As many of you know, I’ve been on the hunt for a cozy chair for the corner of my bedroom for almost 6 months now. I wanted a place where I could curl up with my books and read with the cats snoozing near me.
I’ve been searching Facebook Marketplace and stores that offer chairs for sale in Surfside Beach, SC for a while now to find this chair. I was willing to shell out a few hundred dollars for a chair from Wayfair or Amazon, but I was hoping I could pay a third of those prices for something gently used. Every now and then, I’d find a chair that looked like it was in good condition and the asking price was reasonable. But something was always holding me back (mainly, how I was going to transport the chair and get it up my three flights of stairs—yes, I could rope my brother into helping me and he would do it for me, absolutely, but he’s busy and I hate bugging him for things like this). But sometimes the color was too bright or bold. Or it didn’t have an ottoman. Or it didn’t look as cozy as I wanted.
On Monday afternoon while I was eating lunch, I was reading Kyria’s post about her adventures of selling on FB Marketplace, which prompted me to pull up the app again and see if any new Four Hands Chairs had been listed recently. And then I saw it: A beautiful armchair in a neutral pattern with an ottoman, and the asking price was just $75.
So, I asked if it was available. (It was.) I called my mom to see if she was free to help me go get this chair. (She was.) I messaged the seller and said I could come by that evening. (Good.)
I measured the trunk of my car to see if I could fit the chair. I have a Kia Soul and unfortunately, she was just a bit too small for the chair. Thankfully, my mom has a Kia Sportage, so her trunk space is bigger than mine and we took off for the seller’s home. The chair almost didn’t fit in her car—we had to remove the legs (thankfully, they just twisted right off) and then sit it up in a particular way to get it to fit. Whew, crisis averted.
We stopped by a restaurant on our way home for dinner and then it was off to my apartment to bring the chair home!
I hope you haven’t forgotten about the three flights of stairs. I sure haven’t. I don’t have an elevator, so there was nothing else to do: We had to take the stairs.
It was not fun, friends. My mom and I struggled and I’m surprised we did not have simultaneous heart attacks on the stairs. Our heart rates were UP, is what I’m saying, and we had to take lots of breaks. Once we finally got the chair inside the apartment, we both collapsed on the couch so we could catch our breath and get our heart rates down to a normal level. I guess we’re not ready to take on The Amazing Race, huh? (My mom and I love the show and it would be so fun to race with her, but I always joke that I’d become the most hated person on reality TV. I don’t handle myself well in stressful situations, especially when it’s my mom and I can be snappy with her. People would love my mom for the way she puts up with me, but I’m not ready to be a reviled reality TV show person.)
Anyway, back to the chair. Once it was inside the apartment, we were so relieved! It’s here! But we set it down in the living room so we could collapse on the couch and needed to move it into the bedroom. But no biggie. This would be the easy part of the evening, right?
LOL, no.
First, the chair almost didn’t fit through the opening between my living room and the small hallway between my bedroom and bathroom. Somehow, though, I was able to shove it through with enough force. And then we realized the chair is absolutely, 100% too wide for my narrow doorframe. (This damn apartment and its damn narrow doorways!) We tried everything. We flipped it around every which way to see if there was one side that was less narrow, but nothing was working.
So, I figured it was the bedroom door that was the problem. At first, I thought, “Well, I guess I’ll call maintenance to have them remove the door and help me bring in the chair.” But then I was like, “Wait, it’s just a bunch of screws. I can do that!” So that’s what I did. I removed my entire door from my bedroom so I could bring the chair inside.
But y’all. THE CHAIR STILL WOULDN’T FIT.
I was in panic mode at this point. This is my beloved reading chair that is supposed to be nestled in the corner of my bedroom! I have a whole aesthetic I’m going for here! I don’t know where I could put this chair in my living room because it’s already pretty full with my big sectional and desk. Maybe I could put it in the corner of my living room, in front of the patio door? I never use the patio (because again, these damn narrow doors and not being able to even fit patio furniture through it). I could make it work. It wouldn’t be my original aesthetic, but it would still be a reading nook. EVERYTHING WOULD BE FINE.
I decided to try one more time to get the chair inside my bedroom. I started by picking up the back of the chair and pushing it inside my bedroom. That was the easy part. Then, I angled the bottom of the chair to see if I could fit one side of the chair inside, which would allow me to easily pull the rest of the chair inside. And it worked! Somehow my Tetris-level skills got this chair inside my bedroom and my cozy reading nook plans did not have to be altered.
Because the chair came with an ottoman (which is what I wanted), it’s a little too big to be angled in the corner like I wanted. (If I did that, I’d have to step over the ottoman every time I wanted to get to the furthest corner of my bedroom, and this is where my dresser is and where I usually climb into bed.) I am thinking about rearranging my bedroom so everything fits perfectly, but for now, I have the chair tucked up against a wall.
Of course, the chair is mainly being used by the cats right now. I find them curled up on it about 90% of the time—Ellie likes the chair and Lila prefers the ottoman, although last night I found them curled up together, which was ridiculously cute. Sometimes, they let me use it when I ask nicely. 😉
