So, I have these four adorable cats. (Yes, I do know I’m just three shy of crazy cat lady.) Each of these sweet fur babies has a sad backstory. Essentially, they all came to be our pets because we found them wandering repeatedly in our backyard and eventually made friends through food and a little animal behavior psychology. Three were starving and the fourth, at just three pounds, was abandoned by his mother and was about to join the starving club. All had parasites and our sweet, sweet Twister had a respiratory infection which put him at the edge of death. Even today he has a heart murmur from that time.
So, one by one, they all became ours. And honestly? They rescued us right back! They’re sweet and salty, fun and smart, crazy shy and full of life all at the same time. There are only three drawbacks to them: 1) it’s embarrassing to tell people you have four; 2) their little nails are scratching our hardwood floors and 3) those same said nails are on their way to destroying my leather club chairs in my TV room.
Of all of these things, the chairs were bothering me the most. Now, the floors bother my husband obviously because of the expense of the floors and that they were pristine. My thoughts on this? It’s a house with hardwood floors. They’re bound to get some dings. But my chairs? I fell in love with those chairs off of the Pottery Barn website and they turned out better than I had imagined. The size, the color and the fit were perfect. I just loved them. And then… cats.
This week, I finally found the solution I was looking for: slipcovers. While eventually I’ll need a leather repair shop to fix the leather (and it still can be fixed, thankfully), the damage needs to stop. And to stop the damage, I need slipcovers. Cue the heavenly music. There is a solution.
Now, here’s what I didn’t know about slipcovers: weight is important. Too little weight and they’ll get bare-threaded too soon; too much weight and it will be like wrestling a bear and a slippery whale at the same time trying to get them on. How did I learnt this? I bought heavy weight fabric and my tailor just sighed then chuckled. I’m sure her mind’s eye got a vision of me wrestling with the chairs.
So, in a day where everything I touched yesterday seemed to break, I also broke the slipcover fabric ordering. Today, I’m on a mad scramble to get this fixed. First, I need to cancel the first order for $200 worth of natural bull denim fabric, which I’ve been trying to do since last night but the shop was closed. I ordered a version that was too heavy and would not make good slipcovers. Once that’s confirmed, I can go ahead and order the correct fabric, but the online store seems to think I’m committing fraud. (Believe me, if I was going to commit fraud, it would not be for 14 yards of 9 oz. bull denim fabric… but errors were made in inputting my credit card. I completely understand.)
Still, I’m super excited about these slipcovers for what may be an entirely silly reason: I found a solution. You see, the chairs have been bothering me for awhile. I’ve used blankets and pillows to protect them, searched for leather repair shops and did all of the other things I initially thought of to prevent them from being ruined. But in the back of my mind? I was looking for new chairs. And that wasn’t the ideal solution. First, these chairs were expensive and even if I had had them for a few years, it wasn’t like me to just throw them away. Secondly, new chairs – even from an outlet store – were also going to be expensive and I was a) not going to buy cheap furniture that wouldn’t last so I could spend more replacing them again in a few years and b) set myself up for the cats to ruin a second set of good chairs. And finally, there is just too much disposal happening around here. For people who supposedly want to reduce their collective footprint on the earth, tossing out two well-functioning chairs because of scratches on the leather was nothing more than irresponsible and wasteful.
All the while as I was folding up blankets, putting toss pillows in strategic spots to discourage use and cover up scratches, I was ruminating. It wasn’t until I had wished that I had bought slipcovered vs. leather chairs that I realized I could have both. Don’t ask me why it took so long because I’m not sure. My only defense is that I had just never had slipcovered furniture so I never thought about it.
Anyway, it’s now going to be 10 weeks until I can get my chairs. Thankfully, I’ve got the right fabric on the way and all seems to be well. But man, I’ve learned some lessons. First, be careful when entering credit card numbers. A lot can go wrong. But mostly? Stop rushing around with half-baked solutions and take some time to think. Lately, despite my “mostly retired state,” I’ve been feeling mostly harassed and scattered. Focus has not been my friend. Yet, if I would just slow down – even if only for a few moments – I could see better solutions and stop the cycle.
And that’s the symbolism of the slipcovers: they are a product of thoughtfulness, not half-hazardness, if that’s even a word. Let’s just hope I don’t hate the fabric.
The Yuppie Homesteader 