A Trip to Art Van

So...I've been looking for a living room couch for a couple of years. We have a couch upstairs in the TV room, but I haven't had a couch in the living room since it was remodeled. We've been sitting on folding chairs, a glider rocker, and my Pier One bedroom chair. This will all soon change. Here is the story...I have wanted a brown leather couch for years, but when I was at World Market in March, I fell in like with a tan couch that had a chaise lounge on one end. I was slightly concerned that it might not be a quality furniture item, but was pretty set on it. We went to Lansing to buy it last Friday night and stayed at John & Danielles. On Saturday morning, Kevin wanted to eat at the Cracker Barrel, and I knew that there was an Art Van on that side of town, so I told him that we should check out couches and chairs at Art Van BEFORE we did anything at the World Market. Here is how I heard John describing the process to Carol after observing our shopping. "They walked in the store and sat down on one of the first couches near the door. Then they started shopping for matching chairs and never looked at another couch!" I didn't realize it at the time, but he was totally accurate. When we saw the couch, we didn't even look at another couch! We didn't even go back to the "Clearance Center" part of the store before purchasing our couch.


We did have some debates over the chair, since I wanted a modern roomy chair and Kevin demanded a rocker. I finally gave in to the "ugly" chair, because it means that he will continue to get up earlier than me in the morning to get the kids up and around for school. While they get ready, he sits in the living room and rocks in a chair. I did however insist that I could not tolerate the solid color chenile/velvety type fabric that comes on rockers. Fortunately, when you shop at a real furniture store, there are designers to help you, and for a small fee, I was able to select from any fabric that the particular chair company had for any of their furniture. You may not agree on my selection, but I think that it matches the couch well, accents our VERY burnt orange walls, and goes well with our house in the woods. The fabric swatch laying on the couch is what we're using for the chair.

Lastly, I purchased 5 throw pillows at World Market, the day before I switched couches. I wanted to lighten up the room with them, and bring in a few other colors while accenting the orange. I don't know if I can pull this off, so if any of you are great at decorating, fabrics, etc. (ie. Kara Tait, Carol, Danielle...), please let me know if I'm going too far! I know that none of these pillows can go on the chair, but 3-4 of them could be on the couch at a time (I think). Let me know your honest opinion!!!