After the shop TEOT opening party, we were out with a group of friends and the night ended in a quick debate about whether or not our friend Amanda should buy a discounted sofa from Crate & Barrel the very next day b/c it was the last day on sale.
Sarah and I huffed. “You’re gonna hate that sofa in 5 years. It’s dimensions of are already dated.”
Her rebuttal as she passes her phone around: “Can you find me an 8 foot long sofa for that price!?”
Sarah and I give up. We CAN’T find her an 8 foot long sofa for that price. We can only find her a sofa that cost around twice as much, but that we’re sure she’ll love for 4 times as long.
You may recall some months ago, we were on the pursuit for the Perfect English Roll Arm Sofa. It was at that time that we decided to pursue a custom sofa for Sarah’s home. It had become a real team effort to find the right silhouette and as her post notes, it was not easy to find the right shape, size, price and upholstery options.
We teamed up with a family owned furniture manufacturer here in the Furniture & Decorative Arts District of Los Angeles to custom build the English Roll Arm of our dreams.
We had shopped and shopped fruitless. So, next we drew and we photoshopped, and we counted all of our favorite aspects of each sofa that we had seen on the market. – as is mapped out by Sarah in her last English Roll Arm post. We definitely had some specifics to keep in mind. I’ve made a few notes on her graphic to illustrate a few key differences in each of the sofas we considered. Here is how that all breaks down in imagery.
We reached a fever pitch when Sarah emailed me this photo, credited to Nicky Kehoe as a final consideration for a bench seat and perhaps that straight tight back. It led me to ask her which back she preferred, to which she indicated a design paralysis, entrusting me to just choose for her.
This design looks an awful lot to me like the George Smith Jules Sofa that I’ve come to admire the most. Notable features again include the rounded deck as well as that nice scrolled back. It’s the same sofa in the Sofia Coppola image that we dissected as much as possible from her iconic mag spread image that the design world knows well, but also through some real estate listings we found, cause YES, we are that stalkery.
We are super excited to have found a custom manufacturer here in Los Angeles that is willing to work with us to perfect the exact sofa that Sarah has wanted and had such a hard time finding all of this time.
After journeying alongside Ginny of the Hendo design squad, the Apartment Therapy quiz, our friend from Meet Me in Philly and the no longer available Sofa.com option, as well as exploring new brands like RogerandChris, InteriorDefine, and more… we’ve decided to design our own.
We started first with makers in Los Angeles and we got a prototype out of the deal that was pretty great, but not exactly perfect. We believe that perfect is attainable, so we’re still on the journey. Here is a look at what we produced here in LA with a manufacturing house that builds sofas for companies that you have likely shopped before. They don’t want me to disclose that info, so that they can continue to manufacture for them!
