Whine about not being in Waikiki and furniture shopping
Andrew is on his way to Hawaii right now and I am sitting at my desk at work in Vermont where it is like -5 degrees outside. This sucks!
We have alot of house things going on right now. The carpet is ordered and should be installed next week when Andrew can be home for the carpet install guys. I dont want them to do it this week when he is not here in case they ask me a question about something and I dont know what Andrew wants. So better let him be home to deal with them. the carpet is a berber a very light tan color. The downstairs room will only have 1 small basement sized window so we wanted to keep the decor light and bright.
We are couch shopping. What we are planning on doing is getting a sectional couch for the upstairs living room, then moving our old couches to the basement. Then at a later date we will get 2 large futons for the basement room and ditch the old couches (they are not very comfortable). Plus they have seen better days.
So this weekend we dragged the kids out to 4 different furniture stores. Couch shopping is so confusing. What I want is a nice simple pottery-barn looking sectional sofa. With firm cushions that will not require fluffing and turning and all of that crap. I want them to maintain their shape. I hate that about our sofa now, but also our current sofas are very cheap. So the first store has a couch we both like, its from a brand called Four Seasons though, and I cant find much feedback on them online. Made in N.C. I believe. Cushions arent as firm as I would like. Couch is slipcovered, which I am kind of iffy on. I like that you can take it off and wash it. But I dont really want to have a skirt on my couch. With 4 pets I think skirts on the bottom of the couch just attract pet-hair. So style on this couch was nice. But I have concerns about the cushions. it would run about $3000. Store owner + sales people say they sell alot of this style and dont have complaints. But they didnt seem THAT knowledgable.
So imagine something like this for the 4 Seasons sofa, but without the horrible yellow gingham, and the right side of it will be 1 more seat long. So 3+ corner on one side, and 2+ corner on the other side.
We visited 2 other stores and didnt see anything we liked.
Yesterday we went to Wendell's Furniture and they sell alot of a brand called Flexsteel. Flexsteel lets you choose your seat cushion and one of them was firm. And it was nice. They have a bunch of different sectional lines that I liked and 2 of them would probably fit into our space. With most fabrics we are talking about $3000 for the sofa. BUT they have this other indestructable fabric called Kashmira that is pretty amazing. You can actually write on the couch with marker or pen and rub it off with a regular baby wipe! And spills just bead at the surface of the fabric. it was sort of like a suede material. It also doesnt trap pet hair, which would be good for us because we have 4 hairy animals living with us. But this fabric prices like leather, so it adds like $1500 to the price of the couch. We're talking like $4500-$5000 for the sectional. it would be about 92" x 120". From what I've read online Flexsteel has pretty good reviews. I could probably find another fabric I like (better than the kashmira) but the whole idea that the kashmira will not stain and all of that has really got me interested in it. but I am not sure if its worth it to spend an extra $1500 on it.
Here are a few pics of the flexsteel sectionals
This arrangement except reversed, so short side would be on the left. And different fabric/color. We are thinking of a light chestnut color. We wouldnt have the nailhead welting on our arms. I am not so fond of that. This is the Harrison collection
Here is the Thorton one, which i like, but it doesnt come in the super crazy Kashmira fabric (which wont be an issue if we decide not to get Kashmira anyways). We wouldn't have the corner angled wedge because we dont have the space for it. The short side of our couch needs to come in at 92" or less down by the bottom of the sofa (not the arm, the arm can add a few inches).
So thats that. Now we have to decide on a sofa. I am leaning towards the FlexSteel ones because I have only read good thing about that brand.
We have alot of house things going on right now. The carpet is ordered and should be installed next week when Andrew can be home for the carpet install guys. I dont want them to do it this week when he is not here in case they ask me a question about something and I dont know what Andrew wants. So better let him be home to deal with them. the carpet is a berber a very light tan color. The downstairs room will only have 1 small basement sized window so we wanted to keep the decor light and bright.
We are couch shopping. What we are planning on doing is getting a sectional couch for the upstairs living room, then moving our old couches to the basement. Then at a later date we will get 2 large futons for the basement room and ditch the old couches (they are not very comfortable). Plus they have seen better days.
So this weekend we dragged the kids out to 4 different furniture stores. Couch shopping is so confusing. What I want is a nice simple pottery-barn looking sectional sofa. With firm cushions that will not require fluffing and turning and all of that crap. I want them to maintain their shape. I hate that about our sofa now, but also our current sofas are very cheap. So the first store has a couch we both like, its from a brand called Four Seasons though, and I cant find much feedback on them online. Made in N.C. I believe. Cushions arent as firm as I would like. Couch is slipcovered, which I am kind of iffy on. I like that you can take it off and wash it. But I dont really want to have a skirt on my couch. With 4 pets I think skirts on the bottom of the couch just attract pet-hair. So style on this couch was nice. But I have concerns about the cushions. it would run about $3000. Store owner + sales people say they sell alot of this style and dont have complaints. But they didnt seem THAT knowledgable.
So imagine something like this for the 4 Seasons sofa, but without the horrible yellow gingham, and the right side of it will be 1 more seat long. So 3+ corner on one side, and 2+ corner on the other side.
We visited 2 other stores and didnt see anything we liked.
Yesterday we went to Wendell's Furniture and they sell alot of a brand called Flexsteel. Flexsteel lets you choose your seat cushion and one of them was firm. And it was nice. They have a bunch of different sectional lines that I liked and 2 of them would probably fit into our space. With most fabrics we are talking about $3000 for the sofa. BUT they have this other indestructable fabric called Kashmira that is pretty amazing. You can actually write on the couch with marker or pen and rub it off with a regular baby wipe! And spills just bead at the surface of the fabric. it was sort of like a suede material. It also doesnt trap pet hair, which would be good for us because we have 4 hairy animals living with us. But this fabric prices like leather, so it adds like $1500 to the price of the couch. We're talking like $4500-$5000 for the sectional. it would be about 92" x 120". From what I've read online Flexsteel has pretty good reviews. I could probably find another fabric I like (better than the kashmira) but the whole idea that the kashmira will not stain and all of that has really got me interested in it. but I am not sure if its worth it to spend an extra $1500 on it.
Here are a few pics of the flexsteel sectionals
This arrangement except reversed, so short side would be on the left. And different fabric/color. We are thinking of a light chestnut color. We wouldnt have the nailhead welting on our arms. I am not so fond of that. This is the Harrison collection
Here is the Thorton one, which i like, but it doesnt come in the super crazy Kashmira fabric (which wont be an issue if we decide not to get Kashmira anyways). We wouldn't have the corner angled wedge because we dont have the space for it. The short side of our couch needs to come in at 92" or less down by the bottom of the sofa (not the arm, the arm can add a few inches).
So thats that. Now we have to decide on a sofa. I am leaning towards the FlexSteel ones because I have only read good thing about that brand.