Sofa shopping – a tale of two stores

With the build going so well, we have started to turn our energy towards selecting furniture.

Annie, disengaged for much of the build since it became clear that we couldn’t afford a level of finishing that she had hoped for, is now once again in the driver’s seat.

My input in this arena is largely limited to spatial advice. Although I do also like to point out poor ergonomics – more on that in a minute.

We have since put two deposits down on sofas from two shops: Brescia Furniture and King Living.

Last Sunday afternoon, on a whim, we decided to head out to our local home super centre – you know the type of shopping centre I’m talking about. Those bulk retail centres with furniture shops full of mass produced items that look slick but disintegrate faster than a paper house in the rain.

After wondering around for a while, we stumbled into King Living. The Zaza sofa caught Annie’s eye.

At this point, it was 4:40pm, and the salesperson helpfully – or aggressively, depending on perspective – came over and asked us whether we realised that they were about to close and that their winter 40% off sale would be over in 20 minutes.

What does one do in such a situation?

We did what any person with FOMO does: we asked for a quote. Helpfully, King Living said that they would still honour the quote up until Thursday.

There are two points I’d like to make about the Zaza and King Living in general.

First, their deep seated sofas are about as comfortable as farting in a spacesuit. In the name of luxury, they extend the seat of the sofa (like in the picture above). Visually, this looks incredible. Look how comfy that attractive lady looks in that picture despite her not being able to actually rest on the back of the sofa. In reality, the problem is that no one except Shaq has thighs long enough to lean on the sofa back cushions while also being able to bend their knees over the front of the sofa. I can only surmise that designers who are pushing this style of sofa values form over function, and likely prefers a high maintenance partner who doesn’t work, cook, clean or look after their children.

Second, how can a shop that regularly has 40% sales claim that their pricing is fair when the items are not on sale? The concept of such a large discount has you constantly guessing at whether or not you’re actually getting a good deal. In any event, we asked them to price up the sofa in leather – a circa $3k upgrade on a $3.5k sofa that includes a two seater plus chaise. Does that pricing make sense to you? We’re not asking them to rip off upholstery that has already been sewn over the foam to replace it with cowhide, we’re asking them to use cowhide in place of fabric. How is it that you’re only $500 away from an additional fabric sofa simply by using a cow’s butt rather than some sort of cotton/polyester blend? It must be the fact that the leather is Italian! Sure, the sofa is made in China, but the leather is from fancy pants Italy and don’t forget that this sofa was DESIGNED in AUSTRALIA. We got this barrage of rhetoric and country name dropping in response to our simple question of: where is it made?

After carefully considering these points, we naturally put a deposit down on a Zaza. You see, when your wife absolutely loves the visuals of the sofa, pricing structure transparency and ergonomics are almost irrelevant. I say almost because at least Annie agreed that sitting on the deep seated Zaza was uncomfortable, and so ordered a normal seat depth rather than the “deep”.

To round out our experience at King Living, the salesperson inflexibly asserted that they would not be willing to hold our sofa for longer than three weeks if our elected delivery date did not coincide with handover from Eden Brae. (But what happens if they’re three weeks late on delivery – that’s not the point, Bruce!) I can only assume that King Living’s warehouse is struggling for space since it’s full of deep seated sofas that no one can sit on. The cherry on top of the experience was the $150 delivery charge because, hey, this ain’t Amazon.com and I haven’t hit the $49 threshold.

Yesterday, we went to Brescia Furniture – a furniture store that has been around for decades but has never hit the heights of other furniture stores in terms of scale and growth. Growing up in Western Sydney not far from their flagship Cabramatta showroom, this was a furniture store that I knew well. It has always had a reputation for quality and I’ve experienced this quality first hand. We still happily sit on a Brescia sofa 10 years after my parents gifted it to us not long after Annie and I bought our first home.

Brescia’s Alexandria store is not as schmick as a King Living store. You can tell that they’ve not devoted a material budget to interior design consultants to lay out the store in a way that will sell a lifestyle rather than just mere furniture.

I have to admit at being underwhelmed after our first walkthrough of the store. I started to feel that the long drive perhaps was not going to be as productive as I had hoped.

We ended up sitting down on a sectional L-shape sofa called the Osaka that looked ok but was nothing special. Our three year old had just woken up – I was carrying him up until that point – and I just wanted to take a breather. That sofa greeted my tired body like a warm hug. It was so comfortable and the longer we sat on it, the more we started thinking about its shape and design features. It was actually quite an attractive sofa, but because it was haphazardly arranged in the showroom, its design was not showcased to its full potential.

I forgot to take a picture of the Osaka as we left the store. All I could find online was this picture of a leather version. Ours is a bit more humble with fabric and wooden legs rather than metal, but you get the idea. The headrests are adjustable: leave them down for a more streamlined look, or put them up if you want the additional support.

The Osaka’s fabric was soft and luxurious but did not feel like leather. A salesperson approached and asked us if we needed any help so we enquired about the fabric. It was fabric designed to feel like suede. Despite liking fabric sofas, we have always been reluctant to introduce them into a household with three of the grubbiest boys you’ll likely meet. The salesperson said that these days, most fabric sofas are very easy to keep clean and that people simply needed to get their head around that (i.e. no longer thinking by the apparently outdated paradigm that a leather sofa is easier to keep clean). Nevertheless, he said we could order the sofa in leather if we wanted to for about $1300. Wait, what?! Only $1300 for full Italian leather on a sofa manufactured in Italy that is materially larger than King Living’s Zaza – how does that make any sense? Must be the budget spent on interior designers.

The longer we sat on the Osaka, the more we liked it. In the end, it was an easy decision. This sofa would be perfect for the upstairs rumpus room. Great to sit on for a long stretch for a movie or a Netflix binge session. We went with the fabric because first, we actually really liked the fabric; second, we felt its location was sufficiently far away from the kitchen that spills were less likely; and third, we were feeling our balance sheets were in need of some repair after our trip to King Living.

The sales process was so much more pleasant at Brescia. Our salesperson was not pushy, aggressive nor snobby. A distinct difference to what I felt about King Living.

As we chose a colour they had in stock rather than having to special order it, they knocked a few hundred dollars off the price without us asking for it.

When I told him about our situation and that we weren’t sure about when we could take delivery, the response was Not a problem, we’ll hold it for you until you’re ready.

As a gesture of goodwill and a gift for our new home, the salesperson said that he would throw in delivery for free.

As we were processing the paperwork, we made small talk and I told him about our existing sofa and how much we loved it but it was looking worse for wear. In addition to being quite filthy thanks to the kids, they had also managed to scratch up one of the seat cushions quite badly and I felt that it was probably in need of repair. He didn’t think it would be cost effective as such repairs can cost a few thousand but did offer to check it out if I emailed him some pictures. Before we left the store, he gifted me a free leather cleaner to help bring the sofa back to life. That’s class.

When I got home and looked at the paperwork, I noticed the business card stapled to it: Vittorio Brescia, Managing Director. No wonder this salesperson was so personable and made us feel like valued customers. He was from the family that I assume still owns and operates this fantastic furniture store.