The thrill (and agony) of furniture shopping...

One of the fun things about moving is that we've decided to buy new furniture. I've lived with a mixture of hand-me-downs and inexpensive furniture for years and finally decided it was time to buy something good. For the living room, I wanted beautiful, comfortable and classic, without a huge price tag, if at all possible. I didn't want to spend money on furniture that I'd be tired of (or it would be tired out) in five years.
After months of online searching and weeks of hitting the stores, I was beginning to wonder if I was asking too much. A couple of friends suggested I look in Columbia since I had tried nearly every store in Charlotte. Since I wasn't really interested in a two-hour ride to High Point, I figured it was worth a shot. After an entire day of looking and finding many beautiful pieces for other rooms, I was nearly resigned to settling for Pottery Barn (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it wasn't quite the experience I was hoping for). Just as we were beginning to head out of town, we stumbled across a furniture store we didn't know existed and lo and behold, I found what I was looking for. It helped that the sales person was an actual designer and understood what I wanted and why.
I fell in love with the chair in the top picture on sight ~ I love the clean lines and the overall modern look with a hint of vintage. (Please excuse all the photos; I took them with my phone.) The chair also happened to be incredibly comfortable. I mean, really comfortable ~ my friends couldn't get over how great it was. Unfortunately, the great chair also came with a great big price tag (more than the couch). And I wanted two. Ugh. I could just hear the conversation with my fiancé in my head, if you know what I mean. But then the sales person told me they were having a special sale and the chair was 50 percent off in certain fabrics ~ your choices narrowed from about 300 fabrics to 100. Since the fabric I wanted was included in the bunch ~ that lovely gray in the second photo ~ I ordered two chairs. I was so thrilled I was ready to skip around the store. The chairs will look wonderful grouped together with a little round table under the big window in my living room.
And now it is on to the sofa, which I actually found before the chair. I'm not really sure that sharing the photo below is going to tell you much because while it is the same style sofa, I ordered it with two cushions instead of three, no rivets (you can see them on the trim of the arms) and turned legs instead of the straight ones. I also ordered it in a different fabric ~ a color called natural, with a slight texture to it to help with wear. And the type of wood on the legs is going to be different. So, again, it's my sofa but not. And it was on sale, too.

I also found a couple of other pieces for the living room that I'll show you later. If you're wondering where all this furniture is going to go, my living room is pretty large.
Now I just have to find a sideboard and china cabinet for the dining room, a small sectional for the TV room, rugs for the living room and TV room (and maybe the dining room) and... well, you get the idea.

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully