The Inevitable Once-a-Decade Couch Shopping

At our first house, just after we moved to the city, we got a very small leather sectional. Italian leather, white, the furniture store we got it at long out of business, as is the way with so many places that aren't retail giants. But it served us well. It was starting to go, so we gave it away on Kijiji when we moved out of that house, and into a larger one.

When we moved into the new house, we got a sectional that fit our main living area. Which is a great room, so, wide open, lots of light, and the sectional needed to be bigger. We found one in bonded leather. It has...not been as good as the old one was. Four years ago, the material started to peel and flake. We didn't replace it then because we had just got a puppy who was, shall we say, very rambunctious, and liked to wedge himself under it and tear at the fabric underneath. _When he gets older and calms down, we'll look into a new one_, we told ourselves. Four years passes. So it goes.

It's at the point now where it's starting to tear, and there's a mild sense of shame when we have company over and they see our decrepit couch. So, we're doing what seems to be a precisely once-a-decade shop for a new sectional. I just wish we weren't doing this in the post-pandemic economic landscape, because oooof. We've budgeted for this, it's not a problem, but that doesn't mean there's any less panic when you look at the price on the stickers. Especially, and particularly, because the size we need means this might have to be a custom order. Which, well, you know.

It's worth it because we use it. My partner is a teacher, and spends all day on her feet, and so when she comes home, she sinks into the corner of the sectional with our two dogs curled up beside her, and does a few crosswords, and puts British panel shows on in the background. It reminds me of the centrality of the couch in my own house growing up, how my mum had a corner of it that was hers, how my dad didn't use it at all, how he had an armchair in the corner of our little living room where he'd sip his rye and read all evening. Kind of similar to me: I've got the armchair, but I curl up with my laptop, instead.

That chair's held up better than the couch. We got it a couple of years after we moved into the new house. Only ever used by me and my youngest dog, who likes to sit on it after I've sat on it. It's aged much better. I'm hoping the next sectional ages more like that.