At the beginning of the year my parents started looking for new living room furniture. They asked us if we wanted their old furniture. I say old, but it's not really that old at all. It's still in perfect shape! Normally we would have said YES right away, but Michael wanted to think about it. The thing is normal furniture sets just don't really work for our family and our living room. A sofa, loveseat and recliner will fit everyone, but then someone has to sit in the dreaded middle seat on the sofa that doesn't recline. Also the way our living room is situated the recliner has to be just to the right of the TV so you are so far over it's hard to see the TV for family movie nights. The other issue was my parents old furniture is powered and that's really not something that we wanted. The kids are terrible about putting down their footrest! I know they can learn and they will, but if they do happen to leave it up I like being able to go over and shut it with my foot. Also Michael makes enough money so we can be grown ups and buy our furniture for a change. :)
The furniture we currently have was given to us by my parents when I was pregnant with Ella! We had actually just found out that Michael had been laid off and it was a welcome gift. My parents had already had this furniture for 5 - 6 years prior to giving it to us.
For being at least 16 years old...it's really not that bad. Yes, the coloring has faded a lot in certain areas, the cushions are most definitely worn down and the mechanics have seen better days, but they've been good to us.
This is how the couch looks most of the time!
There is only one spot that is actually worn out. This is on the far right couch cushion. The seating area of the furniture is full grain leather, but the sides are vinyl so that's why this cracked and tore.
On January 23rd, Michael and I went on a date day to go check out furniture. We went to Mor Furniture, Ashley, Macy's and The Old Cannery. We only found 1 couch set that wasn't powered and it was microfiber! No such luck, but it was still fun to get out and be with just my hubby.
When I got home I started researching. Michael had already found out that they still sold the furniture we have right now albeit they are a bit of a newer design. Since we found the design name I was able to look it up and find it being sold at all sorts of places. A lot of them charged for shipping which cost a lot! They did sell them at Ashley on their website, but they were about $100 more than another online shop so I decided to get them from the other online retailer.
We decided the best thing for our family situation was to get 3 loveseats. It makes it so every person has their own recliner and since loveseats are smaller they will fit nicely in the living room. I made an online order with 1StopBedrooms.com.
While we were out we came across some other fun pieces. Michael thought it might be nice and grown up of us to actually have matching end tables and coffee table. We were specifically looking for pieces that had lots of storage for games, pillows and blankets.
This was at The Old Cannery and I love it. It's a huge piece of furniture, but I loved the white mixed with dark wood. Also all that storage underneath would be nice.
These end tables would have be nice to hid pillows in.
This black one was at Ashley, but I don't really like blank and brown together.
We loved this idea for the coffee table. Tons of storage for blankets!!! Although...again I don't like black and brown together.
The reason we wanted all this storage is because we don't really like our current blanket and pillow storage.
I love the blanket ladders, but they really aren't the most effective way to store all the blankets. In this picture they look all nice, but that's because I hung them up. The kids have a hard time hanging them nicely so most of the time they are pulled over a rung of the ladder or simply thrown into the corner. The pillows are actually stored in a Costco box behind the blank end table that you can barely see. It's just a bit messy and overwhelming to the eye.
I liked those pieces that we saw at The Old Cannery, but they were just SO big. I felt like the living room was going to be crowded enough with 3 loveseats I didn't want to basically have a whole wall of furniture for the TV. So I started looking around on Ashley's website. That's when I found a TV console I fell in love with and it had other pieces that would match. I decided to check on 1StopBedrooms.com and sure enough they had those other pieces as well. Almost every piece I wanted was cheaper with them and since I already made one order I thought it would be nicer to just deal with the same company instead of buying a bunch of furniture from different stores. So I went ahead and made another online order with them.
The next day I woke up and I felt funny...I hadn't slept good at all. I get like that sometimes when I spend a lot of money...buyers remorse! Michael and I talked about it and he said...yes it's a lot of money, but first off we received our stimulus so that helped, but also we live in our living room so it was going to be a good investment. That helped me relax and not worry about it so much.
Fast forward to Wednesday, January 27th...I got a text from 1StopBedrooms saying that I needed to confirm my billing/shipping address by calling the number listed. I called the number and got ahold of Douglas. He stated that the issue was with my zip code and the system had already corrected it. He did want to confirm my order though. He stated that we were getting 3 loveseats with one recliner in each. That's when I was like...huh??? Who has ever heard of a reclining loveseat where only one side reclines. He told me that's how these come. I was shocked and so happy that we caught this before they were made and delivered. I would have been so upset with myself if they'd arrived and we only had 3 reclining seats. I ask him if my order could be updated to include both seats reclining. He said sure, but that there would be an extra cost of $299 per loveseat. I was totally flustered at this point and told him to go ahead and update the order. He also told me about their warranty and how much it covered. It only cost $199 for all 3 pieces and it was good for 5 years. He also said if we didn't have a claim in 5 years they would give you the $199 back. I thought that sounded great so he added that coverage as well. I did have a time period where I could take the warranty off so I figured I would talk about it with Michael and if I needed to I could have them remove it.
Once I got off the phone with him, I still felt funny! I just couldn't imagine not paying attention to the fact that it was only a one sided recliner! I was specifically wanting a typical reclining loveseat. I went to the website and this is what I found.
Do you see the wording right under Description....
Dual-sided recliner
At this point I was unhappy! I trusted that the loveseats were made the way he said with only one side reclining, but I felt that the website was misleading. I called up Douglas again and told him my concerns. I said that they should probably have the website wording changed since it wouldn't most likely hold up in a legal proceeding since the word dual means two! He told me he'd look into it and put me on hold. When he came back on the line he said that he would be able to to take $50 off per loveseat because of the misunderstanding. I was still a bit peeved about it. I'm a stickler for verbiage and I know that how things are worded can make a big difference in a legal proceeding. He told me that I wasn't required to purchase furniture through their company and if I wanted to I could cancel the order. I told him that I really wanted the furniture, but I was just taken aback by this obviously false verbiage on their website. He told me that they would go ahead and throw in the warranty on all the other pieces we purchases as well. I felt good about that and thanked him for listening to me and helping get to a solution.
