The choice of style is yours, but patterns of different colors hide stains and soil much more than solid colors, especially white. I also encourage you to stay away from 100% cotton. It stains easily and cleans with difficulty. Some stains will just NOT come out. Dark colors in 100% cotton fade readily in sun and wear, and bleed dye. In dark colors, the (relatively) short fiber length causes cotton to fibrillate, giving a frosted appearance with wear. If you want to go with a denim/duck, get one with a good percentage of polyester. (I professionally clean upholstery, specializing in spot stains, usually food and body fluids). Would I buy a white slip cover? No. Also avoid chenille, particularly rayon. It will not tolerate any contact with water without irreversibly damaging the look of the fabric.

In the past we have used the living room mostly for formal entertaining with just adults. When we include the children at parties, we usually do something more casual in the family room, where we have totally kid-proof leather upholstery. Also, we have always had our den/office area set-up as a sitting room rather than an office, and I'm thinking of going for a darker, sort of english-men's-clubby look in there. For some reason, my big fear is dye transfer from blue-jeans, more so than the daily-wear-and-tear thing. I have to kind-of chuckle when I think of deciding which room to invite guests to sit in based on their attire.. I was thinking I could have a pretty throw on the white sofa for the occasional family member who might wander in to sit with a book or something. Also, the room is large enough that there will be other seating, in darker colors, so anyone with apprehension about sitting on the white will have options. Do I sound like I'm trying to talk myself into it? I suppose because it seems to me that white looks better than any of the other lighter-colored options, and also, I wonder if the concerns with stains/dirt/wear would be much less, say with pale blue or gold, than they would with white? I do not see a very dark color in that room, so the colored options are almost as light as the white. Funny, I heard a comment on "The stagers" on HGTV, where the designer was using a white sofa, and made an aside comment that they "never recommended them for their design clients"--only for staging, as they would look grungy in a few months. I thought when I posted this, that I might hear from people who had white, and then regretted it after living with it. However it's interesting that the people who responded who said they actually have a white sofa, all said they had no problems and loved it. Any more white-upholstery owners want to weigh-in? (So far only 5 white-sofa owners have responded.) It would be interesting to hear from more--I wonder if I'm needlessly concerned about the white, as those with experience living with it, (so far) unanamously seem to love it!

Hey Redroze, I don't know from grouts but Tec (recommended by Catmom) makes AccucolorXT. I love Centura (they have locations all over Canada) and they are a distributor and retailer so you can benefit from all the expertise of their trained staff and on your way home drop into a retailer they supply and get a 10% discount. Not every retailer - some have quoted me more than Centura charges retail for product (I have used this to guage just how fair a retailer is - a number have failed miserably) but others will split the difference between the wholesale price they pay and the retail price Centura charges in the showroom with you. Centura still gets a sale so they still benefit. They are quite good about it as they are not full service - they don't do any installation. It is a joy to shop there as they are the antithesis of that sleazy feel you get in a lot of flooring showrooms. On a good day they will also give you the skinny on the retailers they supply - whose usually expensive whose not and how good their install services are. I'm looking forward to seeing your finished backsplash, good luck with it.

I think your idea of white house with red garage sounds awesome! The farmhouse architecture of your home will suit these colours. I say go for it! Just be careful with the colour of red. Go for a barn red and do a bunch of sample colours on each side of the garage before you choose the final colour. Good luck! Your house/garage will look great!!