Am I crazy for even thinking of getting a white/ivory couch cover?

[Satori]

My pretty couch cover is wearing thin and you see the ugly green couch under it in a couple of places due to wearing. I've been debating for over a year on replacing it but its killing me to fork over $70 for a new cover. I'm thinking come tax time of replacing it with a white/ivory color one.

Am I crazy for even considering it with an 8 yr old and a 2 yr old in the house? I'm also considering a solid reddish color but I'm leaning towards white/ivory.

[SAHDS]

It depends on your family. I would have no problem getting white furniture, even when my LOs were infants/toddlers. They were just never messy kids.

What about your children? You, DH? Any pets? Do you eat in the room?

[lightheart]

YES! but it is washable

If you have rules of no eating, crayons, fingerpaint, playdough... then even more doable.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

It depends on your family. I would have no problem getting white furniture, even when my LOs were infants/toddlers. They were just never messy kids.

What about your children? You, DH? Any pets? Do you eat in the room?

I have very messy kids, I just put the baby to bed and discovered someone had been eating dry cereal in my bed!: no DH or pets. The living room and dinning room are shared so the couch would be about 6' from the table.

Originally Posted by lightheart

YES! but it is washable

If you have rules of no eating, crayons, fingerpaint, playdough... then even more doable.

I'm trying to enforce the only eating at the table thing but its only working about 80% of the time. Would work better if we had 3 chairs to sit at the table

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by Satori

I have very messy kids, I just put the baby to bed and discovered someone had been eating dry cereal in my bed!

Then yes, it's crazy.

[leximom]

yes it is crazy. We have an ivory couch and set of chairs and they are washable, but it's still a pain! My kids don't eat near it, but my little one love to DRAW on it!! Ahhh

[kirstenb]

Would be crazy in my house! We have tan couches we bought pre-DS and those seem too light for us now! It seems like every mark and smudge shows up.

[phathui5]

Yes, I think it would be crazy. At our house, it would stay while for about half an hour.

[texaspeach]

I'd get white and bleach the heck out of it once in a while. Either oxygen bleach or chlorine. I know chlorine bleach isn't popular here, but I use it twice a year on my white towels and it works wonders

my neighbor has white living room furniture and two kids, but they are a little older (I think 8 and 10).. and it looks great.

[Night_Nurse]

DH and I had very beautiful and expensive off white dining room chairs and a white sofa and chaise lounge before kids. We always thought we could keep them clean, and we did when it was just us and the pets. But over the years it was just so bad that even steam-cleaning the fabric wouldn't help (we couldn't clean just the spot only due to water-marking with off-white color, so we'd have to clean the whole thing).
Lets just put it this way- even if you never allow food, drink, crayons, etc. on the furniture, the day will inevitably come when a child (or pet) will have uncontrollable vomiting, diarrhea, a nose bleed, etc. Or a guest will have a leaking ink pen in his pocket that he doesn't know about until you all see it on your sofa. Or the neighbor kid runs into your house and has chocolate or paint on his hands, etc. Sometimes there is just no way to get those stains out (cat food coloring from puking up a hair ball, for example). So for us, we only go with darker, textured furniture now. When the stain won't come out, at least it's less noticeable.
Personally, I wouldn't spend my money on any more white or off white furniture.

[lovesdaffodils]

I wouldn't do it! It's just an invitation to those grubby little hands!

[es1967]

I have a cream slipcovered sofa that I love. I like having a light color so that I can see if it needs to be washed. I wash the covers regularly and wonder what I would do if I didn't have that option. My Dh wants a leather couch and thinks I am crazy. This morning my dog jumped on the sofa w dirty paws and I almost freaked. I love having things clean.

[es1967]

I have a cream slipcovered sofa that I love. I like having a light color so that I can see if it needs to be washed. I wash the covers regularly and wonder what I would do if I didn't have that option. My Dh wants a leather couch and thinks I am crazy. This morning my dog jumped on the sofa w dirty paws and I almost freaked. I love having things clean.