Sofa Shopping

I am in the final throes of buying a new sofa, one of the many steps towards revamping our living room, the first home improvement project of several planned for 2010. Choosing a new TV is easy; it'll probably be a 42" Sony plasma to hang on the one big wall of the room. Choosing the "media center" to go under it is also easy. It only took five minutes in the showroom of Hardwood Artisans to find this beautiful piece that matches the coffee table and end tables from them which we already own.



But the new sofa is a whole different matter. We've decided that it has to be leather, that it has to "go with" the leather chair we currently have (though we may decide to get rid of it later on), that it has to be a love seat size so it will fit perpendicular to the TV wall, that it can't cost a fortune since we're spending a fortune on the media center, that it has to stand up to hard use while being very comfortable since our "living room" is actually our hard-working family room.

These requirements limit the number of choices, but it's still hard to decide among them. Part of the problem is having to imagine what the final product will look and feel like since few dealers actually have leather love seats on the showroom floor.

Today I found this sofa at Thomasville which was very comfortable, well made and a reasonable price. You have to imagine it in a nice brown leather and a love seat size.


Then there's this stylish one at Macy's, though you have to imagine it in burnt orange, which was the only good color it came in.



And Crate and Barrel has several possibilities, including this beauty. Their love seats are the best made but are the most expensive. We might rather take that money and go snorkeling in the Caribbean this spring.



I may need the vacation after making all these decisions for the various home projects on tap for this year. Shh, don't wake me; I'm resting up for my trip to Crate and Barrel!