I have lived in the same studio apartment for a little over five years now and looking around, there is only a scant amount of furniture in it that I have bought myself. Out of that scant is only one piece that I actually love; the rest was all given to me by various people, trying to “fill up” my apartment. The same goes for just about everything in my apartment aside from my clothes, shoes and books. In fact, the only thing that I had bought for my apartment over the years was my glassware from Pier1, which to this day I still love. A few months ago, I treated myself to a new dinnerware set, but we’ll save that for another time. Today, I was on a quest to find the perfect couch, or rather, loveseat because I feel that a couch might be too big to fit into my place despite the roominess of it. I don’t know about you, but I am an avid online shopper. From the second that I discovered online shopping, I was hooked. Its the easiest way to shop. You can spend the same amount of hours shopping from the comfort of your own home that you would by physically going to a store. So naturally, this week, when I decided that I was going to make the investment into buying a loveseat, the first thing that I did was go online. Me, being the incredibly picky person that I am found a lot of stuff that I just wasn’t interested in. They were either the wrong shape or color. It is hard to actually know what the color of the fabric will look like when it’s in your own home or if the loveseat is even comfortable.

I obsessedly badgered my mother via multiple ways of communication this morning (i.e. Texting, messaging and phone), even got her to surf the web a bit with some of my qualifications in mind and it was only after that, that I listened to her words of wisdom. The only way to really go loveseat shopping is to do it in person. And of course, she was right. It really isn’t possible to know if you will truly be satisfied unless you go in person. After being cooped up in the house yesterday, due to drenching rain, this morning I started my day off early. I got up, showered, made breakfast, did laundry and then ventured out into the beautiful crisp sunny day to set off on my quest.

I found myself walking into Bob’s in hopes that they would have something I wanted and a decent price tag. Upon walking into the store I was greeted by a salesman, who although seemed very nice, was a bit over-the-top. Immediately, I wished that I had brought someone with me.

Although they had many different loveseats to choose from, I was looking for something specific and nothing quite jumped out at me…at first. Then, something did. It was the wrong color, a grain-y beige fabric with, I want to say, dark honey wood legs, but it was really comfortable, so I kept it in mind. Then, upon my hundredth walk around the store, because I firmly believe that you have to constantly walk away from something before deciding on your purchase, I happened upon another piece. This one reminded me of a friend’s that I loved. The cushions were a taupe paisley and the wood trim was a sort of mahogany. After carefully considering it for a bit I realized that I actually liked the couch and oversized chair better than the loveseat, so I walked away from this one too.

I was almost about to give up when I came upon two very different, leather loveseats. I had been staying away from leather because I feel that it’s hard to snuggle into on a chilly winter night, but I was suddenly drawn to these two pieces that it seemed like I had to give them a chance. The first one was chocolate leather, really soft, the arms were high and curved out, there was a wood trim that boasted multiple shades (darker on the outside and lighter in the middle). This loveseat had an old world feel; something that could easily be found in a Long Island home or in a posh Upper East Side apartment. Classic. The second one was black leather, not as soft (I later learned that the first was actually bonded leather, which means not much leather at all whereas this one was actual leather), the arms were shorter and nothing to brag about and there wasn’t any wood trim. What I did like about this loveseat though was that it felt roomier, though in actuality, it was smaller. I sat on one and then the other and back to the first one, back-and-forth and back-and-forth.

I could tell that the salesman was getting impatient with me, but to be fair, I had told him from the beginning that it would take me a while to make a decision and that I was extremely picky…he must not have thoroughly believed me until now. I took pictures of both of them; sent them to a few people, spoke on the phone. There was in fact no consensus. Half of my “consultants” preferred one and half the other. So, I decided to do my walk around again…I walked the full length of the store and back, and upon my arrival I had fallen in love with the chocolate one.