A while later I was still thinking about it and it just bugged me...seriously have you ever seen a reclining loveseat where only one side reclines?!?!? I decided to find the furniture on Ashley's website and see how they had it listed. Lo and behold it was listed as a dual-sided recliner. I got on the phone to call Ashley and while waiting I decided to try to start a chat online as well. Sometimes it can take forever to actually get through. The agent on chat named Jessica answered me first so I started talking with her. Right after that Ashley answered the phone. I told her that it was adorable that her name was the same as the company and that she works for and she could help someone else since I'd just started working with the chat agent. I asked Jessica if this piece of furniture reclined on both sides. Her answer was yes! By this point I was getting so mad at 1StopBedrooms.com! Jessica also informed me of a coupon code to get 15% off my order. I decided that I would put everything in my cart....3 loveseats, 1 TV console, 2 end tables and 2 coffee tables and with that 15% off we saved over $700 and it ended up being cheaper than 1StopBedrooms by $2400 because of all those additional charges! I thanked Jessica for her amazing help!
My next call was to Douglas....of course he wasn't available. I was told he would call me in 15 minutes. I called back 30 minutes later and was told he still wasn't available. I asked if anyone else could help me since I just wanted to cancel my order. They told me that it had to be Douglas that helped me. I decided right then that I was going to call every 15 minutes if I had to, but thankfully Douglas called me back about 2 minutes later. I told him what I had discovered and that I felt his company had no integrity and I couldn't do business with a company like that. I'm so glad that I had said yes to the changes earlier because normally you only have 24 hours to cancel and it had been well over 24 hours, however, since I made those changes I received updated emails confirming the changes and on those emails it specifically stated that I had 24 hours to make changes. If he was going to give me a hard time I was absolutely going to get a lawyer. Thankfully he didn't give me any run around or issues at all. I think since I had said the word legal proceedings and lawyer earlier he was happy to see me go. I have since received emails stating that my refund will be processed in 72 hours.
I honestly feel like this was all a God thing. I felt funny in the beginning for a reason and I feel like it was God trying to tell me not to trust them. Now that I've had time to think about it I highly doubt those loveseats are made with only one side reclining. I feel he was just trying to get more money out of me. I've since looked 1StopBedrooms.com up on the BBB (who knows why I didn't do this before)...they have horrible reviews. Of course on their website they only have 5 star reviews. On the BBB they have tons of 1 star reviews and that's only because you can't give zero stars! It seems this text and confirm your billing/shipping address thing is ploy to get you to call them and then they inform you about how since you live outside of the shipment zone you have to actually pay shipping. Or how there isn't certain part included in your order so you have to pay extra for it. They are a completely fraudulent company!
I've since left a comment on the BBB, their website....which will most likely never get published and I've also commented on their Facebook page numerous times. This company is the worst! I can't believe I didn't do my research! I just wanted to try to get the furniture cheaper and in turn ended up with a lot of hassle and almost spending $2400 more! I'm so happy that I figured this out early and not months into the process like most of the other customers that I read about on the BBB. At least Ashley is local and they've been around for years and they have a good reputation. We are slated to get our new furniture around March 11th and I can't wait.
Here is what our new loveseats look like. The only real difference other than the color being darker is the location of some of the seams are different.
Here is our TV console. It's going to be perfect for storing all sorts of games.
This is our current set up. It's worked nice, but it's so cluttered looking with all the games stacked below. The cabinet on the left was painted by Michael's mom. I'm not getting rid of it, but I would like to move it. It is full of games so I'm hoping we can get most of them in the new console.
I got two of these little end tables. I like that they are only 14 inches wide just big enough to set a book on, but not big enough to become a junk collector. It also has some fun features. The back part of the top opens up so you can plug in a lamp if you want and it has a USB plug for a charger. The little drawer comes out and is actually cup holders. In the back of the end table has a little nesting spot for you to store a book in. I love these!!!
We knew we couldn't keep our current coffee table because it's square. Since we will have 3 reclining loveseats we had to consider how much space they'd be taking up when they are in the reclined position. Because of this we knew we needed a rectangle coffee table.
This is the one we chose. All of this furniture is from the same furniture line...it's called Bolenburg. It's gonna be so nice having everything match! We did consider possibly not having a coffee table at all, but I really like playing card games in the living room and it's much better to play them on the coffee table than the floor. This will still allow us to do that. Plus it has all kinds of storage!
I've never really wanted one of those coffee tables that has the top that pulls up, but this was the one that matched the other furniture I liked. The more I think about it though I think it's going to be so nice for Ella to sit on the loveseat and use it as a desk. Michael says no eating on the new furniture, but we'll see how long that lasts.
You might remember I said that we got 2 coffee tables. Remember this view?
Where that black chair is off to the left is where another loveseat will be so this corner will be basically unusable. We are taking out the two blanket ladders, the Costco box that holds the pillows and the black end table and replacing it with this....
This is the only piece that isn't from the Bolenburg line. It's from the Aldwin collection. The other pieces are vintage white with grey tops. This is a gray finish so we are crossing our fingers and hoping they pair well. We aren't two worried because like I said this is going to tucked back in the corner between two loveseats. It's not going to be a focal piece. The reason we loved this coffee table is...
Look at all that storage! This is going to be such a great place for the kids to be able to toss in their blankets!
I'm so happy that it all worked out. I can't wait to get all our beautiful new furniture!
