the picket fence projects: I've joined the Ikea Ektorp club

We've finally said goodbye to our old living room couch!
It was definitely time.
We bought it secondhand off of Craigslist in 2009 and it had survived two moves, too much bad reality TV watching, lots of guest sleepovers, and some dog abuse.

Before we got rid of it, I did a bunch of research on what to get next and kept finding myself going back to the Ikea Ektorp sofa as its replacement.

There was this convincing blog post (among many other blog posts) and the notion that we are approaching the "our child and future children will probably destroy all of our nice things" stage that made me decide it was the right choice for us right now.

We also wanted to try for a sectional as it would offer more seating in the room and for those watching TV, you can comfortably face it rather than having to turn your head.

Even though the Ektorp sectional is pretty affordable, I didn't want to pay full price.

So luckily I was able to find one off of Craigslist for half the price.

A few loads of laundry and some bleach later, it looked like new.

It's been a couple months since we got it and I'm still happy with the sofa.

It's white (one of my favorite colors), washable, comfortable enough, and will get us through the spills and accidents of the child-rearing phase without compromising style.

It's also good to know that a slipcover replacement is only $99!

At that price, I can just buy a fresh one every year.

There's also this website called Bemz.com that makes custom slipcovers for Ikea furniture.

It costs more but something to consider!

As for the throw pillows, I purchased this geometric fabric and made three pillows (actually my mom sewed them for me--I'm still waiting for her to really teach me how to sew).