IKEA - Stenåsa White vs. Vittaryd White
Hey Guys,
I've received a lot of emails asking me what covers I choose for our Ikea Ektrop furniture so I thought I would write some pros and cons about the two covers I have in our living room. When I first went to Ikea and checked out the Ektorp collection I was disappointed with the overall appearance of the covers. They were really stiff and really dirty. I did take into consideration the fact that our local Ikea store sees 1000's of people every day. I literally spent 2 hours sitting in all the chairs and closely examining every cover. I was beginning to think my dreams of these white washable covers were flying out the window, that was until I went over to the fabric selection hanging on the wall. (DUH) When I noticed the "Stenasa White" I got very excited because it was exactly what I was looking for. Soft, looked a little like vintage linens and it was white, but not a super bright white, the fit was relaxed... exactly what I wanted! Of course, it was also the cover of choice for everyone else because they only had the sofa cover available in the warehouse. We ended up getting the Ektrop sofa and the cover at the same time. I got it home and was thrilled with the quality of the cover, the way it sat on the couch, the way it felt.... basically everything, I was in love. I took to my trusty computer to find out what locations had the Stenasa white chair covers in stock. The search said Vaughn so the following week we went there and they were sold out. I then decided that eBay was my next logical step. To my surprise, they had quite a few of them and they were cheaper than the store. When the two chair covers arrived a week later, I realized that I bought the wrong ones. The ones I bought were "Vittarryd White" Right away I was disappointed, but I talked myself into keeping them for now. I liked the structure they had to them and the nice piping on the arms etc. So I bit the bullet and put them on the chairs. The first thing I hated (lol) was how hard I had to struggle to get them on. It was seriously the best workout I had all month...not in a good way. The next thing I hated was the feel, they were very stiff and not comfortable at all, they are also lint magnets ...seriously!! Wearing jeans or dark pants on the chairs meant a good 20 mins of rolling my lint brush over them. The last thing I hated was the way they washed! All the lint went into the corners and they took forever to dry. They shrunk a little so putting them back on was even worse the second time around. Finally, I cracked and got my sister in law to grab me the covers from her local store in Ottawa and I'm so happy I did!! They wash beautifully, go on without much effort, and are very soft and comfortable. The fabric content plays a huge factor in the covers. The Stenasa white is 53 % linen, 47 % viscose/rayon and the Vittaryd is 65 % polyester, 35 % cotton. I really hope Ikea comes out with more covers made with Linen instead of polyester.
Thank you for reading! Do you have any covers from Ikea? Which are your favourites? Let me know what you think in the comment selection below.
