This is what my sofa looks like today. I’m pretty happy with it. But though it sits there as if it always has, it was quite the $$$ journey.
Much of what I purchase, not the least of it furniture, is a compromise. I can't afford what I want so I always have to settle. Try as I did however, I simply couldn't forget a certain beautiful, down-filled yet tailored white sofa, by Richard Shapiro (below.) I searched and I searched, and finally realized that I and my dream sofa came from different sides of the tracks...
And so, it was makeover time.
I found a ‘70s couch in my local thrift shop that people in my old-school area hoof to the curb on a regular basis.
- I paid $150 for it, and although the green one pictured below is not the couch I bought, it might as well be.
The only difference is that my sofa has surprisingly elegant, scooped arms, which is what gave me the final push to pay over $100 for garbage – literally. Well, ok, it was also the perfect length and proportion for the long wall against which it rests. The couch is over 8 feet long, but relatively low and not at all bulky.
From the top; Richard Shapiro's Minima sofa; vintage sofa via South Florida blog; my sofa in gray.
Instead of following my gut and just skinning it in white duck cotton (a canvas-like, thick cotton), some friends talked me out of it. I was pregnant at the time, and having a child, they said, wouldn't go with a white couch. I don’t know how, but somehow they succeeded – I went with a herringbone wool that I though would look sleek and modern.
Yeah…no. HORRENDOUS.
- The fabric: $150; the work: $450. You can imagine how my stomach dropped when I got that gray, lifeless brick back from the upholsterer’s, wearing a smug price tally of now a whopping $750. At this point, I could have gone to IKEA.
No matter. I trudge on. Now I’m stuck with it, and I’m a stubborn lady.
I decide that this is all my friends’ fault, and morally release myself from the wrong of going ahead and spending money on white slipcovers, in addition to down-filled cushions. Part of what churned my stomach about the gray incarnation was the ‘new’ foam, totally cheap-looking cushions – soooo bad!
- White fabric, slip covers, cushions and labour: $800
My white sofa, the very same one you see sitting up top like the elephant in the room, cost an embarrassing $1550! True story.
The only thing that calmed my nerves for at least a year after it was all said and done, was that the Richard Shapiro sofa is literally thousands of dollars -- thousands. So if you look at it that way, I got a deal…right?
Judge away.
Related: