The arrival of our home is scheduled for Oct 22. It will still be 4-6 weeks after that before we will be able to take possession. However, due to a longer than normal timeframe for furniture orders, we went out to start shopping for the main pieces for our living room and the dining area. It was also important to start now since smaller space furniture is more of a challenge to find.
DAY 1: Since I have a greater stamina for shopping, I went out to do our preliminary search at the four recommended local furniture stores. I was out all day trying out recliners, couches and dining chairs, measuring everything, and taking pictures of possibilities at three of the four stores. I was able to completely eliminate Furniture Row. Newberry’s had the only theatre/loveseat that I liked so far. Oak Tree had a likely choice for a counter-height stool that swivels. Oak Tree did have the BEST dining table and chairs when it came to craftsmanship and comfort, but we are not going to spend $530 for each chair, and $2500 for the table! The set was made by the Amish in Indiana. I did love them, but need to keep looking. There was reasonably price table with two butterfly leaf extensions. We would only use one of them, but the lighter wood wasn’t what we wanted. Oak Tree’s England brand couches were excellent quality and were comfortable. Very impressive warranty on them!
Swivel 24″ stool x 2 for our kitchen island
Day Two: Barry and I returned to Newberry’s where we realized our plan of a theater type recliner and a couch just will not function in our available space. We’d have to go with two smaller chairs in place of a couch. Newberry’s didn’t have anything like that. We headed to Mor Furniture. I hadn’t been able to make it here on my preliminary search. Bonanza! We found a loveseat with center console that we both loved.
We also came across Euro-style chairs like I’ve seen at Lamp Plus. One comes with a slanted ottoman, the other fully reclines. Both were really comfy and were charcoal. They would look good with the white leather loveseat. Things are coming together!
Next, we looked for a TV console, but one that would work with the chairs and loveseat.. We opted for a non-fireplace one with clean, simple lines that looked more contemporary. We think it will bring cohesiveness to these main pieces in the living room.
We also found our dining table here. We liked that it came with swivel chairs that were comfortable. Do we get the counter height table set or the regular dining table height set? We know we want the deep brown over the grey, but debated pros and cons of the two different heights. We opted for the counter-height one that was in the dark brown.
Mor Furniture was still having their extended Labor Day Sale, but it was ending at 7PM that evening, so we needed to make decisions quickly. Not an easy task for us, but we did it.
After we got home and went to the model home that is exactly the same floor plan that we have on order, we decided to add the two piers and bridge to the TV console. We went right home and called Aaron at Mor Furniture. They were closing in 40 minutes! We were able to get the three additional pieces added at the sale price! I will have to go in tomorrow to sign the paperwork.
Day Three. We found a few more stores to check out. We didn’t find anything that we liked better. Well, we did sit in an amazing La-z-Boy loveseat at Houston’s. As we sat down we immediately looked at each other and said OMG! But it was $3700. We got up fast!! The other stops were quick in and out visits.
We returned to Mor Furniture to sign the paperwork for adding the piers to the tv console piece, and verify our choices.
I was feeling unsettled regarding the dining table. Was the counter-height the right choice? After going back and forth sitting at the counter-height table and then at the regular height table, we felt it was more comfortable to sit at the regular dining height for longer periods of time. We noticed little things that led to this. It was actually easier to get up from the regular height chair because my feet were already on the ground. Sitting in the higher stool I had to scoot forward till my feet touched the ground to stand up. The edge of the counter-height table started to cut into our forearms, and the bar for your feet did not feel good in sock feet. Aaron (salesman) told us that most people who get a counter-height table don’t tend to be happy with it after they have it a while. They are fine for sitting at for a short time frame, but extended social time at the table gets uncomfortable. The base is adjustable, so we were able to have the adjustable table put at the regular height on the order, and we switched the 24 inch swivel stools, to regular swivel chairs. I’m really glad we made the switch! We think it will actually look better and provide better definition between the kitchen, the kitchen island and the dining area. We kept the dark brown to work nicely with all the kitchen cabinets.
Now that we have the living room and dining area furniture taken care of,
Barry will begin research on 65″ TVs. 🙂