Sofas and Sectionals

I’m just saying – furniture shopping is fun!  Aaron and I have really large, over-stuffed furniture in our living room currently.  The furniture is almost four feet deep!  It’s incredibly comfortable but just too large; moreover, it wouldn’t look so nice in our new home.  It just doesn’t have the right charm or sophistication…

So, knowing that new furniture would be a good bet, we started living room furniture shopping a few weeks ago.  Hey, little known fact – furniture shopping is difficult on Wednesdays.  I have no idea why, but a few places were closed and others closed early on Wednesday.  How interesting! 

Well, our first stop was Sofa Selections on the Carlisle Pike.  We walked in and liked the first thing we saw! It was a nice-sized sectional with traditional lines.  While we were checking it out, a lovely lady named Eileen came over to us.  Eileen was very nice – she let us know she was there if we had any questions about anything but just let us browse around without bothering us much.  I like this approach! Let me know who to go to with questions, offer a small bit of advice, but do NOT hold my hand and march me around…  Anyway, we found a few options that we liked (some sectionals and some separate pieces).  However, at that point we didn’t have our exact measurements (really, that support beam that marks the edge of the living room was the biggest question mark). 

That same night, we headed over to Big Lots, which turned out to be a big failure.  Our local Big Lots is quite trashy, smelly, and just didn’t have much to offer.  With that quick visit over, we stopped at Bon-Ton.  We had previously been browsing through Bon-Ton to kill some time and had liked some furniture there.  There were three different collections we liked there, but they were not really cheap and they were only available in one color unless you paid more for a custom order. 

The next night, we got out to Sofas Unlimited on the Carlisle Pike.  We got there just after 7pm and we knew they closed at 8pm, but with work and school that was the earliest we could get there.  A lady named Marge came out to assist us; she showed us around the store (which was quite large) and then told us to have at it.  We went into the first area which was the cheapest furniture but only available in one color each with no options to change anything (even pillows).  As we moved into the next area, Marge came back to visit us and proceeded to drag us around the store, not giving us a chance to sit on anything, but just showing us the most expensive stuff.  When she finally was leaving us, she commented that she wouldn’t kick us out or anything – keep in mind, it was only 7:35pm at this point! We took another ten minutes looking in the area she left us in before deciding to head to the recliner area; at that point, we noticed that she had already started turning off lights, including those in the recliner area – it was 7:45pm at this point!  We got upset at the poor customer service and left. 

At a later date, we went to another local furniture store – N.B. Liebman.  The lady helping us here (Debra, I believe) was nice enough and mainly let us go around on our own, but kept checking in with us (a little too frequently, but it wasn’t too bad).  I loved how this store was set up - it was set up as actual rooms, with a dining room and then a living room with a bedroom off to the side, etc.  It really helped me picture how it would look in our place.  This was the most expensive of all the stores we looked at; in fact, one of the sectionals we saw was $500 more here than the previous store.  There was a few things that caught our eye but, in the end, the price was the biggest deterrent. 

Just after leaving N.B. Liebman, we went back to Sofas Unlimited since they are practically next to each other.  Marge wasn’t there, luckily, and we let the saleswoman know that we had already been there but hadn’t gotten through everything; interesting, the saleswoman told us Marge was one of the owners!  This time, we were left alone and no one turned off lights on us.  It was much nicer!  Anyway, the top prospect here turned out to be a sofa and loveseat set by Klaussner.  The frame was discontinued and there was just one more set in the warehouse and then the floor model (I don’t want a floor model though).  The clearance price was just $796! The nice thing was that the covering was a nice microfiber which is still available and the pillow fabric was also still available so we could get an accent chair and an ottoman to match.  The picture is the best I have and it's just the sofa... but hey, it's what I have available!

 

Then last night we headed back to Sofa Selections and Eileen was there again.  We still liked the sectional just inside the door and narrowed down the sofa/loveseat options to the top pick.  And guess what?  We realized it was the same as the one we liked at Sofas Unlimited (see the picture above).  It was a little more expensive at Sofa Selections (by about $100) but we could change the fabric on the body and get all different fabrics for the pillows.  Plus, we liked Eileen much better than Marge (I mean, if the owner is kicking you out, that's really just bad business).  Both the sofa/loveseat combo and the sectional we liked are by Klaussner, so it was now fabric-selection time since any fabrics we picked could work for either choice!

 

We first came down to two options: one was the cappuccino (light-medium brownish with a hint of green) microsuede with the crayola fruit-tree pillow/accent chair fabric and the other was the celedon (medium green) microsuede with the twitter calypso (bird and tree) pillow/accent chair fabric. 

 

 

Aaron and I were at a bit of a cross-roads.  I, of course, loved the green and birds since I just so happen to love both green and birds!  Aaron was more hesitant about green furniture and was leaning more to the cappuccino /fruit-tree combo.  Then, with a stroke of genius... I put the cappuccino body fabric with the bird pillow/accent chair fabric, and... voila!

 

 

With a compromise, we found a combination that looks great together and gives us both what we wanted!  With that, we headed home and used the Room Planner at http://www.urbanbarn.com/Room-Planner.  We were able to put in the house dimensions and try to see how the furniture would fit.  When we played around with the sofa and loveseat, we just could not find a way to fit it all without it seeming cramped or having the chair in someone's line of vision of the TV.  However, the sectional - that fit just right!  Below is the saved image from the Room Planner.... The blue little box by the corner of the sectional is that support beam.  The big black rectangle all the way to the left is the TV and the smaller black box is an end table.  Ignore the fact that the couch cushions don't quite line up too!

This is actually the sectional we like with the cappuccino fabric and bird pillows!

 

This is actually the chair we like with the bird fabric on it!

So this was a really long post, but I'm going to blame it on the pictures... Plus, I didn't post yesterday and I'm not so certain I'll get it it tomorrow... Hehe! Anyway, we have put in our report to the sellers regarding inspection and will be waiting to hear whether they will accept our terms [either 1) fix the roof over the storage area - add gutters and downspouts, fix the balcony, remove the antenna from the roof, and add attic ventilation or 2) reduce the price by the estimate for the two fixes and take care of the antenna and attic ventilation).  Once we know that the sale is officially a-go, we can order our furniture!  In the meantime, we are putting lots of stuff on Craigslist to get ready for the move.