A NEW COUCH AT LONG LAST!!!! And more information than you could ever want to know about it

Specifically, it’s an L-couch with a CHAISE, and it’s a beautifully made piece– very very nice bones and upholstery, like a real true big-person couch, but for $525! Which split with my boyfriend was $250 each!!! It was from Miss Pixies– an indoor flea market of sorts in DC, where they buy nice pieces at auction. I wonder what the previous owners were like. I believe it was a very expensive, very nice couch, probably like 2K.  It’s absolutely beautiful in person, the lines and body.

My boyfriend and I have been searching for the perfect couch for our space for over seven months. When we moved in, we were far too poor to afford anything but Ikea. He was at a different job and had taken a massive paycut, and the cost of moving is always so expensive. We just could not DO anything but Ikea, it wasn’t an option.

Since then, we kept trying to find the perfect piece that was $500 or under, which is quite frankly extremely difficult to do. Couches, even the smallest ones are extremely expensive! A tiny loveseat that isn’t comfortable to recline on and doesn’t accommodate houseguests and just isn’t comfortable period, can be $450 upwards! Comfort is a key factor, because it’s inane to spend a dollar on a couch that discourages it’s very purpose– BEING SAT ON. We are very very very living-room centric people. We value TV and movies. Snuggling up on the couch after work, with whiskey for him and chocolate milk for me, enriching our lives with the genius of Seinfeld (reigns supreme), Mad Men, The Killing, South Park, Family Guy, etc. As I type this very post, my boyfriend is reclined with the Celtics play-off game on.

On top of being restricted by money and needing solid quality comfort, I’ve never been a person who likes the idea of getting upholstery from a thrift store, Craigslist, or outdoor flea market. Well first off, there’s the fact that I’ve never legitimately found a nicely-kept upholstered piece I WANTED at any of those places. To me, the selection is always really shabby and shitty. Dirty, gross reject pieces that don’t have good bones and are just kind of nasty. Like I’ve legitimately never once desired to walk away with a piece of upholstery from a flea market or thrift store. I’m sure there are real gems out there, but I’ve never seen one because I feel that the good pieces don’t end up at a flea market. They get auctioned. OK, maybe at the really incredible markets in New York and LA and Portland and such, but in DC you don’t find like…”your perfect dream couch” at Eastern Market. And honestly the shit there is laughably overpriced. I see crappy wooden side tables for like $850 at Eastern Market and I literally laugh inside. Not because $850 is beyond my price range for anything, which obviously it is, but because the sellers really crack me up with how absurd that is. Like, do you take me for some kind of idiot? Your wooden side table is a piece of shit. They think because it’s on Capitol Hill and it’s DC’s oldest market and has all this history and it’s near the homes of famous politicians and senators, that any chump will buy their loser wood or upholstery for ridiculous prices. I think Eastern Market is a joke. Sorry, DC. (Well, at LEAST in terms of furniture sellers. I have found some cool jewelry there. But not furniture).

Craigslist is a crapshoot too, and you don’t know the seller, and you don’t know if there’s nasty shit like bed bugs or god knows what.I don’t think I’ll ever go to a flea market and come home with a piece of upholstery….it’s too risky/sketchy!! Lord KNOWS where the pieces came from, they could have picked it up off the sidewalk of a dilapidated crack neighborhood. I also don’t believe in buying furniture online like on ebay. You need to SEE the piece in person to really understand it’s mass and visual impression and how it will look in your place. And, obviously, you need to sit on it. And also shipping large pieces of furniture such as a couch from anywhere but the city you live in is, in my personal opinion, idiotic. It’s like a $200 addition to the cost of the couch.

On the other hand, a place like Miss Pixies is a professional establishment basically run by interior designers. They’ve been buying pieces from auctions and estate sales for years, it’s literally their job to know what has value and then mark it up a bit in order to make a living. (Whereas I feel like flea market sellers will legit find an abandoned crack couch in an alley and try to sell it to hipsters for $400 at their flea market). The peeps at Miss Pixie’s know what to look for. They know when they see an item worth buying and attempting to sell at their store. And they have a brand to represent, so they’re not going to buy some ghetto piece of furniture from a sketchy place because that would just make them look bad. They’ve created a business that’s trustworthy and reputable so an upholstered piece there is legitimate. And beyond all of that, there’s just the rational common sense of…..your eyes. Trust me, you don’t have to know a thing about interior design, or upholstery, or couches, to know when you spot a good quality couch that’s in perfect condition.

