What kind of a climate are you in? Although I love the look, I wouldn't consider one here in Houston (and have a linen one, matter of fact), just because I think it would be so terribly hot much of the year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Velvet in the heat?

No worries about heat here :-) I am about as far north of Houston as you can get and still be in North America (well, not quite, but definitely the last major city).

If I do go the velvet route, the chairs at either end of the room would be slipped in linen or cotton duck, so that it wouldn't "feel" too hot during those (all too short) weeks of summer.

Would love to see pics of your sofa, bestyears. If you don't mind sharing.

Are you making the slipcover like your fabulous white one?

A few sofas ago, I purchased from Craigslist a beautiful Century chocolate brown velvet sofa. It looked slipcovered, but wasn't. I adored that sofa but, unfortunately, so did the cats. The hair removal was too much for me.

If I ever have a pet-less home (it would probably have to be a DH-less home, too; he's pretty messy), I will have another velvet sofa. Maybe the slipcover aspect will make cleaning easier

Az far as linen goes, that seems like the worst fabric to live with to me.

I think the charcoal sounds luscious!

Dee

Oh dee, you had to go and remind me of the practicalities of pet ownership. We have a long haired cat that sheds like crazy. I do have a new mitt that helps with hair removal, but still ...

And, no, I won't be making it myself. I've gone back to teaching full time and my days of major projects seem to be over. That white slipcover bought us several more years of use out of our old sofa, but it is getting pretty beat up. So glad you remembered it though. That was ages and a different user name ago.

The colour I'm thinking of is actually a pale greeny gold that, I hope, would hide stains, hair etc. better than charcoal.

I love velvet upholstery - we have a velvet couch (not slipcovered) and grey velvet DR chairs. I love hot it feels on bare skin (like with shorts in the summer) and it is so much warmer than our smaller (and much more expensive) leather sofa. I do not have any experience with slipcovers in velvet though :) But I agree the charcoal sounds amazing!

I am so totally a lurker here but have to say that I think the absolute best fabric for slipcovers is Sunbrella. I originally had mine made when we had many pets, and they have worn like iron. I wanted something that I could machine wash often (easily once a month),and they wash up beautifully. Even better, they dry so fast in the dryer that it is an easy and fast job to have the room back in order. Sunbrella has so many great colors and weaves now too. I did mine in champagne linen, a perfect "pet neutral".

I've always wanted a velvet slipcover. Linen didn't last but a few years for me, although I loved that couch. The linen just wears thin and eventually rips.

Daisychain, I have a little feline hair-thrower, too, and I am a big fan of the Pledge Pet Hair Fabric Sweeper. Link below...it says you toss it when it's full, but I just pop out one of the velcro-ish roller things and pitch the accumulated hair. It works on every fabric I've tried it on, with very little effort, and anything it doesn't get comes up with one pass of a sticky roller.
(No, I have no vested interest...)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pet hair fabric sweeper