Tag Archives: fabric choices

Here we go again….

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New dining room furniture? Check.

New living room furniture? A painful process, but.. check.

Now?

The den needs an update.

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The furniture in there is… I’m ashamed to admit, 35 years old. ( What can I say, we’re frugal New Englanders. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it) And while this ugly old set ain’t broke, it’s definitely seen better days. Decades of cats have split and torn the fabric and the cushions are just plum worn out.

It was time to go furniture shopping.

Again.

I know my husband was looking forward to it.

Not!

The den is the only room in our house that has a wallpaper border above the chair rail moulding.

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It’s shore birds with shells and wildflowers in a soothing blue and beige tone. I thought about ripping it off to have a clean color slate , but I have fond memories of my late mother helping me put it up. She always called our den “the blue room” and I simply couldn’t bring myself to erase that… so blue was on the menu.

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Here’s my husband, once again looking thrilled to be part of the process.

But I had a surprise for him. Since we were pleased with the quality of the Flexsteel we purchased for the living room and overjoyed with the low price and great service we received from the little family run store in Waterville … it was a one stop shopping trip.

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I came home with blue samples.

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And found a perfect compliment to the wallpaper.

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This is the couch.

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The chair.

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And the ottoman.

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Chair and ottoman will be done in the pattern. Couch in the blue (which is a bit lighter in person) with coordinating patterned pillows.

Easy peasy.

My husband was amazed. Not to mention relieved.

Delivery in 6-8 weeks.

😊

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In with the new…

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Due to scheduling conflicts we spent a day and night with a big empty space instead of a cozy living room.

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But late afternoon on the following day, the new furniture arrived.

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With my husband supervising…

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And thoroughly inspecting the merchandise.

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In case you’re wondering, it passed quality control.

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Oh, to be young and strong again. They had all 4 pieces in and set up in less than 10 minutes.

How young? We tipped them $20 each and told them to have a beer on us. They smiled, but said they couldn’t because they’re not of legal age yet.

🤣

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Ah…

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That’s better.

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It’s hard to get a picture that truly represents the colors …

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So you’ll just have to trust me that it looks nice.

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After all the trouble we had choosing fabrics, we’re pleased everything blends.

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His Lordship?

Well, that jury might still be out.

🤣

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This might be more difficult than choosing the furniture.

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I thought finding a set of living room furniture my husband liked was hard, but we did it.

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I thought finding a decent patterned fabric for the chair, ottoman and pillows was hard, but we’ve (tentatively) done that.

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But now?

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The part I thought would be easy is turning out to be anything but.

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We need a solid fabric for the couches and nothing is working.

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Neither of us wants that much blue so we’re leaning towards neutrals.

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There’s not much color in the pattern and it’s been difficult choosing a coordinating shade.

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Too light.

Too dark.

Too turd like.

The new floor will look like this…

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So I have to consider that as well.

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Too light for the white walls.

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Too cool a shade for the floor and warm trim.

The search continues….

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Is it wrong that I’m enjoying his discomfort this much?

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He didn’t believe me when I told him how hard it’s been to find fabric for the furniture he chose so I’m continuing to show him firsthand.

Seeing is believing after all.

In my search I’ve discovered that even though different stores sell the same brand, they’ll often have different fabric available and I’ve made it my mission to check them all.

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Hence our trip to Waterville to a small but 5th generation family run store.

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Their showroom is a two story barn from the 1800’s.

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And while they didn’t have the particular style set we wanted, they can order it…. at what turns out to be $600 less than their larger competitors. Free delivery included. I’m all about supporting small local businesses so this is where we’ll purchase it.

If we can ever decide on a fabric.

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Green is still nonexistent. And even the blues that I didn’t really want are muted. But I pulled and pulled hopeful something would catch my eye.

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This photo perfectly portrays how thrilled my husband was to be on the journey.

🤣

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I’d tentatively narrowed it down to these two with the husband bored out of his mind behind me.

Until…

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He discovered a huge computer loaded with the company’s app.

With it you pick your style…

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And punch in the fabric number for a peek at what it will look upholstered. He had fun with this for quite a while, laughing at how horrible some of the patterns were. But when I gave him the number for the fabric I was considering?

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I stopped laughing because he said the cushion had two eyes staring at him.

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Jesus wept.

Will nothing please this troublesome spouse!

🥴

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More furniture shopping, more frustration.

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Since I’m not on board with any of the hideous fabrics associated with the living room set my husband chose, shopping continues.

I stepped it up a notch last week and took him to an Ethan Allen showroom. And aside from the fact it was the smallest store we’d been to, they only had one hard backed sofa.

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Which was too low, too square and too soft for my Goldilocks spouse.

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Factor in most of their couches were over $5,000 a piece, even the simple ones like this, and it was a hard pass.

Next up was the store where I started my search with my girlfriend a few months ago. They had two sets I thought might work.

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But Mr, Picky vetoed this one because of the T shaped couch cushions.

Really?

At this point I thought he was just being obstinate on purpose and didn’t want new furniture. But when I brought him to set #2….

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Hard backed, rolled full arms, not too deep, available with firm cushions.

Could it be?

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A long discussion was had with the (very patient) salesman about features and quality…

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These arms were an eighth of an inch different in size… noticeable to no one on earth except my husband who worked quality control in the Marine Corps.

But despite the glaring anomaly, the husband agreed that this set might work. They even had the pattern he’d picked out at a previous store, seen on the back of the chair above.

I vetoed that as it was probably too light for our white walls and rather liked this one.

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When I asked if I could bring a few swatches home, I was told yes… for a price. For a deposit of $50 each I came home with 5. The $263 to be refunded to my card when I returned them.

Geesh.

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Lord Dudley seemed partial to this one.

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But as I suspected…. it’s too light and bright for our all white walls not to mention my husband’s feet on an ottoman.

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I need more contrast of color and though I really didn’t want blue….

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This one might work.

😊

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