There was hardly an ounce of wear to this thing, and it tickled my inner historian with delight imagining what it could have been like in its last home. I seriously see a rich person having it in their extra sun room that no one EVER went in or used and thus no one ever used the couch. It didn’t have a shed of trouble spots or stains or just…anything! The pillows are so full and thick and robust, there’s no depression/sinking. I was in SHOCK. I almost want to call the owners and beg them to tell me more details about the piece…..what state it came from first of all! I’m just fascinated with it.And it’s so comfortable and stately. It COMPLETELY transformed our living room. It’s the best design and money-spent decision we’ve ever made.

As more back story, we’ve been casually looking for the perfect piece at the perfect price point since October. Not super actively, more passively like….’we’ll know it when the opportunity comes.’ Basically the only two stores I would check or would buy upholstery from are Miss Pixie’s and GoodWood. (I chronicled a tragic experience about losing a couch from GoodWood because it was about 1 inch to big to fit through our door which you can read here). But I stop into these stores 3 times a week not even with the predetermined intent to look for a couch, just because they’re part of my life, and literally part of my social experience in DC. Like I get coffee, stroll through the neighborhood, and stop in  whenever I have nowhere to be, and then while I’m there, it’s a side-thought of seeing if maybe our dream couch happens to be chilling there. And clearly, for 8 months, it has not been.

But last Tuesday, the day had arrived. I was walking from my house to my friend’s house to catch up on the Bachelorette, and Miss Pixies is a happy part of the route. As I passed by, the couch was in the window and I died on the spot. I ducked in so fast, reclined on it, and freaked when she told me the price. I asked a bunch of questions, and she told me it had literally JUST come in….if you ever visit Miss Pixies, there is a big painted sign behind the cash register that kindly informs you “Tuesdays are the best day, we get all the week’s new inventory.” Like they had l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y just put the couch in the window when I walked by. She said “you are the first person to see or sit on this.”

[It has a subtle zebra print. But it's quite elegant and chic in person. It really, sadly does not photograph well. It looks significantly more wonderful in person.]

So, I texted my boyfriend a picture of the couch and called him to say……….’I think now is time. I think we have found our winner, and need to pull the trigger because this is a real catch.’ Like those stories you hear about. I knew we’d have to buy it that night or it would sell. But we were freaking out about dimensions. I asked the lady what the dimensions were like a thousand times (she was ready to kill me), and the problem was that the store would close before we’d be able to get back to the house and re-measure everything (just to be sure), and confidently be able to purchase the couch. Plus, Alex hadn’t even seen it in person.

Well…EVERYTHING about it was fate because first of all, I called the woman and she said  “we hold for 2 hours, and because it’s 6 and we’re closing at 7, that means I’ll hold it for you for one hour into opening tomorrow.” So first feat– I had it on hold overnight. But, Alex wouldn’t be able to leave work the next day just to go visit a stupid couch (the store wouldn’t open until 11 am, and anyways we share a car and I take it to work, so he would have had to take a cab from his job to the store). So…….. it’s pure chance that Miss Pixies happens to have FLOOR TO CEILING GLASS WINDOWS THAT STAY OPEN AT NIGHT, and that this couch was IN THE WINDOW and the LIGHTS STAY ON SO YOU CAN SEE…..(because Miss Pixies has a huge sales floor and a room in the back that frequently houses couches, so what if it had been back there? Or what if it was Goodwood, which closes up and turns off the lights so even if the couch was in the front window (which they never are because the space inside doesn’t allow for them to put couches at the front), they close the lights off so you can’t see anyways). SO WHAT THAT MEANS, GUYS, is that it hit me like a light bulb that Alex could meet me and see the couch!!! So ALEX MET ME IN FRONT OF THE STORE (it was 10 p.m.), and was able to SEE the couch!!

