As a family that loves red wine, black labs and white couches, something terrible was destined to happen to us. Seriously, it was only a matter of time. Now, if you know me offline, it’s easy to assume that I was behind this Cabernet display. I can’t legally name names, but y’all, this was actually, really, truly, not my fault.
I DID place the wine on a table of suspect sturdiness, but ultimately I was not responsible for its unruly end. That’s all I got to say about that.
And unruly it was. There was wine dripping from the mantel, in between the fireplace grates, down the walls, and covering the arms and the cushions of our couch. I had to act fast. Here’s how:
I started by BLOTTING the spots with a dry towel to remove as much as I could. I followed with the same motion using a towel drenched in ice cold water. No scrubbing, no rubbing, just consistent up and down motions. Keep in mind, at this point for some reason the couch was turning BLUE because it’s got feathers in it?! There was a lot of sweat and outdoor voice action happening.
Once I had removed as much as I could, I reached for my Dryel pen. This is the craziest component, because it comes as part of an at-home dry cleaning kit. This specific pen was recommended to my mom for upholstery by a long-time patron of JoAnn’s Fabrics, and those ladies don’t PLAY. I have since used it on all stains and it is an absolute wonder.
For the walls, I actually let the red wine dry, much to the absolute terror of my husband. Once it dried, I hit them with a Magic Eraser and it looked as good as new.
The carpet trick came from something I learned in college during an “informative speech” day in my public speaking class. I taught the class how to make breakfast in bed, and James Adams taught everyone how to remove a Jungle Juice stain from the carpet. MAY GOD BLESS YOU JAMES! Please note, I have since verified this with ApartmentTherapy and Bob Vila and all parties agree that it’s legit.
You simply fill a spray bottle with 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. Next, plug in your iron to the highest steam setting. While it’s heating up, spray the stain liberally with the vinegar mixture and lay an old white towel over top of the stain. Press the hot iron over top of the stain and move it around until you see steam appear. When you move the iron, you should see that the stain transferred on to the towel like MAGIC. Continue moving the towel around and repeating until all of the stain gets transferred.
The last thing that I will rave about during this stressful time is our amazing furniture company, Discount Furniture of the Carolinas. When we purchased our couch, the owner Bradley advised us about this program called Guardian. It’s an insurance that cost us a whopping $150, and lasts for 5 years. It covers rips, tears, stains, pet mishaps, you name it. There’s no deductible, so I thought there HAD to be a catch. After sending a picture to Bradley (that I’m sure is up on their Wall of Shame), he sent out a whole brand new half of our couch. Normally they’d try to replace or repair cushion by cushion, but ya know, we really brought the house down with our stain.
I can NOT say enough good things about Bradley and this company in terms of selection, customer service, integrity, communication, and the list goes on.
I hope this never ever happens to you, but if it does, I hope this helps!