happiness is a new sofa...or is it?

happiness is a new sofa…or is it?

November 15, 2010

We just did a bunch of work at our place including fixing up our sofa. We’d been living on a threadbare, flattened, little person- handprinted, lopsided excuse for a sofa for a while. I was pretty down about it, I mean, I’m a designer, my sofa should not look like we just hauled it in from someone’s alley.

I love the sofa itself, but the old tattered linen that was barely holding on had to go. It’s a simple classic low modern sectional with no arms, a tightly upholstered deck and low back. It’s super comfy and would look great in a number of different spaces. Definitely a keeper.

Then there was the question of whether to upholster or slipcover and what fabric to use. Michael wanted to upholster with another heavy neutral linen. I wanted to upholster with something outrageously expensive from one of the showrooms in the PDC.

We ended up having slipcovers made in a very washable white denim.

Not what Michael wanted, and not necessarily my first choice, but here’s why I did this…

1. My boys are a mess and while white does get dirty, the heavy white denim can be washed and bleached and washed and bleached and washed and bleached…

2. While my boys are young I don’t want to worry about upholstering in a $100 per yard fabric that I am going to be freaking out about every time someone glances in the direction of my sofa.

3. Slipcovers are cheap and can be removed and changed easily, did I mention that they are washable and bleachable?

4. I can always have the sofa and cushions upholstered in a nicer fabric and then still use the slipcovers while the boys are messy little monsters.

So we do all this work and it’s like a brand new house and Michael and I are sitting in the living room and I look around and I think to myself ‘whatever’.

Don’t get me wrong, all the work we did made a huge difference and I love it…but I really thought the key to my happiness was surely a new sofa…