Domesticity
I have a living room that I never use. Its design is fairly formal. You step down about six inches into it, and while it is completely open to the dining room, it is divided from the dining room by two pillars and a railing to either side of the pillars. The picture shows the view from my living room looking out into the dining room (which I also incidentally seldom use).
One of the reasons I donât use the living room is because the furniture is completely shot. The cats have claimed the sofa and love seat for their very own, and while I donât begrudge them their comforts, the cushions have gotten to the point where they cannot be brushed clean. It had gotten to the point where it creeped me out to even sit on the furniture out there.
But now that Iâm home all day, every day, Iâm starting to feel more inspired about sprucing this place up a bit. Since this inspiration coincides with my abrupt lack of income, I am limited in the ways I can actually express this surge of inspiration. But about two weeks ago I got it into my head that I was getting slip covers for the living room furniture â slip covers that I could remove and throw into the washing machine before they got too groady. Iâve spent several hours cruising the web, looking for exactly what I wanted, and realizing that even slip covers were not exactly what Iâd call affordable. An ad in the Sunday paper announcing that Target was having a sale on slip covers got me out of the house and into shopping mode.
I found the perfect slip cover for the sofa, at a rock bottom price. It was the exact shade of gray Iâd been hoping for, machine washable, and sized for my sofa exactly. As luck would have it, the damned thing didnât come in a love seat size as well. I didnât want to mix and match my slip covers, so I plowed through the other covers, and found something that I could happily settle for and, more importantly, I could easily afford.
Before:
After:
Notice that the slip covers werenât on for more than five minutes than the herd was checking them out. (Little Brown Shit is in the cat bed in the window, but she had already tried the slip covers out and apparently found them wanting).
Iâve rearranged the furniture a bit, so that I can look out the windows regardless of where I sit. The windows are open to let the September day in, my Acer is on my lap, and Caleb Carrâs âThe Alienistâ is by my side waiting for its fourth or fifth re-read. I could really get into this unemployment thing.
Moving furniture is the cheapest kind of homemade fun I know of.
Nothing like a little bit of new perspective to freshen up the brain cells…
Looks nice.
Very pretty! I’ve got a chair that freaks me out to sit in because it’s been severely doggified but it’s technically a chair and a half and I can’t find a slip cover for it *sniffs*.
Regarding your comment to Yetzirah about rethinking Vista; don’t bother. My computer (also an Acer)was less than 7 months old when Vista went up in flames for no good reason.
Those covers look really good.
LBS owns that cat bed, doesn’t she?
Very nice! A big improvement over the green. But then, I really don’t like the olive/pea soup greens that are oh-so-fashionable these days.
Fabric brushes are cr*p. The best thing I’ve found is Scotch Fur Fighter. It comes in an initial kit, basically a plastic handle and these magical sheets that magically attach to the handle. One or two swipes with thing, and the fur is GONE. Our dog sheds like crazy, but I use that thing once a week, and no problem. There are refill packs of the sheets. I find them at Super Target on the aisle with the sponges, mops, rubber gloves, that kind of thing.
Ah, yes, the magic of slipcovers. The one on our sofa has come in especially handy on those very rare occasions when the Cat decides she has to share her dinner with us but can’t be bothered to get off the sofa and onto the floor.
We just bought a new sofa, loveseat and recliner for our living room which is seldom used as the TV is in the family room. Maxine has declared it her new furniture. I never thought about slip covers, what a great idea as I have been using a damp towel to clean up her spots. Incidently, I just bought a new acer 10.1" and I love it! I gave my old acer to Max. This one is small, but so light! And, I am in complete agreement about the new Microsoft office that comes installed with it. I can’t even find the print button. I am thinking of deleting it when my trial is over and putting my good ole 2000 on.