Inside: A Ikea Soderhamn Sofa Review; how to assemble it; how to clean the fabric and how to hack the Soderhamn to make it more comfortable.
Reviewing the Ikea Soderhamn Sofa in Samsta Orange
When I built my office, I wanted it to be a white room with lots of pops of colour. I had limited space and budget to spend on furniture, and when I noticed Ikea released the Soderhamn sofa in a bright orange slipcover, I quickly placed an order. Here’s my review of the Soderhamn sofa – what I love about it, what I would change about it and how I hacked it to make it more comfortable.
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Assembling the Soderhamn Sofa
Compared to most Ikea products, assembly of the Soderhamn is quite easy. In fact, my husband was able to put it together for me in a couple of hours on his own while I watched the kids.
One thing to note is the slipcover for the seat cushion zipper into the sofa base, which means they slide around a tiny bit, but mostly stay put. At first I thought this was a bit weird, but now that I’ve used the couch a lot, I find it a good feature because I think the cushions could be very slippery otherwise.
Does the Soderhamn sofa come with a slipcover?
Yes. This sofa is technically a slipcover, although it’s nowhere near as simple to remove as other Ikea slipcover couches. I also owned and reviewed the Ikea Ektorp sofa and it is MUCH easier to clean the slipcovers by removing them. I explain how I clean and bleached my Ikea slipcovers here.
However, I like the fabric of the Soderhamn slipcover. It wipes clean (for the most part) and it’s very durable for scrubbing. But be warned, this is not the kind of cover you will be removing and laundering.
How do you clean an Ikea Soderhamn sofa?
Here’s how I have cleaned my Soderhamn sofa (and I have a dog, a cat and two kids!)
Spot cleaning the fabric
I like to use dish detergent and a clean rag to wipe it clean of small spots or stains.
Upholstery cleaning
I absolutely love my Hoover SmartWash to clean ALL my sofas. We also own the Ikea Vimle sofa in a navy blue – you can see my Vimle Sofa Review here. And I use the SmartWash to clean it and the Soderhamn all the time.
The key is to simply allow the fabric to dry completely. If you have pets or animals in your home, you might want to read my post about how to get pet and dog odours out of a couch.
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Is the Ikea Soderhamn Sofa Comfortable?
Well, this is the million dollar question, because when I bought it online, I was very concerned it would be stiff. While it’s not stiff, the cushions on the seat are VERY thin (as you can see in the photo above).
The three-seater Soderhamn couch comes with two large back cushions and two small detached bolster cushions. The bolsters, I think, are meant to add weight and comfort to the arms, which are also very thin.
I find this couch NEEDS additional feather cushions in order to be comfortable. I place one right where the two back pillows meet, otherwise, when you’re sitting there the cushions separate and you sink into the back of the couch in a not very fun way.
My Ikea Soderhamn Hack (to make it more comfortable)
I can’t take full credit for this idea, because it’s all over the internet and I recently saw it hacked in an edition of House & Home magazine – but it’s brilliant, so I’ll share it here.
The Soderhamn cushions are super thin, but they aren’t well stuffed. This means there’s LOTS of additional space to add more batting to them to fluff them up and give the couch WAY more comfort.
My hack for the Soderhamn is to add feather down batting to the back cushions to prevent them from sliding around and to beef them up a bit.
The other hack that I intend to do is to swap out the legs on the Soderhamn for something more wooden or organic. I’m not sure why in 2021 Ikea is still using the dated chrome legs on their sofas, but I dislike them. Note: to swap the legs on this sofa for other legs, you will have to make small slits in the slipcover to accommodate the leg screws.
How do you connect Soderhamn pieces?
When we bought the Soderhman, we originally thought we could accommodate the chaise lounger, but when we measured, quickly realized it’s too large for our space.
But, the Soderhamn soft connects in the same manner most of the other Ikea sofas connect – with a simple lag bolt and latch system.
If down the line we want to lengthen the Soderhamn with an additional section, it will be quite easy to do.
What colours does the Soderhamn come in?
We had the Samsta Orange slipcover. At the time of publishing this post, the Soderhamn sofa is available in Finnsta turquoise, Samsta dark grey, Finnsta white and Viarp beige/brown.
What are other ways to hack the Soderhamn sofa?
Besides restuffing the pillows and swapping the legs, you can also buy a new, custom slipcover for your Soderhman from a retailer like Bemz.
