We’ve only ever had IKEA couches. Originally it was because we were still essentially students, unable to afford anything better. Then it was because we got cats who – despite every effort to dissuade them – love to shred furniture. I’ve had people tell me with straight faces that they spent thousands of dollars on their sofas, and I just shake my head and think Whaaaaat?!

A few years ago we got a two-seater Karlstad in Isunda Gray, which was fine except it wasn’t quite long enough for yours truly to sleep on. One day the Snook told me a colleague was selling a three-seater version in the same colour. We ended up buying it, intending on selling the old one… but somehow it just stayed. We arranged them like a pseudo-sectional, though we rarely sat on the small one. I was never quite happy with them though. This year I discovered two things: 1) it’s pretty easy to hack a Karlstad to look like a mid-century sofa; and 2) I really, really love my sister’s sofa with chaise. So I talked the Snook into selling the three-seater and getting a chaise unit for the two-seater, along with custom legs and a new cover.

I bought my custom tapered legs from Uncle Bob’s Workshop. (Note: We decided to only get 7 legs rather than 8. When you add the chaise unit to Karlstad, theoretically you end up with two legs RIGHT NEXT to each other in one corner, and we decided that was stupid. We reckoned rightly that you didn’t need the extra one on the chaise.) They arrived and they were beautiful. Then I ordered a range of fabric samples from Comfort Works, and we decided that the Herringbone Bark was our preferred choice. However, rather than rush to IKEA to buy a new chaise unit, I decided to wait and see if they went on sale (or someone was selling one on Gumtree). After all, we weren’t in any rush.

Then last weekend I asked the Snook to list the old three-seater on Gumtree. He went to the IKEA site to look up the current asking price. “Dude,” he said, in that tone that means Something Is Up. “It’s not on the site. I think it’s been discontinued.” WHAT?! Yes, the Karlstad has been discontinued entirely. D’OH! Suddenly the whole plan was at risk. I started messaging everyone selling a Karlstad + chaise on Gumtree, but they were all taken. Things looked dicey.

THEN! The Snook discovered someone selling a Karlstad + chaise who’d messed up and not put it in the Home & Garden category. I messaged her and to my delight it was still available. Coincidentally, someone messaged me at the same time wanting to buy both of our old couches. So it was going to work out! The only hitch was that we had to collect the new couch on Wednesday, but the old couches weren’t being picked up until Sunday. So we had several days with three sofas in our living room.

Anyway, here’s the end result.

New Karlstad with chaise, Parker coffee table, and Fler rocking chair

The new couch came with a reasonably decent dark grey cover, but I still think we’ll replace with the lighter grey one from Comfort Works. (The dark grey is covered in Amy cat’s hair already.) In front of it is our recently acquired vintage Parker coffee table, and that’s my Fler rocking chair on the side. And you can’t see it in that photo, but we swapped out those horrible legs for the beautiful tapered ones. So now at last things are starting to take shape! Just need to order the new cover and study up on how to tuft cushions…

Tapered mid-century legs from Uncle Bob’s workshop