The couch and love seat in my living room have seen better days.  I guess that's to be expected, since they're nine years old.  A google search revealed that they've exceeded the "average lifespan" of a couch by about four years.

That's pretty scary.  It's just not in my budget to replace my living-room furniture every four years.  But it does need to be done.  At first I thought that I could just disguise the stained upholstery (chocolate ice-cream spills and newspaper ink) with a nice slipcover.  That worked in the family room on the sofa that is very well-made.  If only we hadn't chosen corduroy for that sofa.

Warning to all furniture shoppers:  corduroy and dropped lollipops don't mix.

A slipcover would certainly cover up the places in the love seat where the fabric has simply shredded around the piping.  I've repaired it, but it just doesn't hold up.  And then there's the matter of the couch.  Friends of ours regularly visit and sit on that couch.  Every time they do, they go hunting for the throw pillows and sit on them.  A slipcover's not going to do anything about that kind of structural problem.

So it's furniture-shopping time for me!  I'm thinking about something in a dark color, and I'm resolved never to read the newspaper on the sofa again.

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