Conquering The Sofa Hunt

As a first time sofa buyer, I can attest to how difficult it is to pick the 'right' sofa. Being a big purchase and a piece of furniture you want to be able to keep for a while, it's a difficult decision with a lot of choices.  I'm happy to say that after two weeks of sofa researching and way too many swatches, I have found the right sofa for our new apartment, AND it's already arrived! No 8-10 weeks of waiting! I got a great deal on it, so I am even more excited and am entering that stage where I'm telling the story multiple times to the same people.

First things first in choosing the sofa, I picked the style I liked, an English Roll Arm. Then I measured my space and starting shopping around to test comfort and fabrics. Hoping from Pottery Barn to Bassett to Restoration Hardware, back to Pottery Barn and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, I finally found the perfect fabric at MG+BW. The catch - their English Roll Arm was too big and only came with a tight back. A 80" English Roll Arm is what I needed for my space and I had decided I liked a booth bench with bed pillows on the back. Through a fabric process that got me as close to Goldilocks as I can imagine, Bassett was my best option to try to find a fabric close to the one I liked. Feeling pretty deflated, I pulled together my three favorite fabrics - two from MW+BG on the left and the right and one from Bassett in the middle - and decided to take yet another trip outside the perimeter to Bassett.

Friday, the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC) opened its sample sale to the public with 80% off deals. ADAC is an amazing resource for furniture in Atlanta offering high quality, locally made custom pieces and more, but definitely out of my price range when at full price. I did some research and saw I needed to get their right at 9 AM. So Friday, I pushed back my OTP trip and headed over to ADAC. AT 9 AM, the place was a zoo and full of people who knew exactly how to work the vendors. At 9:10, hundreds of pieces had already been purchased, marked with sold tags and pulled to the side of the floor. It was clear you had to act fast. I trolled through and ended up finding an English Roll Arm sleeper sofa, but in navy. After a frantic call to my friend in San Francisco who graciously answered my phone call at 7:30 AM her time to talk me through the buying process, I purchased my first sofa! And just in time too, a man right after me tried to talk me out of buying it so he could instead.

The sofa is made by Vanguard Furniture in Hickory, North Carolina

The delivery services on the premise took my order and delivered the sofa the next day. It is 76" and actually works a lot better than a 80" sofa would have in the space leaving ample room for side tables. The navy color was not one I was considering, but I'm so glad that's where I ended up. Functionality is another thing I'd encourage people to think about when buying a new sofa. For us, we are going to end up eating there a lot, and I had overlooked this when thinking about colors thinking a light colored sofa was needed for the space. Instead, I am going to lighten the space up with a rug, artwork and pillows and keep my sofa more low maintenance.