the sofa saga started 5 months ago, right after christmas. and it will hopefully end on friday.... i'll apologize in advance for some super long posts... the short version is that i really do not like shopping for sofas.
the back story - after deciding to turn our 4th bedroom into a "den", we started seriously looking for a small scale sectional. we had always talked about wanting additional seating in the room, but never wanted to spend the money. previously the room had an overstuffed green chair with a matching ottoman, so only enough space for one person to sit. our plan was to turn the den into an office/secondary tv room. we also wanted to be able to keep baby gear/toys in the den since the baby's room is small. so comfy seating for multiple people was important.
while in columbus for christmas, we decided to go to west elm (we do not have a west elm in st louis), because they were having a big furniture sale. i had been looking at the jackson sectional online and hoped to see it in the store. no such luck, but after seeing the other sofas and their upholstery options, we decided to go ahead and order the jackson sectional, sight unseen (and un-sat). i was really concerned about the sofa fitting up the stairs in our house - the narrow stairs and hallways make it difficult to get large pieces of furniture upstairs. the manager of the store was really helpful and told us that she would take the sofa back if it didn't fit up the stairs because she thought it would work. i had measured the travel path and the dimensions technically fit in each area, so we decided to just order the sofa and hope for the best.
meanwhile, since we were now in sofa mode, we started to also seriously think about replacing the green couch that was in our living room.
not the best picture, but true to real life - the sofa has been well loved by people and animals. it was not a very expensive sofa when mike bought it in his bachelor days, so i'm actually surprised on how well it has held up over the last 9 years. it was started to really break down though, and i had been finding it uncomfortable for a little while. plus it was green... and not really a style that i liked.... and it matched the green chair and ottoman that were in the den. we thought it would be nice if we were able to donate all 3 pieces as a set.
so we started looking at sofas for the living room, but didn't purchase anything because we knew there was a chance that the jackson sectional would not fit up the stairs. we wanted to keep the option open of using it in the living room instead, just in case.
at the beginning of march the jackson sofa
arrived... and big surprise, it didn't fit upstairs. the final turn in the upstairs hallway was the stinking point - it technically fit in the hallway, and through the door, but couldn't make the necessary turn to actually get through the den door. it was pouring down rain, and the delivery people offered to set it up in our living room since it was already in the house. that way we could decide if we liked it in the living room, and if not, they would come back and get it later when it wasn't raining. just as the delivery truck was pulling away from the curb, i noticed that the entire right side of the sofa was bent. the frame was not manufactured correctly; the sofa was damaged. we called west elm right away and told them that we needed them to return the damaged sofa. and after living with it for a few hours, we decided that it needed to be a full return (not an exchange), because the sectional shape just didn't work in our living room. we even talked about exchanging it for a different west elm sofa that would work in our living room, but after much debate decided that we just didn't feel comfortable buying another sofa without seeing it first.
i won't even get into the return process, but it was very long and frustrating. and at the end of the day we still needed to find 2 sofas.
stay tuned for part 2...
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