I’m going to share a photo that spoke to me from a Frieze film that I haven’t managed to watch yet, called There Goes the Neighbourhood. It’s about artists in the 70s and how they survived London. Possibly the picture tells us the answer to that question.

Is it…that you should, like artist Keith Coventry here, cover your ripped sofa with arm covers from another (bigger, velvet, pink) one and chuck all sorts of chi-chi looking fabric offcuts on it so that your home looks like it could be in World of Interiors and people take you seriously? Like I said, I haven’t watched the film yet – it maybe goes into deeper social issues and such.

But I need to speak to you in greater depth about furniture upholstery. My eight-year-old sofa has a sun-damage gash in the fabric so massive that only a blanket, a cat and one of the kids can begin to cover it. I don’t have Keith’s panache for layering and looking rakish, no matter how much I wish I did so I’ve got questions and a bunch of ideas to run past you later this week. See you back here if you’re game.