It was 18 years ago that we went to the B&B Italia store on the Brompton Road in Knightsbridge and bought a sofa: a “Harry”. We had it covered in a dark-grey fabric to contend with the pawprints of our then hound, Bruno the Weimaraner. Somehow, come delivery day, the team managed to manoeuvre Harry up the stairs, like some reluctant-to-be-budged drunk, and deposited him in the first-floor sitting room (to be clear he’s actually rather svelte – and his legs can be unscrewed – it’s just that our London mews home is a bit dinky).Harry is the guest who stayed. As I write this from the comfort of an armchair, he’s stretched out in front of me, not a care in the world. Unsurprisingly, over that 18-year arc he’s needed a bit of work to maintain his looks. Cushions had to be restuffed when his sinewy body gave way to the upholstery equivalent of middle-aged spread. And the covers have been replaced twice – the most recent makeover saw Harry get a new light-grey Kvadrat suit.Our November issue came out this week and it’s a design special with a 16-page Expo about, well, sofas. Being editor in chief of Monocle, you get to come up with ideas for all the editors (who rightfully ignore most of these in favour of their own genius plans). But in my colleague Nic Monisse, our design editor, I have a sparring partner who is always up for a challenge and sometimes seems happy to make some of my dafter ideas work. Ages ago, I suggested that we do a feature on architects and designers, and their sofas of choice. Well, he’s delivered with aplomb. We see a suited and shoeless Daniel Libeskind perched on the vast sculptural stretch of his La Maquette sofa designed by Pierre Paulin and produced by Louis Vuitton – piles of reading matter awaiting his attention on the complementary coffee table. Then there are the designers Fien Muller and Hannes van Severen on their Pillow sofa by BD Barcelona and, chilling on the cushions between them is their adorable dog. Or how about Grant Wilkinson and Teresa Riviera with their Peonia sofa by SCP who we see with their four-year old child, all squeezed together in a moment of familial intimacy.