So my newly remodeled livingroom is almost done. It's time to pick out new furniture. I never knew how hard it was going to be.
First up is the new couch and recliners. I knew I wanted La-Z- Boy recliners, so my daughter and I headed out there to test some recliners out. Hard job, but someone's gotta do it! I had looked them up online and saw how you could get them made in practically any color or fabric design you wanted. I think there was over 600 different varieties of fabric to choose from. I had visions of a purple couch with rose recliners to go with my newly painted green walls.
We arrived at the La-Z-Boy store and started looking at some beautiful couch and recliner sets. It didn't take long for a salesman to zoom in on us. I asked him the appropriate questions and soon found out that if you wanted those special colors you were looking at a much higher price and a good 6-8 week wait and since the holidays are coming it would be closer to 10 weeks... There went my dreams of lovely purple and rose furniture. So as reality set in, since there was no way I was going to wait that long I want my living room done before Thanksgiving, we started looking at all of the lovely furniture in browns, tans, blacks and other dismal colors. *sigh* After testing out a few reclining couches and chairs we decided that maybe those colors weren't so bad if they were that comfy. Believe me they were comfy. I'm talking about nap time comfy! ZZZZzzzzzz We chose a beautiful tan colored couch that had recliners on both ends and matching recliners in a dark, chocolate colored brown. My daughter said it felt like resting on a cloud, they were so soft! One of the recliners is even better because it's a power recliner. You push buttons and your feet go up, head down, lumbar supported and so on. So absolutely sinful, including the price...well there is a 5% discount, to take into consideration. That certainly makes it all good!
I asked how long it was going to take to deliver this little bit of heaven and he said it would be at our house by mid next week. That seemed reasonable, since we were still finishing up the floor trim.
A few days later we started searching for the perfect TV console and matching bookshelves. I don't want one of those huge, all connected entertainment centers. I just want a nice TV console that I'll put in the center of one wall and then two 6 foot bookshelves that I can place on both ends of that wall. It will store our major collection of cds and dvds, as well as a few decorative items. I did not know what a chore this was going to be. I found something I liked but it was going to take several weeks to get delivered and I need to get this cluttered mess of a house, somewhat organized ASAP! That wouldn't do for me. Other places we looked had little to nothing that I liked or that looked like it would hold up for a while. We went home discouraged and a lot disappointed.
The next day we decided to try Arnold's. Another furniture store here in town. Within minutes I saw the TV console I wanted and they could deliver it in two... only 2 days!!! I was all over that. They had some very nice bookshelves as well, but since they were made to order it was going to take several weeks. By now I was just happy to have a place to put our TV and other electronic devices, so I was okay with waiting a few weeks for some quality bookshelves that would work with the other furniture. At least now we can get the house a little organized before the holidays.
Our next purchases will be an area rug for the center of the room and a new floor lamp. I have a feeling that those might be significantly easier finds, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high just in case.
To wrap up this post these are the most important things I've found out when it comes to furniture shopping:
1. It's not cheap!
2. It's not going to get to your house in a timely manner.
3. It's not all going to match.
4. No matter how much you spend, delivery is not free unless you do it yourself.
If you go out there shopping with these 4 things in mind then you'll be prepared for most anything and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised when one or more of these things doesn't come true for you!
Happy Furniture shopping!
