Am I crazy?

mrs.jacinthe

In the next few months, we're going to be bringing home an Ektorp loveseat for the living room. 

I've looked and looked at the slipcovers and what I'm thinking is that I want white.  We have 2 cats (1 gray and 1 orange) and a dog (black).  All are inside pets.  I'm thinking white so that I can bleach it, lemon-juice it, whatever, then hang it outside to dry and destink in the sun.

Is that insane?  DH keeps looking at me like I've lost my mind when I say I'm thinking white slipcover.  We'd have to buy a darker colored slipcover for the winter rainy season, because that red-clay mud won't come out of anything, let alone something white - so probably a dark tan or the red slipcover for winter.  But is white totally nutso?

emjacobs13

Sounds completely logical to me, plus if you ever get a stain that you can't get out you can always die the white one and get a true-ish color out of it.

TheBridesMom

No.  I have seen white slipcovers touted for years for that very reason.  You can bleach white, but you can't bleach other colors to get stains out.

I saw someone on a design show once who said that her white slipcovers were over 5 years old, and that she had two sets of white so that she had a clean set to put on while the other set was in the washer.  She said that they had been washed pretty much weekly.  She had several kids and a couple of dogs(all of whom flopped on the sofa), and it was in a very SoCal, indoor/outdoor lifestyle type home.

PinkPiano

I have an ektorp sofa with white slipcover along with 2 kids and 2 dogs.  I keep a throw blanket across the seat just because my dogs immediately come in from outside and jump up.  Anyhow, I've had it for 3 months and I've bathed it once (one dog peed on it) but overall it hasn't got very dirty. 

kaylie622

Is it the canvas material? I think it would be hard to keep looking clean and you'd have to de-fur pretty often. Our dog would have one of those looking like a dog bed in a week.

SailorGray

I have the Ektorp loveseat, a white slipcover, two kids and two shedding dogs. No complaints and it's been over 3 years and this thing gets used A LOT. The white slipcovers are also pretty cheap and easy to replace, if needed.

decoraholic

I say go for the white

Last time I checked the white slipcover was going for $50, so even if you get it and decide it's too much maintenance you can always replace it with a different color without losing out too much. Our white Ektorp slipcovers don't get dirty easily since it's just DH and me, but it does get a ton of use.

carlab44

I wouldn't, but on top of two dogs and a cat we have two kids. I have a friend who bought white slip covered couches and thought the same thing. She ended up hating them because in order to keep it looking remotely clean she had to wash the covers weekly.

sratsey

If you love it, do it and pray that you love it enough to deal with the upkeep involved. I love the idea of having two slipcovers so that you can put one on while one is washing.  IMO, that's no different than washing white sheets, so I don't see why not.  Kids and dogs go great with anything that can be thrown in the machine.

sp2006

We have the Ektorp sofa and loveseat with the white slipcover with a 3 year old in the house   We've only had it for a couple of months, but so far I LOVE the white.  I keep a throw blanket over it when we do not have company, but so far I haven't had to wash the slipcover at all.  If lint or hair gets on the sofa, I've used a lint roller and it has worked great!  Go for it!

K&P414

I have light colored slip covers over the loveseat that my kids use the most and they have held up through tons of messes.  I did pretreat them with some scotch guard spray first. 

MaddysMum

My mum did two white Ektorps at the cottage at the lake (so think dirty kids and pets, covered in sand!) and it's been great. Yes, they show dirt but they are also SO cleanable. And immediately - you can use even the strongest stain removers right on the couch before the stain sets and then deal with washing when you can get the covers off without worrying about colorfast-ness on a darker colored slipcover. I think that's saved those slipcovers more than once!

That said, I HATE being the one who gets to the cottage first when the slipcovers are off. Takes me a jumbo sized glass of wine to get through shoving two slipcovers back on! It's not hard to do, just a lot of work.

dairygirl19

You know what a nuthouse my life is and I'm becoming a fast fan of white.

Hot water and sunshine make it all clean around here!