The sofa in there is an obnoxiously loud floral print that I bought secondhand for $250 a few years ago. It goes surprisingly well with the paint and drapes but again, not what I would have chosen were I buying new. It also has a weird smell to it that I haven't been able to get out - kind of musty and old. I'm the only one who seems bothered by the smell though - no one else in my house seems to smell it. Oh, and it's also a bit too long (88" or so) for the space - it's sitting between two doorways and I've had to use the world's skinniest end tables on either end in order to fit it. A slightly less long sofa would be more ideal. It is darn comfy though, and hides the cat hair well, and I don't mind if the kids eat on it or whatever since I know it's only temporary.

OK, so I'm browsing craiglist and come across a sofa. The dimensions are better for the space (78" long) though it's shorter in height than my current sofa, which means that the big-honkin-mirror over the sofa will need to be lowered (leaving big holes in the wall, probably). It's from Lee Industries (a good mfr...probably exactly who I would choose a sofa from if I had the money to go get one at the store). It's at a secondhand furniture dealer and they want $400 for it. The same sofa new would be over $2000 (I called the furniture store to check). The fabric on most of the sofa is a nice neutral beige - a color I could live with - but the seat cushions are upholstered in a linen floral that doesn't match the room at all.

So now I'm wondering what to do...in 5-6 years when the kids are older and I've gone back to work, I'll probably have the money to go out and furnish the room properly with real furniture from a furniture store (as opposed to the Salvation Army or CL). When this happens, I'll probably end up getting a sofa very similar to the current CL offering (although I suppose I might also decide to go with two loveseats or 4 chairs or something).

So my question is should I just live with what I have (the slightly-stinky slightly-too-big obnoxiously-loud-but-matches-the-room floral) until I can buy "real furniture". Or should I upgrade to the good-manufacturer mostly-neutral-with-hideous-seat-cushions-that-don't-match-the-room sofa that might be worth reupholstering when the time comes instead of getting a new sofa)?

Here's an old pic of my current sofa that shows the room color, drapes, and armchairs though the ottomans are gone and now there's a rug. The yellow chair in the background has been recovered to a reddish print that matches the curtains):

and here's a pic showing the rug - it's kind of "blinding" next to the sofa, LOL!

And here's the CL offering:

Those are just my thoughts on the matter. :)

Have you got an idea of how much it would cost to reupholster the whole thing? Less than $1600, I bet. But check it out and make sure the frame's in good shape first.

PLUS -- if necessary -- you could have the cushions recovered in a fabric (like a thin stripe) that WOULD work with the curtains etc. And then add a couple of plain reddish velvet small cushions to it (or the two chairs) to pick up on the strong claret color.

Jan

I'm with wooderlander, there's nothing wrong with the one you have now except you don't love it. If you don't love the CL one, wait until you can buy what you do love. I wouldn't buy a sofa just so I can glance in a room as I walk by it and it's still just ok.

I'd spend the $200 somewhere else.

For the smell, have you taken the covers off and had them dry cleaned? (I'm assuming the covers come off the cusions!). The odor may be in the foam cushions so replacing the foam may solve the odor problem.

Sorry to send this is a non decorating, purely practical direction, but I think marti8a hit the nail on the head in a couple of ways.

At some point in the not so distant future, your home dynamics will change and you may have completely different needs for that room than you envision now. To me, (BIG qualifier there) it seems extravagent to spend $ only to create another almost but not quite scenario that is equally as temporary as what you have now.

Not to impose my sensibilities about US and world issues, but my instincts at this point are to fall back and regroup, learn the lessons of my parents and grandparents regarding make it do, use it up, wear it out. And above all else, I want to get creative with what I already have or can easily obtain, spend less, enjoy the process more. I wish my parents were still here to share the stories of their early marriage and silk purse/sow's ear lessons from the late depression and war years. They managed to not only make do but to thrive. I hope I have half the ingenuity.

Of course not everyone is feeling pinched and they can/will continue to spend at will - God bless 'em! But the ripples are continuing to spread outward across the country and the world so more and more of us will be making adjustments.

