After five years of searching, Bob finds his midcentury sofa at Macy’s
Mid Mod Pam on Aug 27 2008 at 8:00 am | Filed under: furniture
Macy's Corona sofa
Update Aug. 31: I saw this 1950s T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb sofa on ebay. Very similar to the line of Macy's sofa - don't you agree! - Pam
Reader Bob sends in this great find from Macy’s:
Hi Pam,
First, want to say how much I enjoy your site. Okay, now my story! I’ve been looking (for the last 5 years!) for a suitable mid-century couch for my den. I’d been hoping to find a vintage one, but that never worked out. Then, while looking at Design Within Reach, I stumbled across the Bantam Sofa which was exactly what I had been looking for. Unfortunately, their design certainly isn’t within MY reach, so I kept looking. You can imagine my surprise when I came across an almost identical sofa at Macy’s, of all places. It’s called the Corona, and I just got mine about 2 weeks ago. Not only is it stylish and comfortable (great for naps!), it’s well made and someone said it “looked like it was stolen out of Rob and Laura Petrie’s living room!” That’s exactly the look I was going for! The good news about this sofa is the price. The Bantam is $1750.00. I got my Corona on sale for $630.00 (it’s almost always on sale.) It’s available in several colors, most of which I found unappealing. I got mine in “stone” which is basically gray. Thanks for the great site and all the great ideas!
Bob
Thanks, Bob! Great sofa, very nice lines! And I love how your gray sofa looks with those pink curtains. Pink-and-gray is a great color combo! Personally, I also like the Paprika (orange-red) color offered for the sofa, but then, burnt orange is my favorite color.
Bob's grey example. He points out that it's hard to see the button tufting, a great feature, in this photo. And says: "Also in the picture, you can see a bit of my step end tables and what I think may be a Harris Strong lamp. My den is very much a work-in-progress, so please pardon the patched plaster!"
Very nice couch! I love the dark end tables with the gray couch.
Your story reminds me of a piece they did on “This American Life” where a guy spent a decade searching in vain for the right couch. His girlfriend at one point told him, “Just buy a “fu**ing couch!”. My wife essentially told me the same thing after I spent months trying to decide which sofa would look right in our living room. We finally found it (a used Knoll) but it took a toll on my sanity, lemme tell ya.
I am sooo smitten with that couch! After seeing it online I went to look at it in person and liked it even more. It has a great nubby fabric that is very retro to me. I want to get it but I’m scared that my dogs will destroy it and I’m not sure what color would work in our living room.
This is so freaky!
First off, I’ve been a lurking fan of your site for a few months, and finally I am compelled to comment.
This week is couch decision time for me as well, and I too have been looking for about 5 years. Like Bob’s experience, finding the perfect couch and affording the perfect couch are not usually the same thing. At my house, we call that place “Design OUTTA Reach”.
Last week I found the perfect couch at Crate and Barrel…looks almost exactly like Bob’s and is even called “Petrie”! But I think I’m going to check out Macy’s first–I never thought to go there!
Hi Angela - send me a picture of your living room, I can do a post and maybe we can help you identify the right color for your living room!
Mary - glad to hear from you, and that you are out of “lurking” mode!
Hi, it’s Bob!
Mary, I do like that Petrie couch from CB, especially in the “Hydra” (light blue/green) upholstery. The price, though… Which is why I didn’t bother checking CB in the first place! (I did scope out one of their outlets in Leesburg, VA. Very disappointing, in that most of the furniture there was actually *damaged*, not just shopworn.)
For a good long while, I had a sofabed very similar to the Petrie on order at Urban Outfitter. But the weeks turned to months and I eventually realized that buying a piece of furniture I had never even sat on (I ordered it online) was madness. Not to mention the fact that the shipping date kept being delayed. So I cancelled that.
I think my Corona sofa must have been on the front page of a Macy’s ad, because I never read their ads or go into the stores. It was definitely worth it to get this couch, though. Oh, and P.S. I applied for a charge card while I was buying it, so I got an extra 15% off
To Angela I say that the upholstery seems reasonably sturdy. While I only have one wiener dog, she hasn’t destroyed it yet. YMMV.
I’ll take a picture of the curtains if I remember. They’re a very funky pattern of stylized birdcages done in white, green, and brown on pink.
Now if I can just find a nice pair of lamps…
Bob
I bought this couch and loveseat combo at Macy’s this May in the same color as you, Stone. It is fabulous! I really like the pear color, but our fireplace is green terrazzo, and so the pear would not work. I also debated the dark chocolate color, but like Angela, we have animals and I was worried about the fur showing.
We bought our home in March and the large leather sofas we had in our much larger Victorian would not even make the corner turn into our new living room, so we were couchless for a few months.
During “The Great Couch Search,” on a complete impulse, I brought home a flowered early 1960’s vintage couch and chair from an estate sale. They were heavy, springy and we literally gouged our original hardwood floor moving them into the living room. They also had a very musty, smokey odor that permeated the entire house, even though I steam cleaned them three times. Once the weather got hot and we were unable to leave the windows open to rid the house of the smell, my husband had had enough and insisted that we sell the set.
After that learning experience, I realized that there were some things I needed to by new, not vintage!
I know this isn’t a “self-help” blog, but I can’t tell you how good it is to know that I’m not the only one who takes a long time to make a decision! (Going on three years now to decide about a kitchen floor…)
Yes, we are not alone.
It has been very illuminating (in a ‘laughing with you’ not ‘laughing at you’ kind of way) to hear from readers and their stories of … tortured… excrutiating … decision making.
Again - that’s fundamentally why I started this blog. That was me, too.
And after going through it, and getting to decisions that, hey, worked out pretty well, I thought it would be good to share so others might spare the pain. - Mother Pamela Theresa (my true confirmation middle name!)
This is so funny. I take years to make decisions (my mint-green tiled bath is neither painted or wallpapered after seven years), but the moment I saw this sofa I knew it was the perfect thing. I ordered it a month ago in the chocolate brown color, and it will be delivered in two weeks! I can’t wait.
I LOVE this sofa, but its a bit too big for my door. Does anyone happen to know if the legs are removable??
Macy’s customer support line was less than helpful!
I have this sofa and it’s been great so far. I think you could take the legs off –one of our sofa legs actually fell off shortly after we bought it and had to have a service call because the piece it mounted to was dislodged as well. When this happened, we took all the other legs off to keep them from breaking and they were easy to get on and off. The sofa was fixed by the macy’s repair guy but their customer service is kind of dumb and useless, imo.
We Dont have macys in the land of oz, too bad…
Yes! The legs are removable.
http://www.toddoldhamstudio.com/furniture.html
Check out Todd Oldham’s stuff on this site! My husband and I are especially fond of the baby blue chaise with the hairpin legs. We love the lines on this piece! There is also a tan-colored chair with the hairpin legs that is an abbreviated version of the chaise.
A lot of his stuff certainly has midcentury modern lines to it….but we’re darned if we can find anywhere that that chair (or any of this stuff) is available. I know that Oldham did design for La-Z-Boy, but that relationship was broken off a couple of years ago.
Not sure if this stuff on the site is just concept or not, but lots of it would certainly go well with midcentury decor!