We have this sofa (couch, divan, whatever). It was given to us shortly after we got married, when my parents woke up one morning and realized that all the children were gone and they could now go out and buy the furniture they’d wanted but were afraid the kids would mess up.

It’s a nice sofa, very comfortable for both sitting and football game naps. It is a Jacobean-styled dark stained wood frame job, all knobs and turnings and little squatty legs and little wings on the sides. When we got it the upholstery was in it’s second incarnation: brown and blue plaid, very tasteful for 1978 (we got it in ‘92). We used the heck out of it, children left all sorts of bodily emmissions on it, various concoctions ranging from macaroni and cheese to homemade borax ’snot’ left their mark. The brown and blue plaid was unbelievably forgiving.

Then, when #4 was 2 and it was determined that he was egregiously allergic to dust mites, and All Upholstery Must Go, we bit the bullet and bought new leather cushions for it. Why not vinyl? you may ask. My thinking was this. We’ll buy the leather cushions, because I, in my heart of hearts, am a snob, plus we live in the South and vinyl is not acceptable for sitting on in the Summer around here. In the future, we’ll buy some gorgeous quartersawn oak and Sweet Daddio can build that Morris style sofa I’ve been craving. Since we’ll already have the cushions, the copious expense of quartersawn oak will be soothed a bit.

So, now it’s a dark a stained wooden sofa with chestnut brown cushions, all squashy and wonderful and tough as nails. Leather rocks, especially analine dyed leather because it keeps the color all the way through.

It’s becoming a sofa to treasure, as it’s no longer old. Old is 1984 sofas, with their fake oak strips and poofy upholstery. This sofa is now Vintage. It’s the kind of furniture the guys on those Design Shows look for. “OOh! Looky!” they squeal “Vintage Early ’60’s! We’ll get a starburst clock and a fake Eames chair!”

I keep thinking we should paint it. Black, perhaps. I like black. It’s basic and goes with everything. Since it’s not a huge and imposing bit of furniture, black would work. I think. It would require some elbow grease, certainly sanding all over if not actually stripping it. I hate stripping furniture, That stuff you use burns your skin and makes me worry that my liver will crawl out my mouth and hop screaming into the sunset.

Granddaddio used to own a shop, where he did amazing work restoring old and antique furniture. He was truly an artist at it. He had this tank, like a huge bathtub, that he could sink entire desks and chests of drawers into, and let them soak in some ungodly chemical bath, then just rinse them off and they were stripped clean. He doesn’t have that anymore, sadly, so I will have to go at it with multiple pairs of rubber gloves and a toothbrush or three.

So you think, black? We’re going to paint the room hopefully this spring, a bold and inviting shade of gold, and soon after (hopefully)get the ghastly white(ish) carpet up and replaced with a nice oak. Would black look alright with that? The other furniture is either mission or Arts&Crafts/Edwardian. There’s alot of black seen with those styles, mainly as wrought iron fixtures. I don’t think painting it a color will do. I mean, what color would I use? Something lighter than the cushions? That would look funny.

I need a decorator. A free one, who’s good and can work with what I’ve got.