Ready, Set, SOFA!

BIG NEWS.

Wait for it.

WAIT FOR IT:

We’re almost ready to buy ourselves a new sofa.

BOOYAH!

To recap, we (okay, realistically just me…but I talked Jason into it) have been considering getting a new sofa for omg it seems like forever a while now. Since we have an oddly shaped living room, finding the perfect sofa for the space has been a  Very astute readers will notice the sofa pictured above is different from the original sofa we considered. Well, that’s because we got real and realized the sofa that we were considering was…well….ginormous. This isn’t Cribs, we don’t have that kind of space. So we stepped it down a notch, and found a suitable alternative.

Thanks to some awesome discounts from Pottery Barn (Woohoo, 10% off for wedding registry “completion”!), we crunched some numbers (I busted out some High School Algebra skills that would make any Mathlete jealous) and decided the time has come.

But before we take the plunge, we’ve got some key issues to address.

Ideal Upholstery Needs

I’ve owned a sofa or two in my life (actually, I owned my Ethan Allen sofa twice….), and so I know a thing or two about what I need from upholstery. For starters…

1. Comfort

Nobody likes a scratchy sofa.

2. Durability

I’ve got 2 little Hurricanes that live with me, plus I seem to inevitably spill whatever I’m holding. I’d like to hide the evidence of my inability to eat a Vietnamese sandwich without making a colossal mess by buying a sofa with a washable slip-cover.

3. Girl Gotta Look Good

How is this so far down the list? You ask yourself incredulously! Not that it isn’t important. In fact, it’s super important! But let this serve as a yardstick for you about HOW MUCH I spill things, and how much I need to have some sort of fail-safe in place in the future (Slip covers, slip covers, slip covers!). But seriously, I’m not getting a fabric that’s ugly.

Alright, Kate, enough of your yimma-yammerin’!  You shout impatiently in your head, Show me some options to keep up with your impossibly high standards! 

And SURPRISE, they’re Greige!

We grabbed a bunch of samples from Pottery Barn, but after having a Final Four bracket, we decided our two favorites were the Brushed Canvas Stone (left), and the Linen Stone (right). Crazily enough, they are supposed to be the same color, but as you can see just by looking at the photos, they are extremely different.

You also might notice that the samples look a little worn. That’s because Jason tested them using our patented Dog-Wear-n-Tear-Simulating-Technology (he scratched the swatches with a wire hanger for a few minutes). Tragically, the Linen didn’t hold up as well. The Brushed Canvas, however, held up like a CHAMP.

Our dilemma is that we love the Linen (it is so soft!! And beautiful!!!), but we don’t know how well it’s going to hold up. Since we only have one true living space in the house, is it better to err on the side of of beauty / comfort, or practicality? Ideas? 

Sofa Size

As I mentioned earlier, we measured how big the new sofa would be in the space. Check it out!

The measuring tape on the ground denotes where the new sofa would end. It’s actually a good deal longer than our current sofa, which was a surprise to us!

The ottoman that’s there now is placed exactly how long the chaise lounge portion of the sofa would stick out. Not too bad.

(For those of you wondering how big the OTHER sofa was, it extended to past the white table. Uh, too much!)

We have a lot of space on that wall to play around with, so we can scootch our furniture to the right a bit. Currently, since I moved my patterned linen chair back to it’s original spot by the hallway, the space feels really empty, so it will be nice to have it more filled in.

What are your thoughts? Do we go for comfort & beauty? Practicality? Wrap our sofas in plastic like it’s 1955?