If You Don't Fit It, Fake It

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Customers at Liana Toscanini's Massachusetts ready-made slipcover shop were always complaining that their skinny-armed sofas looked pitiful under the one-size-fits-most covers. So Toscanini invented (and cleverly named) a product to help them fake it: Furniture Falsies.

The current fashion for chairs and sofas with ample arms has spurred some desperate housewives to pad their old slim-line versions with towels and duct tape.

The Falsies ($19.95 a pair at http://www.furniturefalsies.com ) are actually arm pillows made of muslin and polyester designed to plump up old sofas and club chairs, says Toscanini, a former executive at Sure Fit, the world's largest ready-made slipcover maker.

Toscanini, who opened her shop, LT Home, in Great Barrington, Mass., in 2003, has spent her career defending ready-made slipcovers, an inexpensive alternative ($67 to $129 for sofa-size covers) to custom-made versions or reupholstering. "The majority of my customers are covering something that has been ruined, very often by pets," she says.

And for those who might be wondering: Liana is indeed related to legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, who died in 1957. He was her grandfather.

Jura Koncius