You know the “angels singing”/”heavenly beam of light” sound? Pretend the Audience Handler is holding up a sign instructing you to make that sound.
I have been looking for a chair like this for over TWELVE YEARS. After I left my daycare job, I worked for a few months as a nanny—or I suppose “babysitter” would be accurate, too, except when it’s a full-time job for a single family I think of that as “nannying.” ANYWAY, as if it matters. The point is that the kids in that family were champion nappers and would BOTH nap for THREE FULL HOURS every day after lunch. (Go ahead and make the angel sound again, because MAN.)
The house had a lot of nice comfy furniture, including a big puffy recliner and a sectional couch, but the chair I always went to was a small, short-backed swivel chair. It didn’t LOOK particularly comfy, but the arms were exactly the right height to rest my elbows on while I was reading, and I would swivel back and forth, back and forth, back and forth—very soothing. And the rounded back was just right.
Ever since, I have been on a quest to find a similar chair. I asked the mama of the family where they’d gotten it, but it was a handmedown from her parents and she said she thought they’d gotten it decades before. I found many chairs that looked similar but were uncomfortable, or were the wrong proportions, or didn’t swivel. Then, after TWELVE YEARS, I found the above-pictured chair at Home Goods and it was exactly right.
But: a color problem. Home Goods had it in white, in a light dusky blue, and in purple. And I don’t mean purple, or purple, I mean PURPLE. Jess Loolu purple. Even after I say to you that it was PURPLE, you might still be picturing an eggplant color, or maybe a deep dusky purplish grey.
PURPLE. It was PURPLE.
I liked the purple but I’d say my decor tends more toward muted light greens and golds, and then we have that wine-colored couch, and our carpet is blue, and actually I guess I should not be using the words “my decor” as if I have one. Suffice it to say I thought the light dusky blue would be the easiest to incorporate into the existing situation. But the light dusky blue one was broken and wouldn’t swivel right. I went home and fretted: should I get the purple?
Yesterday my mom and I went to the other Home Goods within easy driving distance, just to see if they might have the same chair. And they DID! In, er, purple.
(PURPLE.)
Then Henry said he needed to pee. I was taking him to the bathroom and I saw a huge square SOMETHING tipped up on its side (like an ottoman, but more like NINE ottomans) in a muted turquoise leather, and I thought, “It’s too bad I can’t find the chair in THAT color.” And do you know what? Behind the big tipped up nona-ottoman was the chair in the same muted turquoise leather. And I had to LEAVE IT BEHIND to take Henry to the bathroom. ANYONE might have bought it! Anyone!
Afterward, I brought Henry to my mom for safekeeping and I picked up the chair and carried it to the register. It was bulky and awkward, but what if I went to ask for someone to put it on one of those platform carts and in the meantime SOMEONE ELSE BOUGHT IT?? So I just hauled it. It feels very comical to go through a register line with a CHAIR. I bought it and hauled it out to the minivan and put it in (Paul had removed the third row of seats in case I did find the chair) and LOCKED THE DOORS and then I felt better, like the chair was IRREVOCABLY MINE.
I went back in and we finished shopping, and on the way out the clerk said they’d had a LIME GREEN one but it had sold. LIME GREEN! I might need a pair of these chairs.
Before I haul my ass over to Home Goods, tell me how much they were? It looks like a delightful reading chair.
I’m glad you found the color that made you so happy that you had to buy the chair RIGHT THAT SECOND before someone else beat you to the punch.
HOWEVER. It came in PURPLE. And you DID NOT BUY THE PURPLE.
Geez, Swistle. You coulda at least mailed the purple one to Jess. I’m sure the children wouldn’t have minded doing without food for a few weeks to pay for the shipping. It would be for such a GOOD CAUSE!
I actually really love the color of the one you got! It’s awesome when you find something you’ve been keeping your eye out for for THAT long. Like finding the holy grail of shopping.
Amanda- It was $300. And LEATHER!
Jess- I think you need to go to your Home Goods and see if they have the purple. I know, I know, spending freeze. But! PURPLE!!
(sorry if this is a duplicate… blogger appeared to eat comment #1)
ANYWAY, i was trying to say that i LOVE that chair and most definitely would have grabbed it & hustled it through the checkout like you did. SMART MOVE. so happy you found Perfect Chair!
I do love the chair; it is perfect. But….isn’t Home Goods a grocery store??
