We Bought a Couch!

Since leaving for college over 10 years ago, I've only had thrifted or hand-me-down couches.  They have mostly been in good condition with little odor (yay!) and usually from people that I know so I'm not complaining.  I'm just never quite sure what has happened on these couches in their previous lives (yikes!) so I have been looking forward to the day when Seth and I could afford our very own brand spankin' new couch.  Well, ladies and gents...that day has finally arrived.  

Our style is fairly modern and we like furniture with clean lines so we have been having a horribly difficult time finding the couch for us.  Most of our local furniture stores carry more traditional, overstuffed pieces and have very few modern options.  I had been eyeing a couple of couches online - namely the Klyne sofa from Crate and Barrel and the Karlstad from Ikea.  

Klyne sofa

The Klyne sofa has just the shape that we were looking for but it comes at a price.  $1199 to be exact.  Plus $280 for shipping.  A bit steep for us.

Karlstad sofa

The Karlstad is more affordable at $499 plus $350 for shipping.  I was also hoping that maybe we could squeeze him into our car and avoid the shipping costs.  He was extra enticing because he has removable, washable slip covers.  With three animals and possibly future children, that sounded great to me.  Also, two blogger families that I follow (John & Sherry Petersik from Young House Love and Gemma & Dan from The Sweetest Digs) own the Karlstad and both seem very happy with it.  It also looks quite nice in their homes. (If you're interested John & Sherry discuss their purchase here and here.  And here is a pic of Karl in Gemma & Dan's home.)  

So, we had it all planned out that I would call Ikea and ask them for the dimensions of the boxes to see if it would fit into our car.  Meanwhile, commercials for a furniture store a bit down the road from Jackson kept popping up on television and after asking a few of our friends, we decided to check it out before our trip to the A-T-L.  Again, it mostly had traditional pieces.  Boo.  But then we stumbled upon this beauty.  

It's the Mitchell sofa from Rowe.  After some contemplation, we decided to go for it.  Its price point was in between the Klyne and the Karlstad and we decided it was doable.  I like Ikea, don't get me wrong, but I did have a little hesitation about the quality of the Karlstad and how well it would hold up over many years.  Also, if we didn't fit the Karlstad into our car and had to pay shipping it would almost have been a wash as far as price goes so we opted to pay a bit more for a Rowe piece.

We are currently anxiously awaiting the call saying that she is ready for us.  We ordered her without the nailhead trim (Seth isn't a fan), in the deep gray textured material below, and with espresso stained legs.  Yum!  I can't wait for her to get here.  Our first "real" couch.  

Has anyone else invested in a nice piece of upholstered furniture?  Living room chairs are next on our list.