Swedish Style Armless Couch
Searching for a couch on Craig's List can be pretty funny.
As I went further and further into the world of unwanted couches on Craig's List I discovered a few things:
a dictionary of online couch adjectives,
that there are A LOT of real shitty couches out there,
and some people are pretty weird.
I quickly discovered that the word 'cozy' was a bad word. 'Cozy' on Craig's List translates as "a faded pewter blue, crushed velour, over-stuffed, obese-like couch that your uncle probably still has in his basement after purchasing 15 years ago to play Nintendo on."
My other favorite word was 'contemporary' which translates as, "a couch previously custom ordered during the 90s while watching one too many Friends episodes in an attempt to make a suburban track house look more 'funky' or bring 'zest' to a loveless marriage via Pottery Barn's Choose your own fabric line.
And any couch that people hide with pillows, people and sometimes even cats is more than likely not going to resell for $600 either.
After a long search online I decided to go check out the couch in the photo above. Part of me was a bit worried that I might get murdered as I had to enter in two different codes that the seller gave me just to get into his condo. I called my boyfriend and left a message saying 'If I don't call back in 15 min. I may have been murdered."
That being said, I bravely went for it because I was having guests soon and I really needed a couch.
This guy I met selling the couch was very interesting. He had white hair like Steve Martin, but longer and weird like Willy Wonka. He wore flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt and spoke very softly. It seemed like he wanted to hang out more than sell his favorite couch. His wife was making him sell it and while he told me stories reminiscing about memories of the couch in his parents home since the 50s; I acted polite as I sized up the couch and tried to take in the fact that the color looked totally different in the photo. Over the phone I had asked if it was tweed fabric or plaid print and he didn't offer much info as he said he had never heard either of those words before. But he managed to talk to me for about 20 minutes giving me suggestions of how it could really tie a room together. Based on the photo I thought the couch was a mustard and olive color but in real life it was in fact a tweed plaid made up of mauve, rose, cream and baby blue.
Although I was kinda disappointed when I first saw the couch in all it's 'pastel-ness', I was still very attracted to the style and shape and the fact that I could pay him and easily get it on my roof racks and home that afternoon. I looked at the couch for a while and tried my best to envision it in my house with my other colors and furniture.
He was asking $110 but I offered $80 and we settled on $90 as long as I didn't have to rent a UHaul and could fit it on my roof racks safely. Together we got it out of the condo, into the elevator, down 3 stories and onto the roof racks of the Volvo with only four occasions of him loosing a flip flop off one of his feet. The best part is when he tried to 'help' me secure down the cinching straps with no clue of how they worked. When I inspected the one he worked on I discovered a clever sort of boy scout knot of nothingness that surely would have left my new couch on the freeway had I left without undoing and redoing what he'd done. I'm pretty sure I was carrying about 85% of the weight when 'we carried it together' but it only made it more likely that I would later be able to carry it by myself up three more flights of stairs when I brought it home. (which I remarkably did, instead of waiting 3 more hours for my boyfriend to get home)
All in all, I'm pretty happy with my Swedish Style Armless Couch even though it is pastel-ish. It looks a lot better in my place than in his and is comfortable not cozy.
And the best part is, I made it out alive!