Goodbye, couch

Say “Good night”, Gracie. The long era of carting around this monstrosity is over.

She’s going off to a new owner to be stripped, reupholstered, and probably sold off at a pretty penny to someone with enough room in their den for a 9′ sofa with built-in end tables. Along with her goes a pair of careworn wood-framed chairs that we just couldn’t devote the time to restoring and re-cushioning. It’s a sad day of furniture failure in the Seven Ten Clark home.

Oh well. Time to move on and do what we can do, am I right? I’m still dreaming of Macy’s Blake sofa, but unless by some miracle they waive their $225 shipping fee, there’s pretty much no way we’re getting one anytime soon, so that means we’re stuck with old Gold Velour.

Edited to add: I posted too soon! The lady from Regeneration Factory came to pick up the pieces, and Kevin couldn’t let the couch go. I don’t blame him, because if ever there were a couch with perfect bones and in exactly the right shape for us, it was this one. It’ll fit in our basement entertainment area, if nothing else, and we’re going to get on Amy’s waiting list to have it reupholstered. Wheee!

SofaSofaSofa

Hellloooooo, nurse! How have I not heard of Younger Furniture before now? They’re American made, don’t have fluffy, overstuffed back pillows, and can scratch my Midcentury Modern itch nicely while still holding up well as brand new furniture.

So, yeah, it might be time to take a little jaunt over to my favorite local source for all furniture modern and beautiful, Meta Home, since they’re listed as one of only two sources for this brand in the state of Iowa. Hooray for offering beautiful options to consumers in my neck of the woods! The Iowa City area is a magical place.

Thanks to Pam over at Retro Renovation for posting about these gorgeous couches!

Sofa Shopping

We’ve got so much good shit in the works, you guys, it’s unreal. And a little overwhelming, actually. PROJECTS A-PLENTY! It’s about goddamned time for this blog to make a comeback, anyway, and we’ve got a passel of reasons to be posting over the coming year. JUST YOU WAIT!

One thing that we’re thinking about in earnest right now is buying a new couch. We’ve been living with hand-me-downs and curbside finds for years, and after spending the entirety of this winter complaining about back pains from sitting on our current one, it’s about time to think about upgrading. For reference, here’s a crappy picture of the current beast:

It’s gold velour and right out of the 70s, and while at first it’s extremely comfortable and intensely nap-worthy, after a while of sinking into it, it’s difficult to dismount and starts to hurt your back. It’s actually a sectional, although we put the shorter leg of it in storage when we “streamlined” our living room the last time we rearranged. It’s time for it to go.

Right now, we’ve got two contenders for its replacement: the Blake sofa from Macy’s and the Digby sofa from Flexsteel.

The Blake sofa from Macy’s has quite a lot going for it: it’s deliciously long, very comfortable without being too deep or sinking, comes in what appears to be a good, durable fabric in great colors, and it’s offered at a fair price (although unfortunately, we qualify for “long distance shipping”, which comes to a whopping $225, yikes). It’s also made in either the USA or Italy, and since we’re avoiding Chinese-made goods, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, the closest Macy’s is somewhere near Chicago, so if anything ever goes wrong, we’re sort of screwed in terms of getting it fixed or replaced.

The Flexsteel couch, which we just discovered at our local Coralville Simpson’s Furniture, is pretty great as well: it comes with a lifetime warranty, it’s actually made in the state of Iowa (!!!), is made of materials that will definitely stand up to the test of time and wear-and-tear, and comes in a really wide variety of fabrics and colors, so it would be very customizable. Plus, we could probably swing cheap or free shipping from the dealer, and we’d have a local place to service it if anything ever goes wrong. The downside of this model is that it’s not as luxuriously long as the Blake (80″ vs. 88″ wide), and it’s definitely not nearly as comfortable.

So, we’re deadlocked on a couch for the moment. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!