The chesterfield

For years I wanted a leather Chesterfield sofa.
It's a classic piece of furniture named after the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Phillip Stanhope (1694-1773).

The Earl of Chesterfield

He designed and commissioned the first settee of it's kind, one that  had a distinctive deep buttoned quilted leather, low seat base, rolled arms, and finished with nail head trim. A gentleman could sit upright in it comfortably without wrinkling his garment. What better sofa for my new bachelor pad?
But buying a new Chesterfield was out of the question. They could be upwards of $3000 to $6000, too rich for my blood. Besides, getting a new one wasn't what I wanted either; it had to be one with lots of age on it, distressed, worn-in, with some history.
Here's the look I was craving...the Old World look of the sofa juxtaposed with some more modern pieces in a room with some architectural details and character...like the one I just bought :)

I decided to trawl Craigslist to see if I could find one. Now let me say right away that buying upholstered furniture on that site sorta gives me the heebie-jeebies. One word: bedbugs. So I started looking with a bit of apprehension. As luck would have it, I saw an ad for one the first time I searched.
I answered the posting and the guy selling it gave me his phone number. When I called I found out I was talking to the manager of a men's clothing store down in Soho, Bonobos. I had seen their catalogue but never knew they had a retail location. He said, "You should come down to the store and look at it, it's part of the store decor." So that made me feel better. It was a pretty classy place, there was little chance the sofa would be crawling with vermin. I went to see it a couple of days later and the guy told me that they wanted to sell it because the sofa kept falling off it's legs, they weren't attached. Customers weren't able to sit on it, they'd fall off! The piece was exactly what I wanted, the leather was worn and comfortable just like an old baseball mitt, and it was a wonderful shade of dark brown. I discovered that it was even featured in a picture on the store's website, here it is:

My actual sofa as it looked on the Bonobos website.

He was only asking $1250.00 so I took a chance and said, "Listen, since it's got this leg problem I'll offer you $1100 cash." He said "sold" and I bought it right there. When I had it delivered (I found a reasonably priced man with a van), I realized the legs that came with it were totally wrong. No wonder it was having problems, all it needed was a little love. I got on the internet and found the right wooden kind of legs that would screw right in to the base frame if I used the right kind of bracket. And they were only $25. Perfect. A little effort with my electric drill and the whole thing was now a thing of beauty.
Here's a picture of it in my old apartment...

It looked good there but I think it's going to look even better in the new apartment, right in front of the faux fireplace and flatscreen TV with me sitting in comfy relaxation, feet up on the coffee table. The Earl will be proud.