button caps we ordered as an afterthought matching but they ended up being absolutely perfect.
