PICKING OUT A LIVING ROOM SOFA

Hello friends,

I’m so glad you stopped by today. If you’ve been following along in my living room makeover, you’ve seen my plans and my insane carpet installation! We’re switching gears slightly to furniture – yay!

Much like my inability to choose a flooring (carpet), I was completely clueless about sofas. One thing I did was check out review sites like Product Expert to see if they could provide me when any more information so that I was as informed as I possibly could be.

Even a couple months ago, my plans were changing weekly. I had decided that I wanted:

• a sofa that was “off the ground” and you could see the legs of the piece
• something that was big enough to fit two people comfortably – hello, movie nights 🙂
• a tight-back sofa, since Toby (my big tiger cat) loves to sleep on top of the cushions – such a cushion crusher, LOL!
• one longer seat cushion or two longer seat cushions

At first I was gung-ho on a velvet sofa. So serious about it. I really wanted an emerald green one. But then I decided that emerald might be too trendy, and sapphire blue would be more relevant still in a couple years.

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I found this sofa from Anthropologie and fell head over heels for it!

It didn’t have the tight back, but it had everything else. The price tag almost knocked the wind out of me, but there was a big sale going on and I was about ready to click the order button. I emailed the customer service department asking if they have a vegan version. No down feathers for this girl, this sofa was going to be cruelty-free. Can you believe that they never answered my question?! It’s a $5,000 sofa, and no one emailed me back!!!!!

I realized that must be a sign, so I moved on. My friend, Dustin, turned me onto Roger + Chris. They make such beautiful custom furniture, and they can make anything VEGAN! *happy dance* They also live in the same town as me, so I thought it was “meant to be”. But alas, a little fluff muffin named Bridget crashed The Striped House and with her she brought her claws… (dramatic pause)…

So now I’m rethinking the sofa ideas I had. I didn’t want to buy a beautiful sofa and then find claw marks in it. I don’t want to be mad at her all of the time. So I knocked the budget down even more, and decided slip covers might be a good idea 🙂

On a whim, I decided to get…brace for it… the IKEA Stocksund long sofa. Say what?!!! I know, it took me by surprise, too! But it has all of the characteristics I wanted – except the tight back. And guess who is on the back cushion next to me as I type this? 😉

The only kicker is that we cannot track down the matching ottoman so I can bump it up against the front of the sofa and create a chaise on one side. Oh, and by “we”, I mean Modern Omaha and me. They are a company that take IKEA orders and make trips to the KC store every week. They are awesome. Dale and I are on a first name basis now, and he and his wife have been looking each week for me and have even put in some calls for me. Now that’s customer service!

I’ve put together a list of other roll arm sofas, check ’em out!

1 Essex Sofa | Crate & Barrell – no longer available

2 Lafayette Sofa | Domino

3 Watkins Sofa | Home Decorators Collection – Under $1,000

4 Custom Markham Sofa | Home Decorators Collection

5 Orlie Sofa | Joss & Main – Under $1,000

6 Birch Lane Dedham Sofa | Joss & Main – Under $1,000

7 Benchcraft Iris Sofa | Joss & Main – Under $1,000

8 Garcia Sofa | Joss & Main *no down feathers (cruelty-free) Under $1,000

9 Victor Sofa | Joss & Main *no down feathers (cruelty-free) Under $1,000

10 Bradley Sofa | One Kings Lane

11 Albert Park Linen Sofa | One Kings Lane

12 Deacon Blue Sofa | One Kings Lane

13 Bradley Sofa | One Kings Lane

14 Abbey Velvet Sofa | One Kings Lane

15 Carlisle Sofa with Chaise | Pottery Barn – no down feathers option (cruelty-free)

16 Safavieh Couture Calvin Sofa | Kohls – no longer available

17 Velvet Glenlee Sofa | Anthropologie

18 Carlisle Sofa | Pottery Barn – *no down feathers option (cruelty-free)

19 Belgian Classic Sleeper Sofa | Restoration Hardware

20 Delphine Sofa | Wayfair *Under $1,000

This is what all new furniture looks like… Uffda. You should have seen the amount of cardboard I recycled after I unpacked it all!

Thank you so much to Linda at Calling It Home for hosting the One Room Challenge.

More pretty things are coming soon, so make sure you sign up for emails below!

xo, Jen