Den Decision, Option 1

Well, we've had an action-packed month. Phil went on a 8-day "vacation" to the hospital with meningitis (don't worry, he was never contagious). It's a long story, but he's home now and starting to feel better. Guess this means he has a free pass on being my handy-man-husband for a few more weeks until he's back to 100%

So as a result, our house looks....the same. Actually, surprisingly, it's somewhat cleaner. When he was in the hospital, I would come home every night and do some unpacking/organizing/cleaning/etc. I FINALLY caught up on laundry (but the secret to that is that he was wearing hospital gowns and not clothes, so I had fewer clothes to wash). Anyway, during all this time, my mind has been going crazy with different rabbit trails for ideas for the house. The minute I decide "oh, I'll do [insert idea here]," I then come across some new fabric/inspiration picture/furniture arrangement that makes me totally change my mind. OR, even better, one of our loving family members gives us another item of furniture and things get switched up in my mind. So not all the rabbit trails are bad rabbit trails.

Well, the den should be the highest priority, but it's the room that has me the most ambivalent. I've liked this idea I had of black/white/greys/greens/reds for that room, but I think our (free, beautiful, high-quality antique) oriental rugs are dictating a different direction. They arrive this week, so hopefully I will know where to put them.

Oh and by the way, as you will soon see, we obviously did not go the route of the Lee Industries sofa...long, boring story, but basically, we now own 5 sofas and we paid $200 for all them total...so we're just going to slipcover some of them.

If we go with the original color scheme, I'm thinking that I want both sofas covered in black and white stripes....something like these:

I can't find the source on this one....working on it. 

from Vogue. Pretty sure that is Carolina Herrera. 

Then I like the simplicity of this one from Moth Design

I love the subtlety of this one, but I don't think I'm brave enough to do a mostly-white couch in the most-used room. I don't need the sofas to look exactly like the ones above, I just want the fun/classic look of black and white stripes.

So there are three fabric options I'm considering for the sofas in the den:

OPTION 1 - Thick Black and Cream Stripes (stripes are about 2.5" wide)
 I have not felt this with my own hands yet, so I'm unsure of how durable it is.

OPTION 2 - Thin black and cream stripes (stripes are about .25" wide). Durable enough for upholstery. Most expensive per yard.

OPTION 3- Stripes that aren't of equal size....cream background, black stripes (black stripes are about .5" and the cream part is about 2"). This one is also durable enough for upholstery. Also, plus side: the fabric weave is a little different in the black parts and for some reason it is REALLY soft and yet still sturdy. Least expensive per yard.

So to help you help me make this decision, these are the other [potential] components of the room:

And the bookcase at the back of the room (as seen in the picture below) I would probably paint a glossy charcoal grey and paint the back of the inside red....

So, with all that info, what do you think? Which fabric do you think would be a good choice for the sofas? I haven't decided how exactly I want to use the pyne hollyhock....I'd love some crazy roman shades with simple cream curtains with some black pom-pom trim....but that may be a little too crazy.

There is also this fabric to consider for shades or curtains... I'd like to use it on something like that, if that helps your decision :)