This Living Room Hack Will Make Your Saggy Sofas Good as New (It’s Under $50)

A sign of a well-loved couch is that it looks a bit … tired. The cushions of your favorite hang-out spot may have lost density over time, and therefore appear saggy and slouchy. But before you resign yourself to having to purchase a new sofa, you should definitely consider doing this DIY project instead. 

As one Instagram user showed, you can make your sofa squishier and fuller just by taking a trip to the craft store. Louise from Louise James Home on Instagram recently re-shared their most-liked DIY Reel from 2024, and it’s a sofa redo that went viral because it’s just so ingenious.

“We love the stripey sofa … it’s just not squishy enough!” she wrote over the video. “So I bought some wadding and fabric glue, cut the wadding to size, used spray fabric glue to attach, manhandled the cushions back into the covers, double wrapped the back cushions, and here she is!”

The finished result is polished and perfectly stuffed, and the couch looks like new.

“Love this, such a great idea for refreshing your sofa,” one person commented on Louise’s post. “Wish I’d seen this last year, as we replaced our old sofa in February and regretted it ever since, as the new one is nowhere near as good as our old one.”

Another person said, “Whoa! What a transformation and incredible way to use what would otherwise have been a costly replacement!”

You can easily find wadding at your local fabric and craft stores, as well as online. Wadding, also called batting, is a soft, thick material used for padding, insulation, or cushioning, and is often used in quilts and comforters, so it’s meant to be used with fabrics (couch cushion covers included!). You can pick up polyester wadding or opt for something more natural like 100% cotton.

The amount of extra squish your cushion covers can hold will vary case by case, so it’s a good idea to get a lightweight batting so you can double, triple, or quadruple your layers to get the perfect amount.

So before you ditch your old-but-loved sofa, restore the sunken cushions with some wadding and you’ll be able to enjoy it for so many more years to come!