Sofa to cope with 3 yr old and 1 yr old

[BetteDavis01]

Need your advice / suggestions please! DP and I are looking to get a new sofa set. We have two young DC's so we accept that it is going to get treated pretty badly. We only intend to keep it for a few years, just to get us through the messy years with the DC's!

Therefore we are looking for a three piece suite that is fairly cheap but good quality and wipe clean. Any suggestions on where to look? TIA

Watching with interest!!

Am thinking leather has had its day and would love a real pale blue (duck egg blue I think) fabric sofa... Not sure how practical that is with toddlers though!

Totally disagree about leather having had it's day, it's just so practical with babies and small children!!! I love my brown leather sofa, looks good too! Very easy to wipe, and ours is still looking good after 8 years!
If you do go for fabric, completely removable covers that are machine washable are essential....It might be worth looking at Ikea! My sister has a fabric sofa where only the seat and back cushion covers were removable and the arms looks do grey and dirty and tired looking!!!!

Teenagers are messy too!

Same dilemma here, currently got a brown leather chesterfield, but with a throw over it as I find leather quite cold.

Ikea! We bought an ektorp (?) in 2004. I changed its cover after a year as the original got faded by the sun. But the covers are all (even the soda frame) fully removable and washable. It hasn't had as much wear as we prefer the bigger sofa but it is still like new - bar the constant snot and milk and biscuit splats my 3 & 1 yos make! :)

That's interesting... We got two Ektorp sofas when I was pregnant because of the removable covers. They have lasted us seven years but have looked rough for most of that time, despite my washing the covers. With the best will in the world children still climb on the cushions and they get horribly misshapen, and our covers are really faded and blotchy now. Friends of mine who got leather sofas did far better, I think, and they still look nice. Even though my children are both school age now we are still planning to get leather when we finally replace the sofas in the spring.

Beware with Ektorp Ikea sofas...my sister has been looking at them carefully as she is buying done for her new house and not all the covers are machine washable according to the labels on the fabric swatches in the shop...only the pale cream and the red (I think) the rest ate dry clean only as they have some linen content in the fabric! :-o

Sorry about the typos!!! Silly phone!

I'd go for leather too but I don't agree it will get treated badly. Why do you not teach your children to respect your furniture?

I agree leather can be a bit cold initially...it does warm up quickly though! In a house I went to view the owners had scattered sheepskins on the brown leather sofa seats...I thought it looked quite stylish and I bet it was cosy!

I've had three different colour Ektorp cover sets and all have been machine washable but they were all bought more than 7 years ago so may be different now.

Madame Castafiore I think with the best will in the world, even if you do teach your children to respect your furniture, there will be accidents. Mine have sicked, pooed and spilt milk on them and they are not particularly careless children.

Love the name by the way... I read that book as part of my French degree!

We have two ektorp sofas with grey covers and they are not machine washable. I do wash them though and they are fine. I think ektorp is a really family friendly sofa - cozy and not fussy. That said, we're getting new soon and I'm fighting DH for leather -DS2 is quite destruction prone and I'm tired of washing sofa covers.

Hi. Best sofas I have ever had that have coped with two young children, a teenager, two cats and a dog, have been a dark brown leather one and a cord one. The cord one is light in colour, but the cushion covers can be washed and the rest easily sponge cleaned. We,ve had it a few years now and still looks good, i think it doesnt hold the dirt like cotton or linen fabrics.