Protecting Your Furniture With Craft Vinyl

We LOVE our cats. No doubt about it! However, we don’t love that they use our furniture as scratching posts…

They already ruined our dining chairs beyond repair (which I since replaced with wood chairs), but I wasn’t going to let our fabulous mid-century orange sofa meet the same fate. I began researching ways to deter the cats from scratching the sides of the sofa, and discovered these plastic covers you attach to the sides of furniture. To purchase those for our large sofa, the cost would add up, and honestly, they were very attractive. The idea popped into my mind that I could use clear craft vinyl instead! Way cheaper for a roll and easy to cut to the exact shape I needed. It’s very subtle, and doesn’t detract from the style of the sofa. However, I bet a fun color could be cool is cut in a fun way!

Also, since I’m attaching it to fabric and not another hard surface, it’s removable! Below is tutorial with a few easy steps for you to do the same 🙂

SUPPLIES

clear vinyl
scissors
ruler
pencil

DIRECTIONS

Start off by cutting off the frayed threads in the areas where you would adhere the vinyl to your furniture. I use scissors and this fabric defuzzer (which is an awesome tool to have for both your clothes and fabric furniture)
Starting with the arms of the sofa (where you usually get the most scratches from the cats), cut a rectangle long enough to cover the whole curve of the arm.
Remove the backing and adhere the vinyl to the furniture arm. Smooth any wrinkles.
With your scissors, start to carefully cut the vinyl to fit the curve of the arm. I smoothed and tucked the edges of the vinyl into the cording around the arm.
Repeats these steps on the other arm of the chair or sofa.
For other parts of the furniture that gets scratched, cut large pieces of the vinyl to cover those areas as well. I cut my pieces into triangles for a stylish finish.