Disclaimer: I understand that the topic of used furniture is a really sensitive one. Some people cannot fathom sitting on 'someone else's' stuff and some people are more germophobic. We are neither. This idea worked for us, but I definitately don't judge anyone who thinks we're nuts.
When I moved to Georgia from New York, I crammed all my belongings into a two-door Saturn and the only furniture I ever purchased in Atlanta was a futon. Needless to say, I didn't own ANY furniture. Brian was working with mostly hand-me-downs from his parents. When we moved into the house we were working with just about nothing. There was no way we were going to buy some crazy thousand dollar sofa on a credit card, so we just lived with what we had...which was this:
I know, I know - its not that bad. Somehow the combo of rustic plaid and green leather just got to me after a while. Once we got married, we knew that the house needed to reflect that fact that actual grown-ups lived there, which meant furniture that matched and wasn't older than we were.
Here begins the drama of furniture shopping: The hard part was actually agreeing on a style that we both liked. We knew we wanted a deeper couch that could accomodate two adults who might want to lay out and watch a movie once in a while. Every single new couch that we saw in the stores was upwards of $1000. That just wasn't feasble for us. I started to think that it might be best to stalk Craigslist for a while and find a used version of a really expensive couch that would satisfy our wishlist. I found several good options, but Brian was never sold on the style. Then along came these...
They were perfect and I fell in love the second I saw them. I even went to see the set by myself after work and then dragged Brian there the next day. Shockingly, he loved them too! And the most important part....we paid under $450 (cannot remember the exact price) for both pieces. They came from a very clean home and a very nice family. The women had them custom made two years ago, but they were moving furniture around and these no longer fit in their space.
When we got them home I deep-cleaned and vacuumed them and haven't looked back since. The way I look at it is, one day (in the not too distant future) we will have some kids running, jumping, eating and probably spitting up on these things and I just want to be able to not care if someone gets food on them or spills a drink.
Those are my closing arguments in the case of used furniture - hopefully I have convinced some of you to join me on the 'dark side' (insert corny evil laugh)...
p.s. Stayed tuned for the post on pillows!
p.p.s I just had to add this hilarious picture of our old couch and chair being hauled off by some serious rednecks. We ended up selling the two pieces on Craigslist and the couple that came to buy them were hilarious. First of all, their truck was waaaay too small and secondly, all they had to tie it down was a measly string. I sat in the guest room and watched them through the blinds before finally decided to take a photo. Check out how far the couch sticks out from the bed of the truck and how they just threw the recliner on top of the couch to 'weigh it down'!
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