True Love

I love my sofa. In fact, I'm hooked on it and I'm going to link up with Julia's Hooked on Fridays. We've had it for 9 years this month. My sister has the same sofa, and my dad and stepmom have the loveseat. We like to keep it in the family. I love that it is big and comfy. I love that it is a perfect golden-toned neutral, but still has a pretty design to add texture and interest.



I also have the matching chair-and-a-half and ottoman. Some people might say that's too matchy matchy, but I consider it one of the best design decisions I've ever made.

You see, the chair and ottoman as made by the manufacturer (Broyhill) came in the same fabric as the throw pillow below. I had them make all three pieces in the same neutral.

My sister has the floral chair. It's pretty, and fits her cozy style.

But my furniture has been our main seating in 8 different houses. Most of them were rentals, some with different colored walls, some with different colored carpet (see photo of Firstborn, above). Some of them I have been allowed to paint, some not.

Every time I wanted or needed it to fit in somewhere else, I just changed out the throw pillows. The dotted ones in browns and aquas (above) were lucky finds at Goodwill when we were in our last house and our living room was painted Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage. They probably were the stock throw pillows that came with somebody else's new couch and didn't go with their decor.

This furniture has served me well. It has looked good in every house. It goes with anything, and I never got tired of the upholstery. It's also super comfortable. Because let's face it: looking good only gets a sofa so far. Beauty is more than skin deep.

Alas, after nine years and seven amateur moves, it's getting worn. They don't show up too well in the picture, but there are several areas verging on holes.


It's really taken a hit in the last 16 months because of this.


What to do? I really don't want to replace it. I can't really afford to, either. We aren't poor, but we don't buy on credit anymore. However, this month we have a looser cash flow because of refinancing our house (5%, yay!) and not having to make a mortgage payment for February. I'm not saying it would be the smart thing to do with the 'extra' money, necessarily, but I'm toying with the idea of having slipcovers made. I can sew, but I won't tackle this one. I'd want it done by a professional.

That would create the problem of choosing a new fabric. I've been eyeing this toile by Waverly for some time and thinking about making window treatments with it. Would it be too much on a sofa? Instead of the window treatments, I mean.
Or maybe something like this, also from Waverly.

Decisions, decisions. Of course, I guess the first step would be to see if it is even economically feasible.