In our fifth article about the refreshing of our Sacramento Carter Sparks designed, Streng Bros. built home, we finally find an item to make the house more livable but had proved elusive—a mid century sofa!
We also focus on a few “smalls”—those items that are affordable and give an immediate design impact.
In an earlier article, we lamented our inability to find an affordable mid century sofa for our family room. In August, we ordered a sofa from West Elm during one of their frequent sales.
The lead time was four-six weeks, but we fell in love with the custom horseradish-hued fabric, so we settled in to wait.
But the pandemic has made shopping for furnishings a competitive sport. When six weeks passed and still no sofa, we reached out to West Elm to check on its status.
We were assured it was on its way and were puzzled when a few weeks later we received an email notifying us of further delays in delivery. A West Elm customer service representative indicated she couldn’t give an estimated delivery date.
West Elm kindly agreed to cancel our order even though it was a custom fabric, and our search began again.
Finally, a Place to Sit Down
Our search led us to Burrow. Burrow is similar to Casper, but instead of a mattress in a box, this is a sofa in a box. They ship their furniture in multiple boxes and give you easy-to-follow instructions for assembly.
Burrow is in a similar category to our earlier purchases from Article (outdoor furniture and dining table) and Floyd Home (guest room bed) where the prices are moderate, the website easy to navigate and assembly is easy—a perfect pandemic checklist.
A few clicks later we had ordered the Burrow Nomad Sofa with an optional ottoman. We selected leg finish, arm height, cushion style and fabric color and we were all set. The sofa even comes with a built-in USB charger.
We ordered the sofa in October and only experienced one delay for an eventual delivery in December. Not bad.
In early December, we came home to find five huge boxes blocking our front door. We dragged them inside and fished out the assembly instructions.
Assembly was easy, and within 30 minutes the dog was burrowed between us as we tuned in to our favorite show. Will the sofa last 20 years? Maybe not, but for the price, it is a good looking, comfortable sofa that fits in well with our other Mid Century Modern furniture.
A Fun Find
We needed new throw pillows for the sofa and found these fun round pillows in our accent color of orange from Kardiel. Check out their site for other fun colors and patterns. The stripe pillows are especially joyful.
Put Extra Fabric to Work
At the other end of the price spectrum, our Goetz sofa from Herman Miller was purchased in 1999 and is still a solid piece. We had its wood box refinished and the fabric replaced in 2019, so it was looking pretty spiffy. The original fabric was the Small Dot Pattern by Charles and Ray Eames in Charcoal from Maharam Fabrics. We went with the same pattern but this time in Document Reverse, which is a black background with cream pattern.
As mentioned in an earlier post, repeating design patterns and colors throughout your home can make the design feel cohesive and gives a nice feeling of surprise.
With this in mind, we knew exactly what to do with the extra fabric from our sofa project.
The closet in the room we use as an office had been converted into not so great looking shelving. We had just enough fabric left to make a curtain to block the shelves. We reached out to Magnolia Lane—this San Francisco based company specializes in custom curtains and shades and had previously installed shades in our SF loft.
They were up for the task, and for about $300, our closet had a new “door.”
Stay tuned for more on our progress of our Sacramento Modern Makeover and pick up tips to apply to your own home projects. You can access past posts on our SacMod makeover here as well as at patriciakline.com.
There you will also find profiles of other Mid Century Modern enthusiasts written for Atomic Ranch Magazine as well as articles on Mid Century Modern finds such as where to shop, eat, drink and stay in Palm Springs. You can follow me on Instagram @patkline.
Of course, don’t forget to follow Atomic Ranch Magazine on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more Mid Century Modern inspiration!
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