Arrival of the Long-Awaited Leather Couch (and Rug)

 So it turns out I have less time, less energy or less of both for blogging than I used to, but some events are too noteworthy to skip. I found Cococo on a Google image search for "rolled arm brown leather couch" after looking at literally every website I knew of that sold furniture and not finding just the right thing. They're based on North Carolina and I'd never heard of them before that random search.

I spent months agonizing over a pile of swatches, examining sample pictures on the website, sending pesky, detailed emails with miles of questions and boring Todd with my long monologues on the pros and cons of various leathers. Then back in December last year, I finally placed an order for a semi-custom rolled-arm leather couch from Cococo Home. One of the things I loved about this company was that they send a leather cutting from the actual hide that's going to be used on the couch, which was great because "leather is a natural product...variations...blah blah."

Unfortunately, my swatch (Moore & Giles Bristol Molassas) was backordered until February. Then April. Finally, the swatch came, I confirmed that yes, it was gorgeous, please upholster my couch immediately. The international foam shortage (of course) only held us up a week or two, and I got confirmation at the end of May that it was ready to ship. 

I settled in for the expected three-week wait while it made its way across the country. And waited. And kept waiting. The projected delivery date went by and I called the shipping company to find out WTF! When is my couch going to be here!? (My patience at this point may have been dwindling a little.) Long story...long... the shortage of truckers (again, of course) held up delivery until magically, two weeks ago, I got The Call. Delivery was scheduled for the following Monday and now it's here and it's literally everything I had been hoping for (other than being really hard photograph because of the windows, which still don't have curtains,which is a story for another time.)

It is AMAZING. The cushions are the perfect balance of firm and comfy, which was a relief, because I never did a sit-test on this before buying. Just asked a lot of annoying questions about foam compression and weight. The stitching is so meticulously done, the leather is all the adjectives you usually see describing nice leather, it made our downstairs smell leathery...it's just glorious. I loved everything about the experience, other than having to wait for seven months to get it. 

I taped off the space for the bonus room sectional last night, to confirm dimensions, and will be ordering that from Cococo in August. After ordering this couch from them, I can't really imagine getting a piece of furniture like this from anywhere else. The quality of it is worlds away from all the other millions of couches I've looked at. (Oh, and if we need replacement cushions years down the road, they have a program for that, so you get exactly the same cushions in the right size. Yay!)

So lastly, the rug is new too (the customer service on that site was great, too. They pricematched for me and were really pleasant to deal with). It came maybe end of January, and I used some of the carpet padding I'd squirreled away since we swapped out the carpet in the hallway upstairs last summer. So that worked perfectly. The rug is wool, which I was happy to discover a few weeks ago didn't stain after Baxter barfed on it (all of the downstairs is LVP except for 9x12 feet of rug, and he chooses to puke on the edge of the rug. Dogs...) It's not exactly super soft to lie on, a little bristly, but it's comfy to walk on and looks great. And for a dark rug, it hides light dog fur pretty well. The lamps are new too, though probably temporary. I just needed to not have the same spray-painted antique brass ones I'd had for 10 years, so these are a good interim solution. 

So... that's some of what's new. Next projects are hanging the (motorized!!) shades and curtains for the family room/dining area that should be coming soon and putting up a shelf in the garage that will let me get rid of another freestanding and space-hogging shelf. We had a super-successful garage sale two weekends ago and our garage is transformed. Just a little more to do, and it'll be the cavernous space we originally intended it to be.