Help - need to clean my ikea sofa!

HalfPint

Hi,

I am tapping the wealth of knowledge on mse in the hope that you can help me with my sofa.

I have an ikea manstad sofa and it is filthy I'm currently using a couple of throws on the seats as the covers are not removable. When I next do my carpets with a rug doctor, I'll give the seats a clean then.

BUT...the 3 sofa cushions on the back are removable (they too are really filthy) There is nothing on the label to tell me what material it is. I think, on looking on the ikea website, they are 100% cotton. It does say do not wash, do not dry clean etc etc, but I've washed dryclean only stuff before with no problems.

Has anyone ever washed these covers before? Would they be ok say on a woollen/delicates wash in the machine? I've tried vanish stain stuff on one of them but i'm still waiting on it being totally dry to see if its helped.

Any insight, help or otherwise would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

HP x

rosekitten

I know mine is a different one to your but
its from ikea,I wash mine on a long wash
30c spin out as much water as poss at
the end. Usually give mine a second spin
at the highest speed.
If really filthy rub some liquid Ariel into
any marks before washing.I have found
that the liquid Ariel is really good for
washing mine.
dry on the washing line

rosekitten

if you suspect there might have been
some shrinkage stretch them back on the
cushions and zip up and leave them to dry,
I dont think you will have any problems though.

dander

I don't know anything about your particular sofa, but dry-clean only labels are getting ever more common on fabrics. I suspect it's mostly to do with companies covering their backs in an increasingly litigious society.

If the covers are 100% cotton, then that's basically a washable fabric. The main things that can go wrong are 1/ colour bleed 2/ shrinkage and 3/loosening of seams.
I guess that an ikea sofa is likely to be in a plain fabric, so you shouldn't suffer bleeding between colours. I would think a dye on a sofa is going to be reasonably colour fast anyway so ti doesn't rub off on people and is hardwearing - but washing cool should prevent any noticable fading. Shrinking should also be much less likely if you wash cool.
Before you wash, just check the seams, and if they are unfinished and fraying heavily, then you'd probably be wise to put on a delicates cycle, so they don't get any rough treatment that could encourage the fraying - but rosekitten's post suggests that the ikea stuff is not likely to have a problem with this.

HalfPint

Thank you so much...I'll give them a delicate wash just to be safe