Black couch, brown couch.  This isn’t the start of a bad Dr. Seuss story… rather it’s a story about getting a new couch.  Didn’t we just get one last year when we moved in?  Yep.  We’re not crazy redecoration freaks, we have a reason for this… I swear.  Let me explain…

This all started when our friends A & E were over babysitting Avery the night we went on our fun date night to Cirque du Soleil.  When we came back, Avery was sound asleep.. and so were they!  Well, just E.  They found the strap to pull out the sofa bed, and made themselves at home.  They loved it so much they now want one.   Good news: We got our current couch at Ikea in November last year, so they still have it.  Bad news: We bought it on sale and now it’s almost $200 more than we paid.  Eeek.  Enter my quiet hubby to resolve the dillemma, “I hate that couch, let’s just sell ours to them and get a new one?”  What?  Since when does he hate our couch?  I wasn’t aware of this.  I love our couch.  I always wanted an “L” shaped couch with a chaise I can lay out on, and it’s modern, and perfect.  Apparently not.  Vinay doesn’t like how low the back cushions are, and he doesn’t find it comfy.  Let this be a lesson in our marriage, because I had no idea!

So, this sparked a crazy idea (especially since my next project should be the bathroom):  Let’s get a new couch!  Sell our couch to A & E, and use that to invest in something we are BOTH happy with, AND buy something this weekend because it’s Massachusetts tax free weekend (last year we bought everything for our kitchen renovation this weekend)  And so the search began…

First we set out our couch requirements:

1. It must be a sleeper sofa – big enough for 2 people.
2. It must be modern – no curved armrests, floral patterns, pleats, etc.
3. The fabric must be easy to clean (the old one is – so much that when Grammy came to visit, she cleaned it with fabric cleaner and ALL the baby spit up stains were gone!)
4. It MUST be comfy!
5. It has to have a matching ottoman – my only request, so we can replace the sharp edged coffee table with it, so Avery can play safely.
6. It must fit the budget.  We don’t want to regret credit card bills months down the road.

Then we searched online for potentials… here are a few that peaked our interest:

Skyline at Bobs, Northport at Bobs, Zenith at B&P,  Devin at B&P

And with those options, we set out to test them.  Luckily, Avery was napping, so we could mosey around and sit on each couch to test it (Yeah we were THAT couple…. sitting on EVERY sofa).  If it wasn’t comfy, we moved on.  After rounding the store two times, we went back to our favorite…

It was actually my favorite from the pictures, and it fit all our requirements, AND it had an ottoman… but it also had an armchair… hmmm now I want the armchair too.  But could the whole set fit in our tiny, awkward shaped living room? Oh what are we getting ourselves into?  Our budget was out the window and we decided to splurge a little, since this was a living room set, something we could have for 5-10 years and would be safe and easy to clean as Avery grows.  Plus, the showroom set was dark beige, which would go great with our light beige walls and I could accent with any color!  So, with that, we purchased the set, to be delivered in 1 week, so we could go home, measure and rearrange to see if it would fit.  Should we decide against the set because it doesn’t fit or we find something else, we can cancel the order.

So, this week we’ll be playing with room layouts.  We’ll share soon…we’d love your feedback!

Have you ever bought a piece of furniture that you fell out of love with?  Did you sell it, refurb it, or just live with it?