It’s been nearly a year since I transitioned from a (albeit large) studio apartment to a pretty big two-bedroom, and the quality of life/growing up boost is significant. For one thing I went from essentially living in a huge, messy walk-in closet with a stereo and bathroom that I would rarely even let people into much less “entertain,” to a home I take pride and entertain in frequently. It also meant that my boyfriend and I had a lot of furniture shopping to do (thrift stores only, of course), and the place is still very much an ongoing project. Another hallmark of a bigger living space is the addition of two cats, who are in the process of destroying one arm of the $50 couch from the bins that graces our living room. So one of the projects on our list is to reupholster it in leather (leather is more claw-proof). I recently stumbled onto Squint, a London company that reupholsters used furniture and other unexpected objects (teapots, lamps, mirrors) in bright, bold patchworks of nice fabric, which seems like a fairly easy thing to replicate DIY style, although their professional hand is really nicely done. (And if you wanted to go the extra-recycled route, you could easily source vintage fabrics, an excellent way to dispatch odd-size scraps.) The Squint stuff is a bit too bright and clownish for my pad, but I can see it working in a space that has that Swinging ’60s, stripey pants aesthetic, and obviously you could choose your own palette. I think we’ve got to stick with leather because of the cats, but it’s always fun to imagine what-if.