This is the timeline of our family couch history, in a nutshell:
- 1995 or ’96: Mark’s Swedish “park bench style” bachelor couch was traded in for one we bought together at The Bay.
- April 2005: our family won a huge contest hosted by the Ottawa Citizen. The prize: a complete overhaul of our living room. Our couch was taken away, reshaped and reupholstered by Da Silva Upholstering. So, basically, we got a whole new couch. Awesome.
- 2012: we completely renovated our house and spent the next three years (THREE.YEARS.) looking for a new couch. (If you’d like to see what our old couch looked like, go to the end of the video in this post.)
Mind you, it wasn’t three years of hard core searching, but when we had the opportunity, we looked. I was chiefly the reason for the delay, I admit it. I had a vision and I was not going to be deterred and buy something just because. After all, why rush such a big decision?
1. I wanted a couch that fit the space properly. Ages ago, former Fishbowl patron Nicole from Solace Interiors gave us the exact dimensions we needed, so that’s what I kept in mind while I shopped because I didn’t want to overwhelm the space.
2. I wanted a sectional with a chaise on the far side next to the window so the four of us can sit comfortably together.
3. I’ve seen some glorious statement couches, in all kinds of colours: red, orange, blue, purple. As much as I love them I knew deep in my heart that it didn’t make sense for us. The craziest we’re ever going to get is grey or brown with colourful throw pillows.
4. The fabric had to be cozy, not scratchy, and dog-proof. And the couch itself had to be comfortable to sit on. Obv.
5. The design of the couch had to be neat, but not prissy. Comfortable, but not sloppy.*
6. I wanted something that was well-constructed because I NEVER WANTED TO SHOP FOR ANOTHER COUCH EVER AGAIN.
7. In a perfect world, it would be Canadian-made.
* This vague-sounding missive drove Mark a little crazy, but I was sticking to my guns on this.
Are you familiar with Mikaza Home? That was where I (finally!) found the Porter couch, made by a Montreal-based company called G Romano. I poked my head into the Mikaza showroom after work one day to check it out for myself. Unfortunately they didn’t have the exact Porter model on the floor, just a regular model, sans chaise. It looked promising, as it certainly delivered on points 1 thru 7, including #5, which was clear only to me. The thing I liked about the Porter was that it had a solid, tufted back – which gave it a more tidy appearance in my books – and didn’t have back cushions, which are known to get slouchy and misshapen.
Fast forward a couple of weeks. Mark came to Mikaza to see it with me, and gave his assent. We chose a fabric, ordered it, and waited 10 weeks for delivery. (Confession, I went back in there at some point before it was delivered because I could not remember what colour we’d chosen. Can you believe it?)
I was home alone when it was finally delivered, at which point I had a wee panic attack. For a moment, well, several long moments strung together, it looked like it was too large. But then we moved everything into place and it was fine. Phew.
So here we are today, with a new couch! Ta da! (Piper always insists on being in the picture. And my “crazy” cushions are from HomeSense by the way.) The carpet is from that Citizen contest in 2005.
So far, it’s been wonderful. We opted for seat cushions that are made out of feather and foam, and although the fabric stretched over them isn’t as tight as it would be over a 100% foam cushion (see the little wrinkles in the picture?) they are very comfortable without being overly mushy or soft. The size couldn’t be better (thanks Nicole!) and it seats the four of us very well. In fact, we quickly realized that two people can cuddle up nicely on the chaise. As a bonus, Piper is quite happy to have a better view of the backyard.
All in all, I’d say it was worth the wait. :)
