Furniture Mayhem may have just begun...

[gerisullivan]

Last Saturday, I set off to commit Furniture Mayhem. I had a Plan. It involved moving and rearranging several pieces of furniture in my room, and in the main guest bedroom. My Plan also involved purchasing a very pretty and useful lingerie chest, though I recognized that if I found the perfect dresser, I would quite possibly purchase it instead of the lingerie chest I've been thinking about ever since I saw it a year or more ago. I also hoped to find a desk for the guest room, and a chair.

By the time I left the furniture store, I'd purchased the lingerie chest and a coffee table. I've been interested in the raised coffee tables for quite some time, but this is the first I've seen that I really like. I also left the store with an upholstery sample, and a commitment to return it Sunday. Looking at sofas wasn't completely out of the blue -- my beloved "sofa *and* a fax" was in poor shape when I moved it, and I've been casually looking at sofas longingly for a while now.

Right.

So, cutting to the chase, the delivery guys left about 3 hours ago. The new sofa is in place; the new coffee table is in place. Alas, they wouldn't move the old sofa down to the basement, even for an extra $20.

I got it as far as the dining room, then started measuring as I considered the possibility of moving it downstairs myself. Yes, sfrose will be here later tonight, and fringefaan arrives Sunday for the Great Science-Fiction Five-Yearly Production Marathon. The sofa can stand on end in the dining area for a few days. But if I could get it downstairs on my own, well, that'd be keen.

Oops. There's no way I can get it downstairs by myself. I may not be able to get it downstairs even with help. The handrail needs to come off at the very least. But even that might not do the trick. Time for Plan B.

Hmmm.

The basement space is such that I also don't know whether it will work to take the sofa outdoors, around the back, and in through the basement door. The prospect looks...grim.

Plan C

Walk around house with tape measure, looking for places the sofa could fit. Office, nope, not without a major space reconfiguration, and I don't need a sofa in my office anyway. Stuff'd just get stacked up on it here.

The Flamingo Loft looked like a distinct possibility -- it could use some real seating and slipcovers exist, though perhaps not in Flamingo Pink. And the stairway up from the garage is definitely wide enough.

Until you get to the top and need to make the turn. There it goes all narrow, and there's not much in the way of maneuvering room. The ceiling height is most of a foot shorter that the sofa, so the usual "stand it on end" trick won't work there. How did I know to measure the ceiling height, you ask? Y'see, there was this set of 8' darkroom cabinets with countertops.... With those, popping the counter then sawing the support beams did the trick. That won't work so well with an upholstered sofa.

Which is how I ended up back in the living room, contemplating how I might move bookshelves and such around there, to make space for two sofas. It certainly is a good thing that they would go together reasonably well. The one Walt Willis napped on is lushly patterned; the new one is bomber jacket brown leather. The differences in seat height might be visually disconcerting. You can bet I'll check that out before emptying those shelves....

I haven't given up on the basement. With help, it might squeeze through. I hope it does. I also hope we don't manhandle it all the way the stairs only to discover we can't angle it enough to turn through those doorways. That could all to easily lead to far more mayhem than I have the bandwidth for.

I'll let you know when the sofa has moved on. For now, it's standing on end in my eating area. Taking up rather a lot of space. Joy.

Comments

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the furniture rearranging. FWIW, you have excellent taste in furniture!

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I want that lingerie cabinet. Want, want, want. My god. How could any mere dresser compete with that?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I understand completely. I feel deeply enough into that want, want, want when I first saw it a year or more ago that it's been on my mind ever since. It swivels! I couldn't figure out a space for it in my bedroom until last Saturday, and I bought the very same day.

However, the space meant moving the dresser that used to be Jack's into the guest bedroom. I needed more dresser space; the lingerie chest has less. But the space the lingerie chest has is extraordinarily more function for the items I most use a dresser for: underwear, bras, and socks. Having slips and nylons where I can find them, but where they're not getting tangled up with other clothing is already a big win.

But a bigger dresser would have also have been a big win. If I'd found one that shouted "Want! Want! Want!" in much the same way that the lingerie chest still did, I might well have bought it instead.

I have a smaller, antique chest of drawers that served as my dresser for a decade and more before Jack moved his bedroom set from Pennsylvania, giving him a big dresser he liked and prompting him to part with the Salvation Army special he in turn gave me. I moved the small chest into my bedroom to accommodate the T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other items that wouldn't fit in the lingerie chest. It looks like that will work reasonably well, but if I can ever figure out how to have a full-sized dresser and mirror in the room as well as the lingerie chest, that would be golden, indeed. (The mirror on the chest is only full length for short people. The chest is only 56" tall and the mirror is a few inches shorter than that. Even with the tilt, in only reflects up to my chin.

