One Day, I’ll Have a White Sofa
Thoughts on beautiful trends vs functional family design
18 months ago, I was convinced that what I really needed to make my living room beautiful was a white sofa. Actually, two white sofas. Two beautiful, white linen sofas to replace the brown tweed sofas I’d purchased off of Facebook Marketplace a few years before.
It’s not that I didn’t like the brown sofas. They were well made, functional, and had a nice shape.
But, well… they weren’t white sofas.
Despite my having 4 wild children and a smelly English bulldog, I’d assured myself that with the right combination of performance fabric and Scotch Guard, they would be “totally functional!” for my family and “so easy to maintain!”
A ketchup-covered hotdog would never find its way between the cushions. Muddy paw prints would never grace its upholstery. Nary a drop of red wine would be spilled on its pristine, perfectly-shaped arms by a beloved (yet, overserved) friend on a Friday night.
It— ahem— they, would sit, beloved, inviting, and stylish in my living room, looking as clean and fresh as they did on the day that they were delivered via white glove service.
This was the truth. This was my dream. This, dear reader, was delusion.
I scoured the internet for the perfect pair.
“NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS!?!?!?!” I shrieked to my computer screen. “IS THIS A JOKE!?!??!” My dog, slumbering on the misshapen sofa cushions raised her eyebrows as if to say, “get a grip, woman.”
Since when were sofas so expensive?
I changed course. Perhaps, instead, I could recover my existing sofas.
Alas, that wasn’t much cheaper. Anguished, and considering taking up a new hobby of upholstery, I resolved that my dream was unaffordable.
I would just have to just live with my blah, brown sofas that blended all too well with rattan coffee table.
My living room, I lamented, would be forever subpar.
Wait… what?
This had gotten out of hand.
Why had white sofas become synonymous with perfection in my mind?
Who on Earth was I kidding when I had just, that very morning, peeled a half-eaten, syrup-laden waffle off of my existing sofa cushion?
I needed to stop scrolling Instagram and take a long, hard look in the mirror (and at the state of my existing furniture.) I had always been pretty darn good at prioritizing function over beauty, but this one had gotten way ahead of me.
This brown tweed hides pretty much everything - from coffee spills to marker misses. It cleans up perfectly with a Little Green Machine, and its well-loved cushions offer the perfect support during movie night. The weave of the fabric camouflages crumbs and pulls and when it starts to stink, the not-exactly-machine-washable cushion covers do just fine in my top loader.
Sure, this room was pretty beige - but at least it could withstand the life lived within it.
Fast forward to October, when I was perusing Facebook Marketplace instead of working.
There I saw it: not a pair of white sofas, but a truly stunning, solid wood coffee table with claw feet and drink trays. $150!?!? I had to have it.
I immediately messaged the seller, borrowed my dad’s truck, and set off to bring home what I knew would be my living room’s crowning jewel, after all.
It wasn’t completely not functional white sofas that I needed - but a very functional, sturdy, stunning coffee table to replace the rickety ‘ol rattan piece that we’d had there before.
It can withstand spills, sits, scratches. It can be used for coloring, cocktails, and board games. It’s functional, beautiful, and budget-friendly.
It tied the room together like nothing else could - and made my old brown sofas look like they’d been designed specifically for this space.
The white sofas that I just had to have suddenly seemed not only unappealing, but downright unhinged.
One day, I’ll have a white sofa. In another season of life, perhaps - when this house is a whole lot quieter and, I’d venture to guess - a whole lot lonelier.
Only Mike and I would be to blame for the stains they’d see.
But really, now that I think about it… I prefer a little color, after all.
I have wanted a pair of white sofas - really all upholstery in my house to be white- since I was in college, in my 20’s and discovered Helen Ballard. That was 40 years ago. But… dogs, kids in and out of the house, we eat in our family room on movie nights, etc. So I bought an IKEA (not Ballard Designs $$$) white slip covered sofa. We’ve replaced the slipcovers a time or two after many, many washings and spot treatments over the last ten or twelve years. But since there are always things more necessary than a second white sofa I made do with some thrifted pieces until a couple of months ago I found a white slip covered IKEA sofa that matched my existing but discontinued sofa - at the thrift store for $70. In perfect condition. Better condition than the one in my home!! I love them and they are worth every washing and sweat inducing battle to put the slipcovers back on, because contrary to the name slipcovers don’t slip back on!, all fresh and white. Hold on to those dreams of a fresh, white pair of sofas. Dreams do come true and I will never not love that look!