This hideous pattern offends my decorating sensibilities. It, along with its twin settee, sits in the my current living room. It’s stopping me from entering Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool Space Contest. It is a lesson in why it’s important to be patient when you are furnishing your first home.

When I bought this three-piece living room set (a larger sofa came with these pieces) I was a new home owner and wanted every room furnished ASAP. After making my big home purchase, I had very little money leftover, so the 3-piece set seemed like a good idea for the price. The set was comfortable to me, the bones of the chairs were good and I liked the shape; I always intended to get all the pieces reupholstered—remove the skirts and get a pattern I really liked. Except life happened. And that never became priority in a tight budget. Since I recently made a commitment to travel like I’ve always dreamed of, it looks like it’s still not going to be in the budget.

I remember once a new boyfriend visiting for the first time shaking his head stated, “When we get married, I’m going to do the decorating.” Even though I pretty much was like “kiss my hiney”, I wanted to scream that this didn’t represent my taste. Even more, I wanted not to care about his opinion at all, but I did.

Fifteen years later I’m stuck looking at that floral hot mess. The set has made three moves with me. I covered the settee with an oh-so bland beige slipcover, but it didn’t have a matching one for the oversized chair. I gave away the large sofa when I moved to a space with a smaller living room. This time I’m being very careful to balance cost and taste in purchasing my next living room. Secretly I hope HGTV or Apartment Therapy will come an give the living room and second bedroom a makeover.

Right now, if you come visit, you’ll just have to deal with the hodgepodge of uncoordinated furniture—a symptom of a life of constant moving, constant layoffs, constant financial restarts. If you don’t like it, I don’t care. It’s comfy and at least you’re not sitting on the floor!