Intro & my sofa dilemma

[Riobamba]

Hello!

I found this forum after searching old Gardenweb forums. I have really enjoyed their forums for each phase of our home building project. I've read through some posts here and talked with Duane briefly...looks like this forum could help me through my next home project -- furniture! This forum seems so much easier to use! Yeah!! AND excited about better pricing from the Keeping Room too!

DH & I are a 30 something couple building a new home in a historic neighborhood. I've been putting a lot of energy into the house to make it different than your normal new build...somewhat classic & eclectic but with a 1920s Spanish Revival twist. I love Anthropologie, and that type of style is often my inspiration. Our GC says our completion date is mid-August for the new home.

Five years ago, we moved into our current home with a VERY open floor plan. We purchased a HUGE leather sectional at a local furniture store (now out of business). The brand is Distinctions Leather Furniture. DH just loves this sofa. Admittedly, we didn't thoroughly research the workmanship of this brand, but we bought it thinking we would have it 20 years or so. I really don't know how this brand compares to H&M which I am eyeing now. But it seems like it's held up fine so far. We went to several stores and bought the sofa due to the feel of the leather. The salesperson gave us some demos on how the leather could not be ripped and yadee yadda. We have never had any quality issues with the sofa, and it still seems great. But it's just so huge. The new house is not such a wide open floor plan. People who seem to know design, have told me that this sofa will swallow our new living room. It's just your normal looking leather sofa, with some nice stitching...but no real design elements. DH is soooo resistant to give it up. 1) because we paid > $5k for the sofa and there's nothing wrong with it. 2) there's lot of house expenditures that are creeping up. We will try to sell it on the local Craigslist, but I have no idea how much we can get for something like this.

I know that I'm probably being impatient in wanting to start the sofa search now. I have marked the outline of the sofa on the floor to show DH and we have the sofa printed on the plans. It's a giant. It doesn't really fit my Anthro scheme for the new house. I'm so excited to host an event at our new house. I just hate the thought that we will move into this house to figure out that the sofa doesn't belong -- then wait another 2 months for a new one to be delivered.

So my strategy is to show DH all the possibilities of NEW furniture for the living room. If I can find a sofa that he falls in love with, I think he may also agree. AND if the price of everything doesn't make him have a heart attack.

I *think* our room layout may best be served with
1) long sofa, max 128" floating in front of kitchen pass through bar
2) one large upholestered chair or chair-and-a-half positioned facing TV on wall, floating in room next to fireplace
3) a smaller upholestered swivel chair, floating in room next to fireplace closer to TV...near the Office
4) possibly a tufted ottoman that also serves as a coffee table
5) we may need a new rug as well, due to the color schemes.

I would like for the leather to but a medium toned brown -- not too dark, not chocolate, but instead more tan.

I love the tufted back sofas (but have never sat on one) and many other of the H&M styles. DH is 6'2" and since we have more length than width, I think we could use a longer sofa. We do love being able to sit close when watching TV, so preferably something that is wide enough for 2 thin people -- or we could use the ottoman to prop us that way. But the sofa has to meet some style considerations for me, and comfort for DH. It's really him and our Sheltie that will sit on it most.

These are the sofas that I like the styles of most:
Sundance (nice back for floating in the room, but it's so deep occupying more width)
Sloane (my favorite style, but not sure if 6'2" DH can lie down completely)
Ellie (very cute, not sure if it meets the comfort needs for DH)
Kingwood (love the tufted look, but unsure about comfort and depth again)

Any comments / advice / other things to consider are appreciated. Whew, this post was long...just got rollin'. But that's the whole story! Attachments there for further consideration.