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DIY for Homeowners

West Elm Tillary Sofa Hack

9/15/2015

10 Comments

 
by Steph     Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email!
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
I bought two West Elm Tillary sofas a few years ago for my apartment. I loved them and had no issues. When I moved to my house, it was a different story. 

In my apartment the sofas were right up against the wall, but in my house the sofas are in the middle of the living room. The top section of the sofas do not attach to the bottom--they only have a little grip on the bottom to stay in place. When anyone leaned back on the sofa, the grip did NOT keep the top in place. 

I had many people fall over when the top did not stay in place so I had to come up with a way to keep this from happening! 

A friend of mine helped me come up with the design. We cut plywood to size, sanded the edges down, and used hex bolts to screw the wood board into the base of the sofas. When we drilled the pilot holes into the wood and sofa base, we did have some batting come out and get twisted but this was not a major issue.

I have not had anymore issues with the sofa since adding this fix! 
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
West Elm Tillary Sofa
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
Close up of hack
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
Tools used
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
Catalina was not super helpful :)
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
Measuring where the bolts should go
West Elm Hack. MotherDaughterProjects.com
The living room in my house.

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10 Comments
Denise Robinson
11/7/2017 11:16:16 am

Good morning ladies, I even know how I came across your site, but I'm so glad I did. I can't seem to stop looking at everything y'all have made. I love all of them so much that I can't wait to do them. The pillow case dress can even be made out of a cotton sheet for older women like me to wear during the hot Georgia summers. I bought all the stuff to paint my kitchen cabinets but haven't felt motivated to do it until now. I'll be wearing that pillow case dress, different prints, all next summer. I'm redoing my guest bedroom and you solved all my problems on what to do in there. I dont need to do the sofa hack now. I wish I'd seen it before I was given the love seat that I have in my girl cave where I sew and read or what ever. I could have made a pretty daybed using the twin size mattress set I had with your bed frame and a piece of wood for pillows as a back. Would have been great. The only thing I would do different is cover the wood with a pretty fabric. Keep doing what you have been doing.. Everything I've watched so far is FANTASTIC & BROUGHT A SMILE TO MY FACE 😀. Thank you for making my Monday morning a blessing, Denise

Reply
Steph
11/8/2017 10:03:51 am

Hey Denise- this makes us so happy to read! We are so excited to hear you found some ideas in our projects and so happy we could bring a smile to your face :)

Reply
pam
11/23/2018 05:32:37 pm

love the sofa hack , used your idea but i covered the wood with fabric..... i stapled the fabric to the bottom inside of the wood, and to the side ,only up the height of the seat , attached the wood and then pulled the fabric up and over the board and stapled the top inside , covering the bolt heads, and then finished the side , when the back cushion is in place , the inside is hidden and the backside is pretty from the entry way
thanks for the idea !!!!

Reply
Steph
11/23/2018 09:20:43 pm

That's so great! Thanks for sharing Pam!

Reply
Kimberly Roeder
4/2/2019 10:51:02 am

Excited to try this on my sofa!! Thanks! Do you know what the height of your plywood piece was? Also what size hex bolts did you use? Is it still holding up okay?

Reply
pam
4/2/2019 08:10:09 pm

still holding up today have moved sofa out to sun room w/ screens. not sure of size of bolts thin 5/8 and maybe 2" long..my wood is 28 in tall and 62 in long

Reply
Kimberly Roeder
4/2/2019 08:19:49 pm

Thanks so much for the response!! Excited to fix the sofa up this week!! Side note, have you found any excellent ways to clean it?

Kimberly
5/30/2019 08:32:27 pm

I was finally able to work on this project today and it looks great! So thankful for your blog and the info provided. My sofa is finally fully functional!!

Reply
Steph
6/2/2019 08:09:04 pm

Awesome! Happy to help :)

Reply
Susie Burrows
8/7/2022 07:13:48 pm

OMG. Just moved my sofas and found your project! BUT. Here’s the best part. I tilted one on the side to figure out how to do the bolts. And found that in the zippered compartment are the actual legs! Still in their original boxes. So. Thank you for the awesome hack, and the discovery of the higher legs!

Reply



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