First Brand New Couch

My boyfriend and I received a brand new couch (just like on the Price is Right! except way prettier) from his parents. It is so super special that it deserves its own post.

I've almost always had a couch, or at least a ched (a chair and a half, what I call a ched which means chair/bed), but I've never had one that was BRAND NEW!

The beautiful blue Rooms to Go couch by Cindy Crawford, a hand-me-down, in our old house. This couch was a Sectional style sofa and had chaise that could be moved to either side which was great when we wanted to rearrange the room.

The ultra uncomfortable but lovely gray futon couch from World Market (also a hand-me-down).

The chair-and-a-half or ched, which I couldn't find a picture of but it sort of looked like this. A hand-me-down from my mom. This guy served as my bed for awhile in college. Super, super comfy! (Seriously.)

So as much as I loved all of our well worn and comfy furniture, I was really excited to get something new. When we set off to pick out the perfect couch, we first stopped at Ikea. They have tons of affordable couches.

The Ektorp is cute and comfy (my friend has one) and boosts tons of different colored $50 slipcovers for easy updates. And it's only $600. I really thought that it was just too modern (contemporary?) for the age of the condo, however. This style of sofa is generally known as contemporary or Bridgewater.

I also looked at World Market and Rooms to Go and found similar options. They were comfy and cheap, but they were also just too contemporary for my tastes.

After a lot of searching at vintage stores, I realized that I was beginning to appreciate couch shapes from bygone eras. A lot of vintage shops I frequent have Chesterfield style couches, which are simply magnificent and fit well with older homes (and condos). They are also quite expensive and way out of the assigned budget.

This beauty (the Thackery Chesterfield) from Anthropologie is $2,500 (plus tax and delivery). Most vintage stores I found sold the couches for similar prices. Sometimes as low as $1,500, but that was still too expensive.

I also like the English or Club style, as described on this site. This style of couch is very open which is great for small spaces and that definitely applies to my condo.

Another classic style is the Tuxedo style sofa, which I also found appealing for its neat, straight lines.

After careful consideration, I ended up going with a couch from a local furniture store that had to be ordered from overseas. That was the worst part - waiting! It took over a month for the couch to arrive. Then we enlisted the help of a very kind friend and rented a small truck from Home Depot for $20 an hour to move the thing. Taking it up to the second floor was a bit of a challenge.

Moving it upstairs, still carefully wrapped in its packaging!

Ta-da! The sofa's style is almost Club or English, but it has more defined arms than those styles generally do. However, its back cushions are not movable which makes it a more traditional and formal sofa. The bottom cushions can be flipped though, which is good for stains and general upkeep. Although I've been known to rent a rug doctor and use the upholstery attachment to clean furniture. There's nothing like seeing the color change on a piece of old furniture (gross, I know!). I also really like the cleanness that the exposed legs provide.

Here it is sitting in the store, just as we first saw it.

Since the color is gray, the couch should be just neutral enough to be useful for many, many years to come. Some of the best sofa advice I've heard is to buy a very plain sofa and decorate it with colorful pillows and throws so you can change the theme of your room easily and inexpensively. Of course I chose gray pillows. That's just me!

By the way, thanks to my mom for the pillows from my favorite store, Target!