Last weekend was no fun! We spent the entire weekend furniture and carpet shopping. Both of which are on our not-favorite list of things to do. But we had lived with the same sofa and carpet for 14 years, and they are both desperate for retirement.

On Saturday, we dragged ourselves through various furniture stores. We walked upstairs, downstairs, paraded by numerous designer showrooms, and nothing caught our fancy. No sofas even had the appeal to slow down our pace. No salesperson bothered us with offers of help, because they all knew better than to waste time with customers that lacked an obvious buying signal.

Late that afternoon, we ended up at a furniture store that makes custom design sofas. The owner was a very nice man, and he spent over an hour with us, helping educate us to learn that he can make a couch to our exact liking. The size, shape, firmness, and the fabric. After going through 3 large binders of their fabric samples, we left his store feeling good about having the perfect new couch.

On Sunday, we went carpet shopping. This was even less fun than furniture shopping. The large showroom at the carpet store was headache-inducing. We had a hard time picking out a color. We were much too focused on getting the right color, as our salesperson busied himself with attempt to sell us on the quality and brand of his carpets. Finally he let us take 3 color samples to fuss over at home, and we scheduled for one of his guys to come over and take measurements.

We contemplated a great deal more at home, finalizing on the exact design and size of our sofa, and putting the 3 carpet samples under different lighting and sunlight to compare our feelings for them.

I am happy to report that we have reached a decision. And then it hit me…

We want our new sofa to look just like our old sofa, and we want our new carpet to look just like our old carpet!!!

Our old but beautiful blue sofa

Looking for the closest match to our old carpet