After many outings to area furniture stores, I finally chose a sectional.
When I have a big financial/design commitment to make, I turn into the most distractible human on earth. There was a lot of reassessing, second-guessing, panicking, quitting, and coming back around. It's just part of my process and I have to fully complete all the steps in that process: "Do we really need a pull out sleeper? The kids will likely destroy anything we get, so perhaps we should just get an Ikea sofa. Doesn't Craigslist have anything? Do I really want to do Craigslist? THAT COSTS HOW MUCH?! What about some cool secondhand store and then get it reupholstered?, I'm sick of looking: let's just forget the whole thing. Ooh, this is pretty: maybe we should ditch the sectional idea and get this for our living room instead…and so on.
I ultimately decided on a sectional with pull out sleeper. We want to use the family room as a guest room and thought a sleeper would be a good investment. Here's the thing, though: the one I decided on is entirely customized. Which sounds awesome at face value, but it feel like I'm blindly ordering something.
For instance, there's 6 arm options to choose from, which is great, but the two arm styles that I liked they didn't have in stock and therefore I was not able to see. I am not a fan of choosing blindly, but was feeling adventurous that day so chose an arm style that I have never seen and had better instantly love once it arrives.
After navigating the waters of arm style, this is how the rest of the conversation went:
"Laura, what base style would you like: plain-straight, skirt straight, or split-straight? Should the legs be hi trap, lo trap, or bottle? Which finish would you like the legs in: medium or espresso? Do you want the straight arm cushion or the t-cushion? Should the back cushions be boxed, rounded, or knifed? Do you want a welt on the seat cushions? How about the back cushions? Should the welt be contrasting? Should the back cushions be attached? Laura, you don't look so great…IS THIS OVERWHELMING YOU?!? Perhaps you should lie down on one of our fabulous sofas…."
So in 4 weeks or so, I will have a new acquisition, which will hopefully be amazing. In the meantime, I need to get the room ready for the sectional with a new coat of paint on the walls and all the woodwork painted. This is a task I've been putting off, but I know that I will love it once I get around to it.
(Oh, and for the curious readers, I chose a charcoal velvet fabric, English roll arm style with bottle feet in espresso finish with split straight base with split key front, attached box cushions with non-contrast welt.)
I also wanted to include a photo of a sofa that almost derailed the whole sectional idea. It's just a big, beautiful sofa.
Whew.