Again, sorry for the major detour - more like a derailment! For some reason this struck a nerve. Gotta turn the radio off ;-)

I also appreciate dlm2000's points. This is something I've been thinking of lately -- even as I continue to buy things I don't truly need. Even if they do come from Craig's List and they were bargains, did I truly need these things? Not really - but having them has made my life more enjoyable, so ... And that brings up another thought, which is the notion expressed in the OP's post that "real furniture" comes new from a furniture store, not secondhand from CL, Salvation Army, etc. I think that more and more of us who enjoy the thrill of decorating are going to be bringing "castoffs" into our homes instead of paying (often over-inflated) retail prices. I think we need to move beyond seeing that as a negative thing in any way, shape or form. It's a viable option that just makes sense in these difficult economic times that many of us are experiencing right now.

Sorry ... hope this wasn't too much of a highjack!

As kids become teens they enjoy having more space of their own so I can see this room getting a lot more use in the years to come--either it will be the parent hang out with the kids in the other room or vica versa.

$400 is still a lot to spend for a couch you are not in love with and would need to spend more money to make it work. As for end tables, have you considered some nesting ones? You could keep one set to one side and pull out the extra tables when needed.

It's not like the room is NEVER used. In fact, lately I've been going in there with my daughter to do homework (it's quiet in there) and since I'm taking a class, I've been doing my reading in there too. And (I'm surprised more people aren't grossed out by this) it's really bugging me to sit on the sofa and smell that weird smell. I've tried having the sofa cleaned but it didn't help -- I think it must have been sitting in someone's wet musty basement for too long and part of my shudders to think what might be growing in the cushions (although it looks clean and fine).

The other point I wanted to address was about the "real furniture." Believe me, I love thrift store and Craigslist shopping as much as the next person (I was doing it LONG before it became a trendy socially acceptable thing to do). But I'm getting to the point of my life where I want a room with furniture that I designed and chose because I LIKED it, not because it happened to be what was available at the local SA or on craigslist. My entire house is decorated with ebay, thrift, garage sale, CL, and inherited furniture (there's maybe 4 or 5 things we bought new, that's IT, and all of those are at least 10 years old). While I think I've done a pretty decent job of making the best out of it, ultimately, a lot of it is "almost" my taste or "good enough for now" or "it was cheap so I don't care if the kids wreck it" furniture. At some point, I really want to have something I picked out from scratch because I liked it, and not just because I stumbled across it cheap at someone's garage sale and thought it would work for what I needed. If that makes me a wasteful, extravagant, planet-hating person, then so be it. After 20 years of furnishing with other people's castoffs, I feel entitled to dream of having something that I actually picked out for once.

I actually like this CL one you are considering but there would be the domino effect of then wanting to change the rug/curtains/chair/ect. It looks like a nice sofa and you can make it work in this room.

Do you really need a couch there right now? Alternatively I could see this room as a nice reading room with the comfy armchairs and a nice bookcase.

Since that's the case, I'd go with the CL sofa (agreed w/other posters about trying to bargain the price down a bit, but Lee is an excellent brand). It'd be very easy to have new covers made for those two cushions, and much less expensive than doing a whole-sofa cover for the one you already have. Actually, I think it's a terrific find, and I wish Lee furniture showed up on my own local CL...

Alternatively, I wonder whether the cost of furniture is about to come way down in a big hurry, if the stock market goes on the way it has been. Is it possible that within a few months, you'd be able to afford your Platonic ideal of a sofa? (:

As for the fact that your floral sofa is stinky, well I take back what I said about slipcovers, as that's not gonna cover up the odor. If the smell can't be eradicated, I'd definitely replace the sofa. Living with "castoffs" is one thing, but nobody likes to live with stinky stuff. ;-)

I actually like the CL couch very much - especially the print on the cushions! The lines of the couch are different than your other furniture but maybe that's not a bad thing?

One thing I'd definitely do is get rid of the existing couch if it smells. That would really bother me and is one reason why, although I purchased most of my wood furniture on CL, I don't shop for used upholstered furniture. You never know what happened on those cushions! Call me extravagant, but my couches and cushioned chairs have to be direct from the factory :)

For the smell, I echo fabreeze. DBF bought a mattress second hand that positively reeked of cigarette smoke - the person must have smoked in bed. We thought it would have to go to the landfill, but we tried fabreeze and it took two treatments, but the smell is gone.

Assuming you use the CL sofa for 4 years and then put it out in the street to throw away the day your kids go off to college, the $400 spread over the minimum time you will own the sofa is $100 a year or 27 cents a day.

I like the shape of your chintz sofa and it's sort of English Country House with the oriental rug. More florals, not less, in the way of pictures and throw pillow would make it look less like a giant intruder, smothered in flowers.