Sofa-Bed
Our first living room couch was really a sofa-bed – we bought it thinking when it wasn’t being a living room couch it could double as a guest bed – and it did, legions of our friends have slept on it over the years with no complaints.
And as I remember it was originally covered in a navy blue suede and was very well-made – and understandably so as we got it at W & J Sloane’s, at the time a successful New York furniture store.
Opened in 1843 in lower Manhattan by William Sloane, a Scottish weaver, and his brother John, the store became known for tapestries, carpets and finely-crafted, upscale furniture.
But we weren’t so upscale ourselves at the time and so we bought the sofa-bed on the installment plan, agreeing to make monthly payments.
We made the first month’s, but after that we never got another bill. I guess somehow our account was lost!
I kept meaning to call Sloane’s to ‘fess up, but it kept slipping my mind, and by the mid 1980s the store had fallen on hard times and closed, and so then it was too late to make amends.
And by the way as is my wont, I’ve had that Sloane’s sofa-bed reupholstered more than once. It’s now beige corduroy and has been relegated to the den.
But bless W & J Sloane’s, that sofa-bed is still comfy after all these years, and worth every penny we never paid!
– Dana Susan Lehrman
