The Art of Furniture Shopping -or- Why I Hope Our New Furniture Lasts 80 Years
Things I do not want to have to do again anytime soon…
#1: Move
#2: Spend a morning at the DMV
#3: Shop for furniture
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When we started this whole epic hunt for a new set of living room furniture nearly two months ago, I knew the look that I, in a perfect world, was going for. After all, if we’re going to make an investment that should last for the next decade and shell out big bucks for a brand new sofa, chair, and ottoman (with the threat of bedbugs and unsanitary upholstery, etc. we just weren’t willing to go the used or vintage furniture route) then I want it to be attractive (read: non-hideous) and high quality. This will be fun, I thought! This will be easy, I thought! Let’s spend a day furniture shopping, I thought!
After just one stop in a store, my brain was full of ideas. I wanted sleek, track arms, tapered shaker legs, a tight back style with cushionless padding built into the frame, a soft and smooth fabriced solid neutral hue for the body of the sofa with pops of fun pattern and color on the decorative pillows, and it needed to compliment – not clash with – our awesome forest green area rug, and I definitely wanted nothing puffy, full of marshmallow rolls, leather, floral, brown, or nailhead trimed. Also, though I wasn’t into the idea of a sectional, I totally had my heart set on a chaise lounge, because…duh. Chaises are awesome. See, all figured out.
Think this (perhaps not this color exactly, and add brighter pillows, but you get the idea)…
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Not this (the Michelin Man called, he wants his torso back)…
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After well over a month of wishy-washy browsing, really liking then doubting, and general uncertainty before returning back to sqaure one and hitting up all the same furniture places again and again, never really solidly settling on anything or making a committed decision, depsite seeing several pieces we both liked, I realized a few things that initially hadn’t entered my mind when I thought about what kind of furniture might grace our living room and how easy and fun this expeditious adventure would be.
A. Ted is tall and has strong opinions too. Because he is tall, he needs a sofa and chair with decent cushion depth for when he’s sitting and respectable length for when he’s laying down. I’m short. I fit in everything. But as a tall dude who probably doesn’t want his knees in his eyeballs eveytime he takes a seat, the stylish sofas were always “okay” but they just weren’t unquestionably comfortable for him. There’s also the fact that the man is stubborn and opinionated (just like me) and our sense of style couldn’t be more opposite. Whereas the brown chair and ottoman above make me shudder, Ted gravitates toward furniture like that, both for the comfort and style. With that, we discovered our first two stumbling blocks: fit and style.
B. In all honesty, those stylin’ track armed and tight backed sofas, though fairly comfy and right on par in appearance, just weren’t comfortable enough for me to take the plunge either. Ted described them perfectly when he said, “They’re formal furniture for entertaining. They look great and I’d be perfectly happy and comfortable sitting in this at someone’s house for the evening, but for my own home, I don’t want a straight backed sofa and uncushioned armrests, I want to sit back, sink in, and relax.” I do too. And while I was pretty comfortable in these pieces, loved how they looked, and appreciated the fact that they wouldn’t sag over time, they do lack cushion in the armrests for laying your head on, you don’t really sink back into them as much as you stay atop of them, and they are a bit too formal for the many fuctions they were serve in our home.
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C. Finding quality furniture (and doing all the research to even learn what constitues quality furniture) is a ton of work and adds a whole other layer to the furniture buying experience. I spent hours researching how to select quality pieces. I researched how to look for quality in upholstry, springs, cushions, fabrics, frames, joint construction, and everything in between. I made a chart, an entire Excel spreadsheet, dedicated to little tests to do and checklists of things to look for in each piece we were interested in, to determine if it was worth the money, would hold up well, and stand the tests of time and abuse. All of this is to say that upon finding a stylish and comfortable sofa that you both like (already a miracle in our book), you may discover that the interior of the cushions will soon sag, or the fabric will fade or pill, or the wooden frame twists, or the springs squeak. But it’s far better to spend 30 minutes with it in the store, picking it apart and pestering the crap out of the salesperson with detailed construction questions to find out that you want something higher quality, than to spend the big bucks, get it home, and be unhappy with it in only six months. If you’re ever in the market for some new furniture and would like to see my quality checklist spreadsheet to help you determine the quality of the pieces you’re looking at, just let me know! On the plus side, I have learned a lot! I’ve learned a whole new vocabulary! Whole new styles and options! About construction! About quality! Oh, and about compromise and decision making skills too. Never stop learning, right?
D. Finding furniture that is attractive, comfortable, quality, fits in the room you need it for (oh yes, there’s this onion layer too), and then having it actually fall within your meager budget (keep on peeling, baby!), is not a quest to be scoffed at. I have learned my lesson.
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E. The furniture does not have to compliment the rug. The $150 forest green area rug that you love can easily move to another room in the house, or you can purchase a different color rug if need be, or it may wear out in a few years and need replacing anyway – but the $4,000 furniture you just bought, you still need to like the color of in five years. If you simply cannot find a set you love that compliments the rug, don’t sweat it; just get the furniture and deal with the rug later. If all the decorative pillows that come with your dream set don’t light you up – don’t worry about it; just stop by Marshalls or Home Goods and throw a couple of awesome $15 pillows in your cart that do work for you. The little things are easier to modify or replace than the furniture and are not worth the hours of agony, analysis, or stress if the rest of the furniture is just what you’ve been looking for. Sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes we just need to be reminded of the simple things.
F. Reading online reviews of particular styles, manufacturers, stores, or individual pieces can be helpful, but use them wisely. Keep in mind that sometimes people have something useful to say, and other times they’re just complaining as loudly as they can about things that are pure happenstance, illogical, don’t really matter, or could have been avoided. Also…salespeople. Not all stores and not all salespeople are created equal. Find a store who’s style and quality you generally trust and are in line with your own wants and needs, and whose salespeople are knowledgable and honest, not just interested in the sale and subsequent commisison (easier said than done, I know). Aren’t overly attentive and pushy salespeople the worst? Your eagerness is not convincing me that you actually know what you’re talking about or want me to find the right stuff for my home and money. We found a brand store where nearly every salesperson had an interior design degree (meaning they were all, for the most part, actually knowledgable about how their furniture is constructed, about fabric types and blends, about color pairing, etc.) and it showed. We received helpful input, honest answers about quality vs. expense, and had useful conversations about functionality, construction, sizing, and design every time we came into the store. It helps that Ted knows a lot about these topics as well, but we truly appreciated their non-pushy and un-sugar-coated approach.
Or you could just scrap all the information above and go with this piece of art…
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All of this being said, I am still a big fan of chaises and am currently having a love affair with an awesome seating corner piece that I desperately want, neither of which look like they’re in the cards this time around (though there’s always my eventual reading nook!), but after a lot of work that I’m not eager to repeat anytime soon, I think we’ve come to a nice compromise that bears in mind all the onion layers that go into this whole complicated furniture shopping shebang.
Stay tuned for the results :)
(But don’t worry, we’re not getting this, this, or this, so feel free to stop over, take a seat, and stay a while)
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(and you’re welcome for the photo goodness)
