If you’ve ever spent weeks deciding on the perfect upholstery fabric to recover your favorite piece of furniture, perhaps you’ll want to steal Pamela Bell’s idea and next time just save yourself the headache.

Faced with the same dilemma, a year of indecision, and party for her daughter filled with bored young girls, she spontaneously decided to hand out fabric markers and let the girls have at it. Of course, it turns out she liked their results so much that she opted-out of reupholstering altogether and now keeps those markers handy for guests to add their own scribblings to the evolving piece of art.

I love that she chose to celebrate the girls’ work by giving the sofa a prominent place in her living room and I love this idea for turning a would-be disaster — like spilled red wine, nail polish, or ink — into a creative exploration. Plus those unprofessional hieroglyphics have a charm all their own, don’t you think?

(Image Credit: Mary Randolph Carter from her book A Perfectly Kept House Is the Sign of a Misspent Life)