Aibu to want a white sofa - new baby soon?

[TheMagnificentEthel]

We are looking at new sofas. I am hoping for recliners (wall hugging), if even just the armchairs.

I have always wanted white/cream. I know someone who says her white sofa is stain resistant due to new fangled fabric technology.

A) can anyone recommend a good wall hugging recliner that’s not too ‘poofy’ as it’s a cramped space. (The wall hugging ones are the ones that can recline even flush against the wall.

B) has anyone had a white sofa in a house with children and it hasn’t ended in tears or paranoid living. We often eat on laps sometimes.

Quite a few sofas are now machine washable. I looked into it as I'm a childminder and wanted to be able to wash the cushion covers easily. My sofa is cream and from IKEA and all the covers are removable and machine washable

Am I the only person who's sofa didn't get ruined by their child?
DS has wicked bad reflux and our sofa still survived!
DH even fell asleep on the sofa and spilt a whole can of Guinness and you can't tell.

I got the stain resistant stuff on mine (DFS) and I use 1001 to clean as well go regularly. My sofa is a speckled beige/chocolate colour (nicer than it sounds) and could pass for new 3 years later!

The biggest problem I had with white / cream furniture wasn’t my children but was adults sitting in denim jeans which some seem to leave dye on it even after they’ve been washed loads !!

White sofa is a no no but on another note we have bleachable carpet. Not brave enough to try it tho.

White sofa? Baby? Bwah-haa-haa-haa!

White or cream leather, perfect for when baby is repeatedly sick over it and don't forget the accidental poonamis i speak from experience at least with our cream leather sofa we could just spray with antibac and wipe.

We have a five-year-old white sofa and primary-aged DC, and it's fine. It is, however, leather. No stain-proofing but I do wipe it down regularly with a damp cloth and virtually everything comes off. I think leather sofas are much more hygienic than fabric ones because they can be cleaned so easily. Our pale carpets, on the other hand, are disgusting.
Tip: when baby is a toddler, be sure to buy only washable pens. Berol ones are good!

I sat on thee most stunning white sofas a few weeks ago, looked at my new dp (its early days), he has no kids, first thing he said 'yeah when ds2 leaves home' he's 14 at the moment........
Even he knew it was a bad idea and he hadn't been there for the baby, toddler, small child years 🙈
Seriously though, ds1 was ace, very rarely sick etc. Ds2 was a whole different ball game. Thank God we had leather sofas and laminate floor.

I wouldn't bother unless you are prepared to replace again in 5 years. We have had a second hand dark grey number which cost us £150. I'm seriously beginning to hate it but know there is no point replacing it for another 3 to 4 years!

Washable ink felt tip pens, that is! Not washable pens ...

Not unreasonable, just very impractical.
White would probably survive the baby stage but it's not going to survive a toddler - unless you become one of those parents who constantly hovers over their child, flannel or wipe in hand, and who bans small children / food / toys / shoes / art materials / drinks / pets etc from the "best room".
Brown leather is the way to go. Ours has weathered all kinds of accidents and still looks great.

I also had dreams of a designer vintage yellow velvet sofa...praise be I came to my senses and we bought an Ikea charcoal grey beast with washable covers... My newly painted walls are covered in greasy finger marks at 2 feet high. My clean clothes are filthy with playdough, mashed banana, toothpaste and sudocrem by 10am.

To paraphrase Alan Partridge “A white sofa is nice, but to put it with a child is demented”.

IKEA and probably lots others do washable covers, why don't you get whatever forgiving colour you want for the first couple of years and then change to white ones when you reckon it'll be safe.

My baby as just been sick on my sofa. Fortunately it is dark grey and easy to wash. If the cushions get really battered I can get new ones from Ikea. I personally wouldn't have a white sofa but it is up to you.

Ok. White is bonkers.
@SharronNeedles could you please put a link to your sofa?

To pp, I’m not sure what kind of wizardry those recliners use, but basically, they don’t need a gap behind them.

This is a close match to mine although this is a newer version I guess. Doesn't recline though

m.dfs.co.uk/ariana/ana3zazah#IzshFltYq3U6jbJs.97

Not in a million billion years op.

For our first house, and through 6 kids we had brown leather. As you can imagine came in usejdul.

We have a light grey sofa. Even the smallest drop of water leaves a mark!

Seriously... Go for a darker colour!

I read the OP and my only reaction was 'hahaha' - sorry . I've had 3 babies - I still possess nothing white and the youngest is 7!

So....I have a pale grey sofa, cream carpets, white walls. Two children, two cats, one husband. Sofa covers washed once a year, carpets spot cleaned. Possibly a bit OCD, but, yes, no shoes inside, no art/painting/drawing in the lounge.....that's what the kitchen is for. When the children were tiny we ate in the kitchen, now more often than not in the lounge, on our laps. Never had poo or vomit on the sofas. Why are your babies on the sofa?? Odd accident on the carpet but only wee. I must have unusual kids.

I got a new car when dd was 18 months old. I paid for Scotsguard stain resistance. On the second day that I had it, she squashed raspberries into the upholstery. Stain resistance is useless.

Bolognese brown sofa here.

Saved my sanity.

My dream is white carpets throughout but I know it would be really daft so it'll say a dream sadly.

@gamerchick - my mum’s too. She waited decades, until my sister moved out at 18 (at which point my eldest sibling was 30!). She got her carpets in the end, after we’d all been tripping over threadbare dark coloured carpets for years. A radiator burst on to new carpets when they were not very old, but fortunately it was covered by household insurance.

We got a very pale grey sofa when our dc were 3 and under 1, everyone told us we were crazy (I guess that's fair!) and actually I do regret it but only because the sofa has horrible water marks on it so I now have to keep it covered by a throw. The thing is it wasn't the children really, I think there was a little mark on it and we wiped it with a damp cloth not realising the water mark from the cloth would permanently stain it. And now it looks awful. My ds did get raspberry on one of the cushions but that's all. And you can wash the cushions anyway.

I won't be getting a pale sofa again regardless how old my dc are as every little mark just shows .

Get dark grey slightly chenille textured and byubsome cheap white cushions to use till baby is toddler aged 👍