Many years ago, I bought my very first lounge suite. It consisted of two two seaters and a matching armchair. It was in my blue phase and the fabric was called Windsurfers Denim. It had little tiny pink and cream triangles all over it that were meant to represent windsurfers. The proportions were good for the lounge room in my very first house in Brisbane and it suited my budget too.

New lounge suite with hand-me-down buffet

I then sold that house and moved to a brand new house on Queensland’s Gold Coast. As the house was still under construction when I bought it, I was able to choose the colour scheme throughout of tiles, carpet and paint. Knowing that I had my lounge suite, I chose a soft grey colour which worked well with the lounge. I had roman blinds in rose pink and off white stripes installed on the windows and the lounge suite looked like it had been bought for that house.

Window coverings to match the lounge suite

A few years later, I moved back to Brisbane and bought a workers cottage in Nundah. Again the lounge suite moved into the new house and the room was decorated around the lounge. This time I chose barely pink walls with a darker pink for the trim.

Barely pink walls

We then moved to the Solomon Islands and the lounge suite went into storage for four years before being shipped to Hong Kong. Again the living room was decorated around the lounge suite and I chose sheer white curtains with a blue valance for the window coverings.

Sofa with precious cargo in Hong Kong

Back to Australia and into a rental property in Sydney, the lounge suite again just fitted perfectly into the space.

Ming didn't mind where in the world he was as long as he had his sofa

Twelve months on, and we purchased our own home and moved the lounge suite one more time. Only this time, it was clashing with the existing curtains in the home. Time had finally come almost twenty years later, to upgrade the lounge suite.

Sofa and curtains collide

We looked around at other styles of sofas but couldn’t find anything we liked. I called in my upholsterer who thought we were mad to throw away a perfectly good suite. So the search for fabric started and eventually I chose an off-white embossed fabric and had the sofas reupholstered. The sofas looked like new and I’m sure will last another twenty (well maybe ten) years.

Reupholstered sofa has a new lease on life

So the moral of the story is to buy good quality in the first place and give it a facelift when it doens’t work anymore. It works out much more cost effective in the long run.

If you would like assistance sourcing lounge furniture for your home, contact us for an online or in-person consultation.