I honest to goodness wasn’t sure what his take would be, and he adored it, and so that next morning at 11 am we called back, and with a simple phone sale the bad boy was ours! And Alex told me they couldn’t deliver it until Saturday, at which I was devastated, but he was a sneaky little surpriser and it came that night!!!!! I hugged the upholstered cushions when they came. And then we spent our first night together on our amazing, grown-up, chaise-lounge couch.

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT! AND THOSE WHO WALK TO THEIR FRIENDS’ HOUSE TO WATCH THE BACHELORETTE, AND MISS PIXIES HAPPENS TO BE ON THE WAY TO THAT FRIEND’S HOUSE, AND IT HAPPENS TO BE TUESDAY, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE THE DAY THAT MISS PIXIE’S GETS THEIR NEW STUFF, AND IT HAPPENED TO BE IN THE FUCKING FRONT GLASS WINDOW, BECAUSE IF IT HADN’T HAVE BEEN, I WOULDN’T HAVE GONE IN TO THE STORE, BECAUSE LIKE I SAID, I ONLY STOP IN WHEN I HAVE THE TIME AND HAVE NOWHERE TO BE, BUT ON THAT NIGHT, I DID HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE, AND IT WAS MY FRIENDS HOUSE, SO NOWHERE IN THE PLAN WAS I GOING TO STOP INTO MISS PIXIE’S TO ‘HAVE A LOOK AROUND,’ BUT I HAPPEN TO HAVE SOMETHING ALL HUMANS HAVE CALLED PERIPHERAL VISION, SO AS I WALKED BY THE STORE, I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO SEE THE WHITE BEAUTY GLISTENING OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE, WHICH IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN IF IT HAD BEEN PLACED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE STORE OTHER THAN THE FRONT, AND THE STORE HAPPENED TO BE CLOSING SOON SO NO OTHER HUMAN WOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SNATCH THE COUCH UP FIRST, AND BECAUSE OF THE GLASS WINDOWS, ALEX WAS ABLE TO SEE IT DESPITE NOT GETTING OFF WORK UNTIL 10 P.M. THAT NIGHT, WHICH IS WHAT ENABLED US TO BE ABLE TO BUY IT, BECAUSE IF ALEX HADN’T BEEN ABLE TO SEE IT IN PERSON THAT NIGHT, HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE IT TO THE STORE UNTIL THE FOLLOWING NIGHT AFTER WORK, WHICH WOULD HAVE MEANT THAT THE NEXT MORNING THE STORE WOULD HAVE RELEASED THE HOLD AND IT WOULD HAVE SOLD. OF THAT I AM SURE.

This is what it looked like at first, naked of pillows:

Then I found these awesome black-and-white striped pillows from Ikea for $3.99 each that I felt added the perfect bold, graphic pop. {I’m pretty sure they’re meant to be outdoor pillows but IDGAF they look good}

We weren’t at first sure what to do with the Ikea couch, because it just felt/looks so dumpy compared to the chic, clean shape of the sectional….This is the way the living room was BEFORE the L-couch came:

Then we put those two bamboo director chairs in our bedroom, and obvi put the Ikea couch where they used to be against the window:

Despite being at first unsure, it just makes the living room so cozy and filled-in and gives us and our friends who come over such cozy-comfy seating. From movie marathons, to game days, to friends crashing, there is no point in NOT keeping the Ikea couch there despite it’s sad ugliness compared to the new kid on the block.

As a little history/comparison, this is the way the living room looked the day we moved in (!):

The window area/the whole place has just been BEGGING for a larger more impressive-looking piece of furniture to fill it. It looks so sad and lonely in comparison to the warmth it has now.

I’m so happy that it finnnnnalllly feels like a HOME!

The glass side table that sits perfectly between both couches was a buy from a couple weeks back that I’d been meaning to blog about. It was $95.00! Oh my god.

