I Cut Our Couch In Half!

This is the story of how I ended up cutting our sectional couch in half… Literally!

How It All Began

I got a great deal on a used sectional couch for our living room last fall. I was browsing Craigslist and I saw this couch for sale for $100. That is crazy cheap for a decent sectional couch and this one looked to be in great condition. The people selling it said that the lease on their storage locker was ending tomorrow and this couch did not fit in their new house. I cruised over there and scored a great deal!

One problem… When I got it home and we brought it in the house, we realized that the dimensions that they had provided were not quite right and it really didn’t fit the way we wanted it to. It was too big!

Temporarily, we rotated it so it was in front of the fireplace, but that wasn’t ideal. Looking at it, I said “If I just cut that middle section down from a two-seater to a single seat it would work great.”

Leslie looked at me like I was crazy. “That’s impossible” she said.

And so the challenge was set, and I was determined to prove her wrong!

Before…

First, I’ll brag a bit and show you that I started with this 2-seater piece of the sectional…

And After…

And when I was done it was now this 1-seater piece of a sectional…

Please read on if you’d like to know how I tackled this project… 🙂

Some Tools Of The Trade

• Makita 18v Sawzall – tool of choice for couch cutting
• Makita 18v Circular Saw – optional sawzall alternative
• Makita 18v Drill – for reassembly, with some screws this time!
• Surebonder Pneumatic Stapler – optional, but highly recommended for only $40
• Knipex Channellock Pliers – for pulling staples! (I’ve had these for 20 years and they are worth every penny)
• Mini Crowbar / Nail Puller – for couch disassembly

How I Made It Happen

Original 2 seater

I’ve never cut a couch in half before, but I have done a little bit of upholstery work before. My Dad and I reupholstered his boat seats quite a while back.

Furniture upholstery is usually just a matter of stretching fabric and tons of staples to hold things in place where the staples can’t be seen. The only real sewing machine type work is usually done for the cushions.

I don’t own a sewing machine. Luckily, for this project I was just planning on making a two cushion seating section into a one cushion section. The only “cushion challenge” was that the two cushions on the back of the couch that were joined together, so I would have to cut them apart and staple the fabric somehow, so you wouldn’t notice it.

It’s amazing how cheaply furniture like this is made these days. There were hundreds of staples to remove to get the fabric off and disassemble one end of the couch. Under that was just a cheap OSB wood structure with more large staples holding that together. No glue or screws anywhere! Luckily, that cheap assembly made it fairly easy to disassemble.

After the one end was disassembled, I saved the end boards for reassembly later. I then cut the fabric all the way around, leaving quite a bit of extra for now.

I quickly cut the coach to about 2/3 length with my sawzall, so I could get a good look inside and measure things up for the final cuts.

All of the middle stretcher boards were then measured, marked, and trimmed to their correct finished lengths. The measurements were all based on the length of the seat and back cushions, so minimal modifications would be required there.

Then it was time to put the end back on the couch.  That wasn’t too difficult.  It was starting to take it’s shape now and it was looking like a couch again… just a smaller version!

Now it was time for all of the fabric stretching and stapling.  A pneumatic stapler is a must!  It took a couple of hours to get everything figured out.  You definitely have to take your time to get the corners looking good.

If you look closely at the side of the back pillow that was modified, you might notice that it is different than the other side, but once this new single-seater section of the sectional is sandwiched between the other pieces of the sectional, it looks like it was originally made that way!  Cool.  Mission accomplished.

Till next time…