Some 14 years ago we bought a Duresta 4 seater, in a pale warm gold colour (all one colour but deep patterned material, repeated on the cushions) for want of a better description, not only is the sofa still as good as the day it was made showing no signs of wear or sagging, but as regards the sofa colour that was once again a very good choice by SWMBO.

My wife will not do standard beige everything, nor go with any other fashions come to think of it, quite the opposite in fact :-), for her there has to be some depth and warmth in a room's colour scheme, that gold tinted sofa seems to go with anything.

Colour choices are a personal thing, you should buy what your heart tells you and not what current fashion might dictate, grey seems to be the current in shade but that will probably soon move on, live in the manner you like with the colours and materials you like, and to hell with fashion or current think, when someone else is paying your mortgage and bills they can dictate...this applies in not just our furniture choices, politicians and apparatchiks take note.

No trouble here with ads.

We bought a pair of G Plan sofas in 1988. They were so comfy we had them re-upholstered about 10 years ago and they live on, still as comfy as ever. However, SWMBO has been wanting a corner unit for some time and this week we have taken the plunge and bought one. Delivery is scheduled for 8-10 weeks.

The sofas were originally a dusky pink with a very pale grey diagonal stripe. Better looking than it sounds! By the time we came to have them re-upholstered, we were into the pale cream walls and light-coloured carpet trend so we went with a cream coloured fabric for the new look. However, we were so uptight about them getting grubby, they have been covered with throws since got them back, which kind of defeats the purpose of choosing the lovely cream fabric. We also have a matching footstool which was included in the re-upholstery exercise. It gets plenty of use but has not been covered with a throw - consequently it is filthy! So I would advise having some sort of stain treatment for a lovely yellow colour such as the one you're contemplating. It should make cleaning easier and if you spill things on it, the stain won't be so bad, provided you act quickly to mop it up.

The new corner unit is a grey/beige with a light coloured fleck in the hope that it won't show the dirt so quickly. We're well past the stage of boisterous children now so with just the two of us it won't get the bashing that the G Plan sofas have withstood. If anybody wants a pair of cream G Plan sofas with grubby matching footstool by the way, just ask. We can't donate them to charity as we don't know if they are fireproof, so we shall advertise them on local social media for free. We expect them to be available around Christmas or New Year time.

My neighbour was an upholsterer for most of his working life and he is almost 80. He is a lovely chap, very helpful, did a huge amount to help his more elderly neighbours. I think he liked his work too. However, good workers are far and few between. The 203 chair and footstool had been rewebbed using tacks and staples to attach the webbing to the wood, causing damage. I've removed the tacks and staples, and they aren't visible when the chair has the cushions on, but I find it annoying that a trade can bodge a job to save time and money and damage furniture in the process.

Sadly much modern furniture does not last, it's designed to last less than a decade, and people usually want new, regarding secondhand as undesirable. More fool them.