Choosing Light-Colored Furniture

When Eric and I moved into our new home, my first vision for it was to have white furniture.

Specifically, I wanted a beautiful white sectional couch. Perfectly modern and endlessly chic. The problem? I’m clumsy AND we own a dog. So I wrote it off as a fun fantasy, and tried to convince myself that maybe a dark couch could work for the space.

If I’m being honest, I never really gave up the dream of owning a white couch. I thought maybe we could order a big beautiful white couch, and just be really really careful.

No wine near the couch.
No eating dinner near the couch.
No allowing Mops on the couch.

In fact – Mops would have to just stay out of the living room, and just maybe we could keep our couch looking like it belonged in a museum.

So when Eric and I visited the Arhaus showroom to have a look at pieces for the new house, I found myself straying over to a beautiful floor model, covered in the most chic snowy white fabric. Bingo. A big white sectional to curl up on with a glass of water to watch TV, with Mops locked in the other room. It could work.  And as I looked at the couch longingly, I wondered just how, in a store where dozens of people are sitting on the furniture to try it out, how did they manage to keep the couch so bright and like new?

The secret, as it turns out, comes down to the fabric. The sales associate took us over to a wall of fabric samples and showed us the same snowy white shade that I had fallen in love with and explained that with this fabric, we wouldn’t have to banish our dog to the other room, nor would we have to sip water cautiously perched on top of a towel while watching TV every night. We could live our lives without fear of stains because of an ingenious fabric called ‘Crypton‘.

Crytpon fabrics are stain and odor resistant, while still looking and feeling like a luxurious choice. I wanted something that looks and felt a bit like linen, and when I was shown a fabric swatch for a color called ‘Cushing Snow’, I knew I’d found the winner. We received an in-store demonstration with a swatch to really get a sense for what makes Crypton different. The salesperson set down the swatch and proceeded to pour a large cup of water on it. Instead of sinking in, the water beaded up, and just sat on top of the fabric, and was easily dabbed off with a cloth. When it was explained to me that you could in fact do the same thing with a glass of red wine (my favorite) or even soy sauce and still have a beautiful white couch afterwards, I was sold. Add to that the fact that the fabric is Anti-microbial, and it was a no-brainer for us to place the order.

We ended up ordering two couches from Arhaus, both available to be made custom in any fabric available from their extensive library. A Fenwick settee for the sitting room, and a spacious Sarno Sectional for the living room. We debated a few different shades of white (all made with Crypton fabric) and landed on the Cushing Snow color I had first loved. A softer and warmer shade of white that I thought would work well in our vintage home. Within a few weeks, both couches arrived and I was IN LOVE.

It didn’t take long to test the claims of Crypton. Within a week, I had spilled half a glass of red wine on the sectional. I held my breath, and watched as the red wine beaded up. I grabbed a clean white cloth and dabbed the wine, and voila. Good as new. The following weekend, Mops ran in from the backyard with muddy paws and jumped onto a cushion. A clean cloth and a bit of warm soapy water had the paw prints gone in about 3 minutes. With no sign that they had even been there in the first place.

It’s been about 4 months since we first got the couches, and honestly, they look brand new. Being at home as much as we have with the Safer-at-Home measures in place in the wake of Covid-19 means our couches have gotten the ultimate test. Every single day, we’ve been able to sink into a couch that looks beautiful. And I’m so glad to be able to actually live our lives in our house without having to act like we’re in a museum. Mops can come and go as she pleases, we can have dessert or drinks on the couch and not be paranoid about spilling. I think best of all, though, is that both couches feel as good as they look. The Fenwick settee in the sitting room has the vintage charm that I envisioned for our 1920s home, and is my favorite spot to curl up with a book. And our newly revealed living room has the Sarno sectional as the perfect focal point that Eric and I can sink into at the end of the day to watch a movie. They’ve made our house feel like a home, and thanks to the Crypton fabric, we know they will look beautiful for years to come.

Some furniture + fabric provided by Arhaus and Crypton. All opinions expressed are my own.