Some time ago it was time for me to purchase a new sofa. (Turns out a sofa describes a piece of furniture that has arms and a back, whereas a couch is more casual and sometimes doesn’t have arm rests.) Getting an L-shaped sofa was one of those lofty dreams I had since I was really young. Some things feel weirdly novel and nostalgic well into adulthood, and I feel like an L-shaped sofa is just one of those things. In my hunt for a new sofa, I found that while L-shaped sofas exist, chaise lounges provide the same shape but in a more modular fashion, where the extended seat is separated from the rest of the sofa (and can be moved to change the orientation), or the sofa isn’t just in one large piece.

There were quite a few options on markdown or sale during the time I was searching. I didn’t want to spend a mini fortune on a sofa or couch, especially knowing that some of them can be less than $1000 on sale. There was also the option of getting a cheaper one from somewhere like IKEA. I had a decent armchair from IKEA already that cost me somewhere in the $400–500 range, so I wasn’t against going for a more budget-friendly option. I thought it would be nice if I could get a decent sofa for under $2000, but I would be more comfortable with under $1500.

I found a lot of L-shaped sofas and sat on a lot of sofas in showrooms and stores, thinking that I’d want to go with navy or a nice shade of green or blue, a change from my previous light grey sofa. A big gripe with buying sofas is that it’s common to have to wait several months for stock to be available. I wanted to avoid that if possible. Or it would be nice if I only had to wait for a few weeks.

I didn’t find many sofas I liked because they were either out of budget or too long. I had a long straight wall to work with, but I did not want the sofa to overwhelm the space, and I had to consider a bookshelf, a shoe rack, and my vinyl record player and the storage cupboard for my records, all of which would be against the same wall. (To be fair, my shoe rack is on the larger side, but I wasn’t about to switch that up.) The rough length of a sofa I wanted was 180–200 centimetres (roughly 5’11” to 6’7”) which is a comfortable length to seat 3 people, or 2 people super comfortably. Unfortunately, the way some L-shaped sofas/chaise lounges were configured, the chaise part seemed very wide if it was a 2-seat configuration, and weirdly too narrow if it was a 3-seat configuration. 🤦🏻‍♀️ When I found one that I liked the most, but didn’t love, it was 300cm long (roughly 9’10”), and I thought, that absolutely will not do. 😂

I figured I’d just exercise patience until I found something that suited what I wanted. I had a look at some local and independently run businesses to see what they had to offer, and that was when a light purple retro sofa bed with white trim caught my eye. It was different from anything else in the store, since most of the furniture was wooden and had a rustic look. Purple isn’t my favourite colour (it’s Pauline’s 💜), but it’s an unusual colour for a sofa. I spotted another similar sofa up the back of the shop in a different colour and with buttons as accents on the cushions, but all in all, I fell in love with the idea of a retro style sofa.

I didn’t realise I could choose the dimensions of the sofa as well as the colour. I spoke to one of the owners of the family-run business, who was quite happy to call their manufacturer on the spot and check if they had the fabric for the colour I wanted. At this point I hadn’t really settled on a colour, but I picked out a vibrant blue colour (that almost seemed too daring for a sofa colour—but hey, the option was there). I asked how long it would take to manufacture, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they made the sofas in Sydney, and they could get it done in about a month’s time. Not to diss on sofas and furniture made from places like China, but I liked knowing that a piece of furniture as substantial as a sofa was made locally. And a month was better than bloody twelve weeks!

I had a look at the sofa bed in the store and sat on it, and thought about whether I really wanted a sofa bed, but it was the kind that required a mattress to be put in and wasn’t going to be made of the same fabric as the sofa itself, and that turned me off a little. I also didn’t think I had a need for one. After chatting to the owner, he said I could choose the width of the sofa and the amount of cushions, and even the legs I wanted on the bottom of the sofa. It dawned on me that I would be signing up for a custom sofa. A fully custom sofa. The sofa in the shop had white trim but I could pick whatever colour I wanted. This was somewhat mind-blowing, and when the owner said the price for a sofa without the sofa bed part would be around the $1,300 mark, it was kind of a no-brainer. Why would I purchase a not-so-unique sofa from your run-of-the-mill furniture store for a couple of thousand dollars and have it risk being too big for my space, when I could choose the fabric colour, length, cushion sizes, and legs of a sofa that would be made for me, and locally too, for a pretty affordable price? 🤩

I have a thing for large cushions so I settled on a large two-seater at 190cm (about 6’3”), and I picked the Warwick Beachcomber Pacific colour with Beachcomber Alabaster trim—so it’s not quite pure white, but is enough contrast. It arrived in about three weeks from the day I ordered it, and to say I love it is a freakin’ understatement. 🩵

It was not something I thought about in the past, but after I saw the purple sofa in the store, the idea of having a sofa that I would absolutely love was an idea that was so appealing and felt like it was in reach. I’m so glad I went with my gut. Sometimes with material items, you know when you really like and will use something. I never thought a sofa in a vibrant shade of my favourite colour would be possible, but I am really thrilled now.