Clearly you had to have it – it’s Swistle colored!!
Saly- AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Oh, also! They had signs up saying “Delivery available, ask at Customer Service,” and I asked at Customer Service and the clerk said she “had no idea” and THAT WAS HER ENTIRE ANSWER. I had to PROMPT her to call over someone who DID have an idea, and then the manager she called over ALSO said she “had no idea”!!! Then they said, “All we have is this pamphlet”—AND HANDED ME A PAMPHLET ABOUT THE DELIVERY SERVICE. It would have been so fun to explain how “YES, this is what I was asking for when I asked for information about the delivery service,” but instead I just thanked them. I mean, what did THEY think I was asking for??
We want new chairs. And, after reading your post (and making the appropriate sound effects in my head), I want a chair like that. But I’ve never heard of Home Goods; I’ll have to look it up online to see if there’s one close to here.
I love that chair. I’ve been looking for a reading chair for my kitchen corner. Sadly, we don’t have a Home Goods anywhere in my state.
We had a chair like that growing up in a blue-gray velour type fabric. My siblings and I ruined the swivel part by playing in the chair a bit too vigorously (5 kids can do a lot of damage, you know.) So now it sits directly on the floor. At my brother’s house. Loved that chair.
I would have been the person who bought the lime green one. Love!
I love the chair; I had a similar chair in college and loved it.
I say get another one and have a pair. A PAIR!
Home Goods is so awesome! I love that chair AND the color. The purple is nice, but I can see how that might have been difficult to fit into your decor.
I have a chair that looks exactly like that (only canvas and white) that I got at a garage sale but that originally came from IKEA. I love it. Though, mine doesn’t swivle…
I love the chair. Also, I just finally caught up on your blog since I stopped reading in March (babies take time away from blog reading!). I have missed you, and I’m glad I’m finally getting back.
I JUST discovered Home Goods this past weekend for the first time ever. I spent the whole trip wandering the store and telling Phil I loved it there and asking if I could live there. And now I want that chair as well. I had an upholstered one in the same basic shape in college and was devastated when a cat peed it to death.
Oh man. Too bad they didn’t have the lime green. It would have gone awesome with the purple.
That is my favourite colour, and is pretty close, I think, to the colour of the bitch shawl. It looks like a super-comfortable chair, and well done for finally getting it after so long of searching.
I definitely think that you should get a lime one, though, that one up there might get a little lonely without a companion.
Damnit! Now I have to go to Home Goods, and I just told Husband last night that I would cut back spending…
I lusted after a sweet little diminutive comfortable chair at Crate & Barrel. Every time I went there, I sat in it. Finally one day I decided to buy it. AND IT WAS NO LONGER MADE. I still thing about that chair.
It’s so SATISFYING when you find a retail win like that, more than a decade in the making.
Good job! Way to take charge and haul that chair up there so nobody else could put their paws on it. Looks fantastic.
My parents have a couple of chairs in that general shape and they are the swivel and rocking variety. They don’t look that comfortable, but they ARE. I used to sit in one theirs to read. Now that you’ve reminded me of their value, I may have to plot a way to “borrow” one!
That chair looks like it’s one of those make-your-life-complete pieces, and MAN do I miss living 1.5 miles away from a Home Goods. Now it’s more like 481.5 miles, but I do still go there every time I’m in FL.
Is that chair in the same room as the red sofa? Because I love those two colors next to each other.
Oooh, I like the purple discussion. We’re about to paint our master bedroom purple and trying to decide which shade….
Think of it this way: It just took the angels 12 years to make a chair that perfect. I’m thinking it took them only 1 year to make the purple one, though.
You have just made me want this chair so bad.
Great chair! I’d have walked it up to the counter too. :) A couple of years ago while at Goodwill, I saw a great wicker chaise longue-style chair–I don’t know if it was patio furniture or actually a living room-style chaise longue (and Wikipedia states that’s the correct spelling [there’s the “something new” I learned today]), but it was awesome, and I sat down on another chair in the store just to count my money really fast so I wouldn’t get up to the counter only to find I was a dollar short. I counted my bills, turned around to pick up the chair, and it was gone. ?! In the less-than-a-minute it took me to count out my $12, someone had bought the chair and carried it out of the (small) store without my having noticed?! I still can’t believe it. How did I not even hear anything? So strange. This was all to explain that I’d have walked the chair up to the counter too. :)