since the small scale sectional from west elm did not work, we started over with our sofa search. for the den, we were trying to find something modular, that was reasonably priced, and wasn't ugly. after looking at local furniture stores, craigslist, and other places online, our search ended at ikea. and yes, i realize that ikea was the obvious answer given our criteria, but since ikea is in chicago and not st louis, we just never really seriously considered it. i was also concerned about the quality of their sofas. but after reading many reviews of the karlstad series, i realized that this sofa would solve many of our concerns.
like most things ikea, the sofa comes in pieces. and each box was small enough to easily fit up the stairs. i also really liked that because of the way it is constructed, we'd always have the option of changing the configuration, or adding on to the sofa in the future. the entire thing is slipcovered (but doesn't look like it is), which is also nice in case we need to wash the cover, or want a different color sofa in the future. we had sat on this sofa before so we knew it was comfortable. it seemed like the perfect solution - the only issue was that the sofa was 4.5 hours away in chicago. i decided that the sofa, combined with the random list of things i had been looking at from ikea for the baby room, justified a day trip. when my family came to visit in april, we rented a uhaul trailer one day and drove to ikea for the sofa.
assembling the karlstad sofa was only slightly more complicated than most ikea things, but i was impressed with how well constructed it seemed to be. the slipcovers fit nice and tight, and now that it's all together and in place, i'm annoyed at myself for not just going with ikea in the first place.
next up, we still wanted to find a new sofa for the living room. we thought that finding a regular sofa with a slightly larger budget would be easier. turns out, not so much. we knew we would be using this sofa a lot so we were even more picky about it. we like to relax, and watch movies in our living room, so we wanted something that was extra comfortable. keep in mind that i am 5'-2" tall, and mike is 6'-4". our definition of comfort is a little different. we also have 4 pets, and a baby on the way. we eat on the couch. the sofa needed to be durable. and sofa's are expensive, so we wanted to make sure that we whatever we purchased was something that we felt good about, and would be able to have for a long time. we shopped and shopped and shopped... and we kept coming back to this one:
the
lounge sofa from crate&barrel. we actually first saw this sofa a few years ago and have liked it ever since, so this was not an impulse purchase. plus, we just happen to be looking during c&b's annual sofa sale, which just barely put the sofa in our price range. now, this sofa is deep - it is definitely for "lounging". even though i am short, i tend to sit with my feet up on the couch, so the depth of the sofa was actually a big bonus for me. mike obviously liked the extra depth for his height. we liked that the cushions can be flipped and rotated for more even wear (something our current sofa does not have). i liked that the arms are short. we looked at a few custom upholstery options, but after seeing the prices (yikes!) we decided to get the stock plus otter microfiber. i loved the look of the stock linen upholstery, but did not think it would be durable enough for us. our last sofa was microfiber and it's held up really well. i'm a little nervous about the upholstery selection as it looks shiny and more brown in the photo online - the large sample in the store looked more gray. hopefully once it arrives and we see it in person, we'll be happy with it. this is the most expensive furniture purchase we've made, so we are a little nervous about it!
the sofa is supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning, and then the donation company is coming on tuesday to pick up our green sofa, chair, and ottoman. so hopefully everything goes well and our sofa saga will be complete in the next few days, wish us luck!
**update - guess who called as soon as i hit "post"? crate & barrel - our sofa did not arrive this week as planned, so now it won't be here until next saturday. can't say i'm all that surprised given how this whole sofa process has been going!
