Family

The Unspoken Nightmare of Sofa Shopping!

My husband and I have always had used, hand-me-down sofas and love seats from family and friends. This saved us a ton but, well, that also meant we were stuck with…

My husband and I have always had used, hand-me-down sofas and love seats from family and friends. This saved us a ton but, well, that also meant we were stuck with whatever style or print was already on it. A fter 13-1/2 years, we decided to buy a brand new couch of our choosing. It was time to go sofa shopping!

When I was younger, I just remember my mom saying she was going to get a new sofa and, POOF, we had a new sofa in our house. So, I figured that we’d just go to the store and say “I want that one!” and it’d be delivered the same day. Apparently it doesn’t work that way. I wish someone would’ve told us to order our new sofa(s) BEFORE getting rid of the old ones.

Sofa Shopping and Unavoidable Headaches Begin!

We were clueless to the fact that many stores offered custom sofas and what was in the showroom was for display-only. After finding a style you like, you have to choose the fabrics you want and then wait some 8-10 weeks for it to arrive. Even if a store had that exact sofa in stock, it could still take 2-3 weeks to be delivered. I wish someone would’ve told us to order new sofas before getting rid of the old ones. We had few uncomfortable months of sitting on the floor or in awkward, random chairs . . .

Over the course of two days, we went to some 14 furniture stores in search of a sofa we liked. Fourteen!! We had no idea it would be such a huge project. Many of the showrooms carried similar styles and it was a challenge to find any sofas that had all four features we wanted. I could not believe how hard it was to get one that had f lared arms, three seat cushions (versus just two and someone ends up sitting on the crack), a high back, and that was i n our budget. It also had to be comfortable to all three of us, of course.

There was a dark brown leather sofa at Costco that seemed promising. It was $150 over-budget but the quality was good and it had two power recliners in it. However, that would meant it’d have to be kept about a foot from the wall at all times and we didn’t have that extra room to spare.

An Unexpected Furniture Store

We just happened to drive by a new furniture store that had opened and they had just want we were looking for. With much debating, we finally agreed on the fabric we wanted and put in our order. We were told it would only take 2-3 weeks, and that longer than usual because the manufacturers (located in southern California) likely had a backlog from holiday closures. Oh, and since we didn’t know much about this place yet, we made sure to put the purchase on our credit card just in case the shop mysteriously closed before we got our sofa.

Home Sweet Home

10 days later, our sofa was ready to be delivered. Assembled and carefully wrapped, two guys moved our sofa in and put it in place. It took a little while for us to get used to it. We liked how the color turned out but it just seemed so foreign to have this red block in our living room. Also, the cushions seemed so hard. As mentioned, our sofas in the past had always been “well-loved” before we got them and we were used to cushy, soft cushions you just melt into.

It didn’t take long for us to ‘break in’ the sofa. It’s been so nice being able to actually sit together to hang out or watch a movie. Now that we had our main living room piece in place we could start putting the room together nicely. We got our big mirror up, attached speakers to the wall, and arranged the rest of our furniture.

I even found a simple little accent pillow to pull together the look. Finally it’s starting to feel like home 🙂