The best part about committing furniture mayhem? Finding another "Want! Want! Want!" item in the coffee table. Though I at least knew lift tops on coffee tables existed when I asked to see the ones the store had. I didn't know about swivel lingerie chests until I was gobsmacked the first time I saw one.

Actually, the best part about committing furniture mayhem is how many home decorating problems it solved, greatly increasing comfort all around. Well, except for the sofa standing on end in the dining area. That's something of a problem. A temporary one, I hope.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

A mirror for short people... that sounds about ideal. :) Those ever go on sale?

I have been having fun decorating my place, too, though $600 lingerie chests are out of range.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's lovely!

I Love You Dearly, But...

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

...I'm glad that I'm nowhere near Wales right now. Or in the foreseeable future.

Re: I Love You Dearly, But...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Wot he said... ;-)

Re: I Love You Dearly, But...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

But if you and David were both here, I would have served you chocolate cabbage cake when you were done wrestling with the sofa. Unless you ended up throwing it in the swampy woods...I still like it (and my woods) too much for such a fate.

I think it's been longer since I've known you since I last made this cake. It's a showstopper, delicious, and easy enough for a non-baker like me to pull off. The tricky part so far this time around is that I ended up with much a much tighter, stiffer cabbage than I must have previously used. Getting the leaves off intact so I could use them for molding the chocolate leaves took perseverance. I didn't need to drape the leaves over rounded bowls to help keep the curved shape, no sir! Those leaves are stiff as stiff can be. Unmolding some of them should be interesting....

The cake came out well. All that's left is hollowing out the middle, splashing it with orange liquer, then filling it with mixed whipped cream and cake crumbs. After that comes the thick chocolate glaze, separating the cabbage from the chocolate leaves, and putting the whole thing together. Yum.

(I'll try to remember to take pictures. Including one of the sofa....)

Re: I Love You Dearly, But...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

WoW, sound nice!

Re: I Love You Dearly, But...

[sfrose.livejournal.com]

The cake is looking very yummy! I'm just sorry that I'm going south and won't see the final product. It definitely needs photos!

And for all who are wondering, there really is a sofa on its end in the dining room! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for having me over!

Re: I Love You Dearly, But...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Grin.

The first thought that jumped into my brain when I saw your comment was, "But then, he could take the sofa back to Minneapolis. It would look great in your house, and your doorways and stairwells are wide enough for it to pass through with ease pretty much any place you'd want to put it.

Then I was honest enough to think, "It would have looked great when it was new. Now, not so good.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Good luck. And I sympathize with Furniture Mayhem, as you'll know if you've been reading my last couple weeks' LJ entries. I'm lucky that I'm on the ground floor and don't have to deal with stairs.

[talyen.livejournal.com]

I love your mayhem. (:

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

If nothing else, make it festive and put some lights and tinsel on it!!
Hee!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Been there; done that. The first time, it was a stack of 4-5 Very Heavy Boxes of industrial carpet squares I eventually installed in my attic office. They were an eyesore in the living room during the holidays, so I applied gift wrap and turned them into a giant, intriguing present. I seem to remember they remained wrapped for several months....

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

Are you opposed to donating it to charity? That is how we got rid of Dave's old, really old, nasty couch. They took it away, no questions asked!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Our local charities will only take furniture in good shape. However, if you leave dead furniture on my friend Mark's loading dock (he owns a furniture store), it's gone in the morning. Doesn't matter what shape it's in. He's selling furniture really cheaply right now; he lost his lease at the warehouse, so they need to cut down fast.

[damascene.livejournal.com]

It's just as well that you've already measured the Flamingo Loft stairs, 'cause I know someone who knows how to make slipcovers, and flamingo fabric isn't that hard to find.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Oh. Mi. Ghod.

That would be too, too good! Enough to make it worth measuring again, emptying out the little corner near the door in case it would be provide some maneuvering space, and seeing if we can't make it work.

I adore the fabric on the sofa. The fabric that's fine except for the worn out cushions. (Voice instead head: I shoulda bought a second set of cushions when I ordered it. Remember this for next time. I haven't wanted to cover it, really. Not with any ordinary slipcover. But flamingos?! That would be too, too perfect!

[damascene.livejournal.com]

http://flamingowinds.com/fabric.html

http://www.interiormall.com/cat/display.asp?c1=Fabric&c2=Themes&c3=Animals

http://store.zarinfabrics.com/store/Sumbrella-S-Flamingo-P1673C0.aspx

http://www.decoratingfabric.com/catalog_items.cfm?PTypID=1&TypID=D20


I've sent email to J; will let you know whenever I hear back.

Heh.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Want! Want! Want!

The first link is awesome. So many possibilities. You rock. Thank you!

(The monkeys on the last link are good, too. But this is All About Flamingos.)

Step One: See if Randy and I can get the sofa into the loft.