Bookworm Cottage Style

What is the most difficult furniture purchase to make for a home and why is it a sofa? In this post-pandemic economy, even IKEA couches run up into 4 figures, and no sofa — not even the outrageously expensive ones — actually have overwhelmingly positive reviews once you start digging around online.

I have been dreaming of upgrading our sofa for YEARS. Now that we are homeowners and know what dimensions we’re working with in our living space, the day has finally come.

I knew I wanted 5 things:

1. Navy velvet fabric. My first sofa was a navy velvet futon from Walmart and I loved styling it. It’s been roughly a decade since that first purchase and I still haven’t tired from the look. The fun colored throw pillows that I gravitate towards look so fun against a navy backdrop.
2. Deep seat cushions. I love sitting cross legged on the couch with a good book or stretching out to watch a movie with family and friends, but the dimensions of our previous sofa made that difficult to achieve. Our living room is small (12’9’’ x 13’8’’) with low ceilings (7’6’’) and minimal natural light, so I also really wanted to lean into the coziness factor with something extra plush and inviting. 
3. Chaise sectional layout. We have a small house without a lot of options for lounging. If people are coming over, they’re going to be either at the kitchen table/counter or on the sofa — that’s really the only seating we have to offer. The chaise sectional gives the extra seating space of a sectional but without the visual clutter of a sofa back breaking up the open floor plan. I still don’t understand how this little extra bump out doubles the cost but given our layout, this felt important enough to budget for.
4. A long (~130”) length. In my experience, people nearly always gravitate towards a couch over a chair, so ideally I would find one very long sofa that takes up most of the length of the room, rather than doing a sofa + chair configuration. Plus, a sofa + chair configuration would leave dead space between the two seating options, where a large sofa would maximize the seating capacity. Unfortunately this also dials up the cost.
5. Quality construction. I suppose that quality is subjective, but I really do not want to be buying a new sofa every couple of years. I’d rather invest now in something durable and comfortable with a performance fabric.

Sofas I considered:

• Ludlow Chaise Sectional from Maiden Home. Designer Erin Gates raves about Maiden Home as a great direct-to-consumer upholstery option, but the length of the couch was smaller than I wanted for such a steep price, and reviews on external sites like Reddit appear to be mixed. This was definitely a top contender, though!
• PB Carlisle English Arm Upholstered Sofa Chaise Sectional & the PB Theo Upholstered Sofa Chaise Sectional. I absolutely loved the look of these, but these styles didn’t have a deep seat option, and the navy velvet fabric option seems to have been discontinued. Unlike Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn does not post reviews of their products, so it was difficult to feel comfortable investing so much money in something that I wasn’t sure if other buyers had a good experience with it or not. Additionally, I tried ordering fabric samples from PB 3 separate times (including after chatting with a customer service rep) and they never arrived, which made me nervous about going with them for such a big purchase. 
• Sven Sectional from Article & the Sloan 4-Seat Chaise Sectional from Interior Define . These are attractive couches and the price was right, but ultimately I felt like Crate & Barrel was a safer bet in terms of quality construction. 
• C&B Pacific Chaise Sectional Sofa & the C&B Monahan Chaise Sectional Sofa: I really liked the look of both of these sofas, but these styles seemed to be more prone to losing their shape according to reviewers, and they were poorly reviewed compared with other C&B styles.
• C&B Gather Deep Seat Double Chaise Sectional Sofa: This was the couch that checked all of the requirements above, and it was very well-reviewed on the C&B site. There are lots of configurations available, so I ended up being able to get a sofa in the exact dimensions I was hoping for (a whopping 130” long with a deep 40’’ seat). I also like that we got to sit on the couch in person before committing. While I’m personally drawn to more formal, English inspired sofa styles, rather than boxy modern ones, the boxy modern cushions seem to be well designed to hold their shape, thus helping with the longevity of the piece.

Customizing the C&B Gather:

There were 3 navy velvet fabric options: Kent in Admiral, Como in Navy, and View Microfiber in Navy. The Como wasn’t a performance fabric and it added an extra thousand dollars or so to the already expensive price tag, so that was an easy one to omit. I loved the feel of the Kent Fabric in Admiral, but it was so dark that it looked black from some angles. Microfiber sofas have a distinct look that I’m not always a fan of, but the sales associate really talked up the View fabric as incredibly durable and my husband and I both really like the color so we decided to go for it.

Because we went with a custom fabric and configuration, it took a couple of months to be delivered. Upon delivery, there was a defect with the sofa (discoloration on some of the fabric). The discoloration was not in a super visible spot so I honestly felt a bit nitpicky asking for a replacement, but on the other hand this is sofa was a HUGE splurge and we want to keep it for a long time. C&B was completely understanding and the delivery people were helpful in sending in the necessary photos and documentation. C&B let us keep the discolored sofa until a replacement version was made, and then they seamlessly swapped them out for us when they delivered the replacement. It made our wait time a little longer but honestly was overall a very smooth process with good customer service. A happy outcome, for sure!

In all of my sofa research I kept wanting to see detailed reviews and photos from real people – why they chose it, why they chose their fabric, and how it seemed to be holding up. We haven’t our sofa for too long, but already we are loving it! It is SO comfy and inviting, the cushions resist sagging much better than our previous sofa, and the fabric seems to be pretty durable. (We do vacuum it often as lint shows up on dark microfiber.)

For those of you in the thick of sofa shopping, hopefully today’s post was helpful!