Furniture Mayhem may have just begun...
Nov. 22nd, 2006 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivanLast 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,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 12:44 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 10:47 pm (UTC)I have been having fun decorating my place, too, though $600 lingerie chests are out of range.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 01:03 pm (UTC)