I’ve received a few e-mails lately about how it is living with white furniture, a white kitchen floor, a white bathroom floor, especially with little boys, so I thought I would address it in a post.

I’ve been making white slipcovers and using white bedding for about 9 years.  I started because of practicality and my limited sewing skills.  All white slipcovers could be bleached and the light color and lack of pattern would hide my crooked seams.  I’ve also always been a habitual furniture re-arranger, so my slipcovered furniture accommodate that impulse.  When we were ready to buy our first sofa (not a hand-me-down), I went with the white slipcovered Ektorp sofa from Ikea (the one that is still in our family room.)

It’s worked well for us for about eight years and has survived teenagers and babies.  The white cotton twill slipcovers are $50 each, so I buy one every couple of years when the current one is beyond washing.  The time has come, though, when a white slipcovered sofa isn’t working.  My boys have reached the age when they come home covered in a light dusting of the school playground every day and it always gets transferred to the sofa.  I would have to wash it every other day to keep it bright white.  Which I don’t.  So, it’s time for a change.  Since my boys almost always sit on the sofa, the other white upholstered and slipcovered furniture fair just fine.

Call me a little crazy, but I also like white because I can see when it’s dirty.  I don’t really want dirt camouflaged, so I am blissfully unaware of it.  I would rather see it and clean it up.  I’ve also grown used to being able to throw my sofa slipcovers in the washing machine to get them clean, fresh and sanitized.  Since white is a little too high maintenance for the sofa, I am going to cover it in the natural hemp fabric I mentioned in yesterday’s post.  It’ll still be light, still washable, but a little more forgiving with small boys.

I feel the same way about white floors.  I had dirt colored floors and I really didn’t like them.  They hid drips, footprints and crumbs, but they were the color of dirt!  Yes, you can see drips on the white floor and I have to vacuum and steam mop them a lot, but I love how light and bright they are.  White cabinets are the same way.  They show the splatters and sticky fingerprints, but I just wipe them up.

So, can you live with white?  You just have to be honest with yourself about the kind of homemaker you are.  Would you not be able to rest knowing there is a visible spot on your sofa or drips on your floor?  If your kid doing a face-plant on your slipcovers after eating an Oreo would bring you to tears…well, white might not be for you.

If you really love white and wouldn’t mind life happening all over your white stuff, you’ll be just fine.