[brilliant-nest]

It’s tough to find furniture that’s reasonably priced and something that catches my interest. The above picture caught my eye on Pinterest. A great styling for this chair. Something I’m still working on at my house, but first the chair saga:

The pleather Lazyboy recliner that is one of the only remnants left of Todd’s bachelor days kept breaking down (the seat ripped the other day) and it just looked terrible in our living room.

I love this chair. I pile the arms high with books and paperwork. I sleep in this chair. It was like a warm nest for me when I wanted to cuddle in for some reading/movie time.

But it’s gross. It’s pleather. And when pleather breaks down, it ain’t pretty. I think if I put this on the side of the road, with a free sign on it, I probably wouldn’t have any takers.

I knew the day was coming too. I knew that I would have to replace this chair, and so I’ve been looking. But I didn’t want another brown chair (we already have a brown leather couch) and I didn’t want to spend over 500 bucks and I did not want to go to IKEA to buy a white slipcovered Ektorp chair, because I am bored, bored, bored with the IKEA look. And my price limit removes most of the designer furniture stores from my shopping list. Restoration Hardware, forgetaboutit. Thomasville, yep, no. Crate & Barrel, nada. Pottery Barn, LOL!

But, and I don’t know how it happened, a chair at Overstock caught my eye. It had no arms, more of a velvet chaise, but I was in love with the tufting and the exposed spindle legs. And it was cheap: 250 bucks. But I still didn’t pull the trigger, because the only color that would work was brown. I would have loved a gray or even an aqua green.

Not with Overstock.

So I kept looking and then stumbled onto Pier 1 last month and saw one chair that might work. But it looked blue. I need aqua, not blue. But I loved the look of it and it seemed to fit what I had in my head. Still, I kept looking. Plus this chair was very close to 500 bucks, my price point, and I love a deal.

I drove by my local Pier 1 the other day and out of the corner of my eye was the corner of the chair I’d been considering. Hm. I liked the look of it in the window. But I still didn’t go inside to look.

And then hubby took a look at the pleather recliner over the weekend and exclaimed loudly at how terrible it looked. I agreed. “Let’s throw it away and buy something else.”

He looked up at me in surprise. “What? You have another chair in mind to replace it with?”

I nodded. “I think so.” And then convinced him to drive me to Pier 1 and we saw “the chair” first hand. It was smaller than I wanted, but that wasn’t a deal breaker. The exposed spindle legs were only in front. The back ones were a more modern block leg. The tufting on the chair was gorgeous and so plushy. Then I saw the back. This chair is one of those new trendy deconstructed chairs. It is not missing fabric, but they turned out the accent fabric and so it looks deconstructed without actually being terribly deconstructed. For a great rant on deconstructed furniture, check out Cote de Texas.

It was just what I wanted. It was spendier, but that’s because the foam of the cushion is the standard foam, not the upgraded foam available at Thomasville. But I can replace that later when I wear it out. The chair is perfect. And husband had me consider every stinking other chair in that store, I swear.

My only beef is that we bought their spare stock, so they said, and then they gave me the floor model, because they didn’t actually have the extra stock. And it has the familiar aroma of Pier 1. That too heavy, cloying smell of incense that I wish I could just erase. Maybe I’ll grab some Febreze.

Anyway, I love the chair. And so ends the chair saga. Hubby now says there is nothing left of his beloved bachelor pad. I made him take the pleather chair to the dump and painted his kitchen table. He’s bummed, but not really.