I did not go looking for a recliner slipcover. I went looking for a way to stop ruining a chair I had owned for about a month. In March I set a mug of coffee on the armrest of my lift recliner, reached over for the newspaper, and knocked it clean over. The coffee ran down the arm and into the seam. I got it up with a damp cloth and it never stained, but I sat there the rest of that morning thinking about what a second cup would have done.
That afternoon I ordered the Easy-Going stretch recliner slipcover. It has been on the chair since March, eight months now, and it comes off for the wash about every three weeks. I am not going to tell you it changed my life. I will tell you ten specific things it has done, and a couple it has not.
One mug of coffee convinced me. Eight months later it is still on the chair.
Four labeled pieces in a stretch fabric, machine washable, made to fit a sitting area of 23 to 34 inches.
Amazon See the Easy-Going slipcover on Amazon →The first spill cost me a damp cloth instead of a stain
The arm of my recliner is where everything lands. Coffee, cracker crumbs, the pen I use for the crossword. In eight months this cover has taken three spills that would otherwise have gone into the chair fabric. Each time I pulled the arm piece off, rinsed it in the kitchen sink, and put it back still a little damp. The chair underneath still looks like the chair that came out of the boxes in February.
Four labeled pieces, twenty minutes, the first time only
The cover comes as four pieces: one for the seat and back, one for each arm, and one for the footrest. Each piece carries a small label telling you where it goes, which mattered more than I expected, because I had the two arm pieces swapped until I read them. Karen and I had the whole thing on in about twenty minutes. The second time, after a wash, I did it alone in under ten.
The stretch fabric goes over the back without a wrestling match
The Easy-Going cover is 80 percent polyester and 20 percent spandex, according to the listing, and that is the reason it works. It stretches over the seat and back and settles down instead of fighting you. Some mornings my shoulder is sore and I still got it on by myself. The fit is snug on the seat and back. If your chair measures between 23 and 34 inches across the sitting area, that is the range the listing gives.
It stays put when the chair lifts and reclines
This was the thing I checked first, and I checked it before I ever sat down on it. A lift chair moves in ways a plain recliner does not, and the last thing I wanted was fabric working its way into the mechanism. The closure is elastic and the listing gives it an anti slip backing. I ran the chair all the way up and all the way back with the cover on, and it moved as freely as it did bare. Eight months in, it has not bunched or slid.
It goes in the washing machine on gentle and hangs to dry
Machine wash, per the care instructions, and that is the whole reason I bought a fabric cover instead of a plastic one. I run it on gentle about every three weeks, more in the summer, and I hang the pieces over the shower rod instead of putting them in the dryer. They are dry by morning. Nothing has shrunk, nothing has pilled, and the seams have held. My old recliner was never cleaned once in fifteen years, which is a thing I would rather not think about.
It covers the armrests, which is where a chair actually wears out
Look at any chair that has been sat in daily for a few years and the arms go first. Hands rest there, cups land there, the remote gets dropped there. This cover has separate arm pieces, so the part that takes the abuse is the part you can pull off and wash. On my chair the armrest is also where the hand remote cord used to drape, before I started keeping the remote in the chair's own side pocket.
Crumbs and pen caps stay out of the seat crevice
I do the crossword in that chair most afternoons and I eat crackers in it more often than I should. The cover goes down into the gap between the seat and the back, so what falls lands on fabric I can lift off rather than in a slot I cannot reach. I have not had to go after the chair with a vacuum attachment since March. For anybody who has fished a pen out of a recliner with a butter knife, that is worth something.
It comes back off in minutes when you need to get at the chair
Twice now I have wanted to get behind the cover, once to look at the fabric underneath after a spill and once just to see how the seat was holding up. The Easy-Going cover came off in about five minutes and went back on just as fast. That matters on a lift chair. If a cover takes two people and a fight to remove, you will not remove it, and then it is just a layer of fabric collecting everything.
It puts off the day you have to think about reupholstering
Reupholstering means the chair leaves the house, or somebody spends a day in your living room, and you are without your chair for however long it takes. My chair is where I read the paper at seven in the morning and where I nap some afternoons. I did not want it gone for a week. A slipcover is not reupholstery and it will not mend a torn cushion, but it keeps the fabric underneath out of the weather while you decide.
It lets you keep a chair that already fits your body
This is the reason that actually matters to me. My lift recliner was chosen for my height and for how it stands me up, and it took two weeks of measuring and one conversation with Dr. Patel to get there. I was not going to replace a chair that fits me because the arms were looking tired. If you are still deciding on the chair itself, that is a separate question, and worth asking your doctor or a physical or occupational therapist about fit and safety before you buy.
Twenty minutes to fit it the first time. Three weeks later it went in on gentle and came out looking like it did on day one. That is the whole argument for a washable cover.
What I'd Skip
Three things I would not buy alongside this cover. A waterproof recliner cover, first, if your situation is a full glass rather than a mug. The listing gives this one as not water resistant, and it is not pretending otherwise. I have never owned a waterproof cover, so I am judging from listings and from a friend's chair at church, and I would read those listings closely. A sofa arm tray, second. The caddy that hangs over my armrest does the same job with less fuss. A bed tray with legs, third. My lap desk sits on my lap and stores beside the chair. And one caution, because this is a lift chair: ask your doctor or a physical or occupational therapist whether anything you add to it is safe for you, especially after surgery or a fall, and check that the chair still lifts and reclines freely before you sit back down.
The chair by my window still looks like the chair I bought in February
Washable, stretch, four labeled pieces, elastic closure. It has been on my lift recliner since March and it comes off again Sunday.
Amazon See the Easy-Going slipcover on Amazon →