Hat on Top, Coat Below
« previous archives home notify list e-mail next »
Defying Gray-vity
December 12, 2023
Today I fought back against the gloom engendered by short winter days and poor snow conditions by putting a new slipcover on the sofa. Which I will show you, but only after giving you a history of all the couches I have owned as an adult. Not because I get more ad revenue that way (not having any ads on this site), but because I’m feeling nostalgic. I’ve only owned two couches, so even with my ability to recall all sorts of details, I might be able to keep this entry under novella length.
I bought the first couch (really a loveseat since it only sat two people comfortably) to furnish my first apartment, which I moved into after I graduated from Michigan State in December of 1984. I got it at the Sears store that was in walking distance of campus. It was a sleeper sofa, and I indeed slept on it for the first several months I lived in that apartment, until I’d saved enough to buy a waterbed. I couldn’t find any good photos of the couch in its earliest years (we took far fewer photos back then), but not to worry, as I brought it with me when I moved in with Mr. Karen after we got married in 1986. It came with us when we got our first (and so far only) apartment we picked out together. Here is it in January, 1990 when I was documenting what that place looked like as we were preparing to move to our first house:
Fast forward seven years and the couch was looking a bit faded and worn:
We still liked the couch, and didn’t really want to spend money on a new one (we mostly sat on the big sectional we’d bought for the family room so had already upgraded our daily seating), so I checked out a book from the library, bought some fabric and supplies at the fabric store, and reupholstered it over the summer of 1997. Here’s me in action:
When I was done, the couch looked like this (that’s the guinea pig cage behind it); I chose that fabric because the black base went with the two chairs we already had in that room and it was the only one in the store with purple in the print, and I wanted purple):
Here’s how it looked in June of 2021, the day before its replacement (ordered six months prior) arrived; it served me well for :
The new couch (again, really a loveseat), which we’d originally ordered in a different, warmer gray fabric (see here), arrived and it was okay:
After a year and a half living with the boring gray, early this year I got a teal slipcover for it, and I liked that much better:
I liked the teal so well I ordered another slipcover in an even bolder color, and today I put it on:
Yes, my couch is orange. Very, very orange. Cheeto orange. Almost safety orange. And I like it. It makes me smile. And when it’s time to sell the condo and turn the place as neutral as possible, I can take the orange away and no prospective buyers will be scared by it. Though who knows if it’ll still be orange by then. I might get different pillows with different colors and buy a slipcover to match those.
On this date in 2022: A Week in Photos: 2022, Part 49
2021: Wandering Around the (Disney) World
2020: New This Season
2019: Ski Day 5
2018: Oh Ceramic Christmas Tree
2017: Fall Road Trip, Part the Second
2016: On the Change of Seasons
2015: Go Cats Go
2014 and 2013: No entries
2012: Tree of Life Quilt
2011: Expensive Urine
2010: Cocooning
2009: Technological Difficulties
2008: Shoulda Been a Banker
2007: WDW 3: Back in Epcot
2006: Caught in the Act
2005: Winter Count—April
2002 through 2004: No journal entries
« previous archives home notify list e-mail next »
3 Comments
December 13th, 2023 at 12:14 pm
Two couches in 40 years–I’m in awe!
My first couch was bought used out of someone’s basement for my first apartment in graduate school in 1999. It was FAR from new when I got it, but large and super comfortable. It went with me to my next grad school apartment, two apartments when I was teaching in Pennsylvania, another apartment in Rhode Island, and then a second apartment in Rhode Island when I moved in with my future wife. She brought her own furniture as well, including an Ikea love seat and chair, and they were made to have changeable slip covers like yours, which was great. It went through a couple colors over the years and went with us to Pennsylvania, an apartment and two houses in Indiana, and then… gosh, did we bring it to Cleveland with us? We gave it away to my sister-in-law at some point, I think while we were in Indiana, and got a futon. And then we bought a new couch at an estate sale here in Cleveland (our fourth couch, though we still have the futon). And that’s less than 25 years.
December 13th, 2023 at 6:14 pm
We’ve had quite a few couches, including a one from Scan (a local Scandinavian furniture store – sort of pre-Ikea, one with big, blocky, wooden sides, and my favorite, which was suede-ish light brown with big arms. It was very cushy and easy to sleep on. Then we adopted my mom’s after she moved to the nursing home. We replaced that with our current loveseat from Ikea, which fits much better in our apartment. It started with a brown slipcover, but now has a dark red one that I like much better.
December 13th, 2023 at 6:17 pm
That orange is great!
Wow, a couch that lasted from 1984 to 2021? That’s amazing. My last set of furniture lasted from 2000 to 2022. When I bought the stuff I have now, the guy said not to expect furniture to last that long anymore, unless I wanted to change my mind and buy something 10 times the price–which I did not. He said I’d be lucky if I got 7 years out of my current set, likely only about 5. I’m 2 years in and so far so good, but it’s just me and I don’t really entertain. But hey, if I win tonight’s Powerball, I’ll splurge on the good stuff. I’m 57. Some twisted part of me wants to think “one last set, make it for the rest of my life,” heh.