The weird thing was that this was one of those weird, very rare times that I actually do set out WITH A PURPOSE. I woke up that Saturday morning and said “today is the day I’m going to look for a round, glass, side table.” The reason being: we needed another arm-level surface for a table-top light and drinks, and EVERY SINGLE THING in the living room is/was square. Every single thing. And also we had white, masculine, leather, and mirrored surfaces but not one ounce of glass. In interior design you really need a mix of heights, shapes, and textures. You don’t want all your accent pieces to all be leather, or all be glass. I never expected to actually find the exact dream piece I didn’t even know I was looking for (meaning yes, I knew I was looking for a round glass table but I didn’t know I wanted the legs to be an amazing cool yellow steel), but for some reason it another fateful, lucky day…

I walked into Goodwood and within 1 minute spotted this table, and was worried to check the tag because I knew I loved it so much that I would buy it unless it was truly prohibitively expensive, like 400 dollars. AND IT WAS $95.

$95 DOLLARS.

A BEAUTIFUL, FUNKY, EDGY, AWESOME, ROUND GLASS SIDE TABLE THAT’S THE PERFECT HEIGHT, THE PERFECT SIZE, AND HAS A RUSTED, YELLOW STEEL, INDUSTRIAL-LOOKING BASE THAT ADDS THE PERFECT POP OF BRIGHT COLOR???? ARE YOU KIDDING??? I LOVE GOODWOOD!!! LOOK AT THE BASE! HOW COOL IS IT?!?!

This is what it looked like in the store:

$95 are you KIDDING ME??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anna (the owner, who I uncomfortably idolize), told me that it used to be hers and Dans! And then, that it used to be Scotty’s (one of the shopkeeps), so she said it was very Goodwood-loved.

Then, she helped me style the table top with super cheap AMAZING finds. The best parts by far are the outrageously fantastic brass table lamp- perfect shape, perfect height, perfect size, for $45.00, and the creepy/amazing blue crystalized jelly fish! It adds this perfect little dose of color and is just awesome.

And its new resting place (before the couch swap):

AND THE FINAL. END. PRODUCT!

I was looking at the space in person the other day, thinking, wow man, this looks like a million bucks, in a proud/humble way {haha you may mock that and disagree, but I am obviously very proud of and thrilled with the way of it looks}, and was just really taken aback (in a good way) at how you can pull something together with extremely inexpensive pieces. The brown ‘leather’ arm chair was from TJ Maxx and was free because my mom gave it to me (the woman lives at TJ Maxx and it’s the only place she can afford items); the little mirrored cube that has the hydrangeas on it and sits in front of the Ikea couch was a $20 clearance find at Pier 1 two years ago, the Ikea coffee table is $35, the throw pillows were $3.99, the framed picture above the couch was $11 clearance from West Elm over 3 years ago {I believe I will go to the grave with that being the singlehandedly most incredible purchase I’ve ever made, in terms of the insanely low price for what it was. I ordered it online back when I had no idea what West Elm even was, this was 2009, and I thought I was ordering an 8 1/2 by 11 framed print (like the size of computer paper). I didn’t look at the dimensions, I literally thought “oh it’s a cool $11-dollar desktop print”,  and it came in the mail in this giant cardbox box and my mind was B-L-O-W-N. Nothing has ever made less sense. It was a complete fluke because West Elm has good sales but not to the extent of a massive framed photograph– and it’s a really fucking COOL photograph too– being 11 dollars. The mailman delivered it and I opened it up and felt like I was on The Truman Show.); and of course you now know the story of the couch and the glass side table/lamp; any of the other lighting is Ikea and Home Goods (my Refinery 29 editor even gave me the pink Ikea lamp off to the very left so that was free), the modular TV stand is Ikea (and was my boyfriends before we met), and the big burlap pillows with the blue stripes I got with a discount when I worked at CB2. Like this was a straight up BUDDDGGGGGGGGGGETTTTTTTT operation, and I legitimately think it fools people, which is the goal of course.

Fhewwwwwwwwwwwwwww that was a long post. I think I’ve been writing for 5 hours. I’m not kidding. I’m pretty sure I’ve been writing this post since 5:30 p.m. today and it’s 10:30. Jesus. But I’m saving this post to publish tomorrow morning (aka this morning….aka…you’re reading it now, in the morning…. because that’s when I’m publishing it even though I’m writing it now, in the present tense, at 10 p.m….get it…???)

Hope you enjoyed it…!