Before:

I moved to from New York to Chicago just about exactly 5 years ago. It was February 29, 2004. I have lived in Chicago longer than I lived in New York or California. Didn’t see that coming when I left Wisconsin in 2000! Anyway, when I moved to Chicago I got a white hand-me-down couch from a friend of Nancy’s named Andy. It is an ok couch. Very comfortable. But white. And it got gross looking fast. And the pillows are so sloppy. And I began to hate that couch a bit. But it was free and Dallas and I agreed that we wouldn’t want to spend money on a new couch until we bought our own place. I should also add that the white chair is one I got at IKEA and the black chair is a hand-me-down IKEA chair that we got from Dallas’ cousin Miko.

Well, as you know now, we bought a place. Time to finally get a new couch! A few weeks ago Dallas and I rented a car for the weekend and drove up to Wisconsin for my dad’s 60th birthday party. On the way back we drove down to Naperville. Auntie Laura had recommended the Carson Pirie Scott Furniture Outlet to us as a place to look for a new couch. She got a whole leather living room set there and it was really nice. When looking online before the trip I found out that there is also a Macy’s Furniture Clearance Center and an Crate & Barrel outlet within a block of the Carson’s outlet, so we hit them all up.

I think all outlet stores are hit and miss. We went to the Carson’s Outlet first and didn’t like anything there. We liked a few things at the Macy’s Outlet. There was a much bigger selection. We went to the Crate & Barrel outlet last. I was excited because I knew what Crate & Barrel furniture looked like and I knew it was really expensive normally. Unfortunately, the outlet had only a couple pieces of furniture and nothing that we were really looking for. So, back to Macy’s.

We ended up getting a large 3 piece sectional for about $1, 700. We were told that the full price at Macy’s is $4,000. So we paid less than half. Tip: If you want to buy something, have the sales associate pull the tags immediately or it might be gone if you go to look at something else. We had her pull the tags and then went to look at rugs.

We had no idea where to begin with area rugs. There were stacks and stacks. Luckily, the sales man was really really knowledgeable and friendly. He knew everything from how the rugs were manufactured, to how to care for them, to how to coordinate them with furniture. The good thing was that since the furniture we were buying was right there we could take rugs over and see them with the couch. We paid $400 for a 6×8 foot Karastan rug that retails at Macy’s for $1,600.

When the couch was first delivered last week I freaked out a little. I thought it was way too big. I’ve since gotten used to it and have realized that it’s just a lot bigger than our old furniture, but that doesn’t mean it’s too big for the room. I just wasn’t used to it. It’s really comfortable and looks great. Last week Jess and Alden were over and all four of us were a bit sprawled on the couch and no one was even touching. I bet you could fit at least 8 people on there. I’m happy with the purchase, which is good because the clearance centers don’t accept returns!

After:

Next up in the living room: 1. Find a new coffee table. 2. Clean up the mantel and move all the gaming systems downstairs in the den/rec room/family room/2nd living room (I don’t know what to call the downstairs space!).

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