I have partnered with Raymour & Flanigan and received product and/or other compensation in exchange for this post. All expressed opinions are 100% my own.

So you’re shopping for new furniture?  You often envision exactly what you have in mind and then BAM!– you step into the furniture showroom and you are instantly overwhelmed!

I’ve been there, multiple times, as I’ve shopped the Raymour and Flanigan showroom (for both myself and for some amazing community projects on numerous occasions). Today I want to share 7 tips that I’ve learned over the years that I think will help you when shopping a furniture showroom.

1. Welcome the help of the showroom associate.

• This is their job and they are there to help you. They can show you the layout of the store, allowing you to save time and find exactly what you’re looking for. If you feel you’ve “got this” and they tend to hover too much, let them know that you need a minute and will find them as soon as you have questions or concerns.

2. Come prepared, bring the goods.

• Measurements, paint and fabric swatches.  Bring dimensions for the entire room no matter what you are shopping for, it will be helpful in determining the scale of furniture that your room can accommodate, and will help your showroom associate better assist you.

3. Think outside the box.

• Consider your options, just because the sofa is being shown in a Robin’s Egg Blue, doesn’t mean that is your only option.  Be sure to ask  if it comes in other colors or patterns, and if so, are there images online where you can view other options? Or perhaps it is being displayed in another showroom. If you want a truly unique spin on the popular sofa of the year, do take advantage of custom upholstery options.  Don’t think too far outside the box: at a time where MORE is MORE, it may be tempting to buy that palm printed wing chair, but— buying furniture is an investment-think neutral and timeless. You can carry colors, patterns, and textures in less expensive ways, such as throw pillows, window treatments, removable wall paper, rugs and other textiles.

• Think outside the Box, err….Spring:  Consider a platform bed or an adjustable base bed, if you’re anything like me– mid to late 30’s you’ll thank me. We purchased the Reverie and it has truly been life changing. My husband and I both enjoy sleeping at a slight incline, however it’s also amazing for tv watching, reading a book, or working on the computer. With the adjustable bases you have the option for adjustable head and foot, or just one or the other.

4.  Do break up a set.

• Avoid the matchy-matchy showroom display:  buy the sofa-not the sofa, loveseat, arm chair, ottoman, matching end tables-with matching lamps, coffee table and console. Think outside the box—purchase the sofa and maybe the loveseat, choose an arm chair in a coordinating fabric or leather upholstery. Use a table lamp and a floor lamp instead of matching table lamps. Try a set of nesting tables that coordinate, or use an ottoman that can double as a coffee table.

5.  Do consider the furniture’s function.

• Don’t buy an entertainment console when you need drawers for junk storage, buy a piece of furniture, such as a large dresser that can double as a TV stand in the living room. Or, in my case, I didn’t need a lot of clothing storage in my bedroom, but needed something to hold our television, and wanted something that was the same scale as a piece of bedroom furniture, so we purchased a dining room server for our bedroom. Another way that we thought outside the box was by using living room end tables  to serve as nightstands. They were the right size and scale and offered the functionality that we needed in our bedroom.

6.  Do Consider your lifestyle.

• Speaking of neutrals-Oh, how I love a cream colored sofa! But with four kids, it’s nearly impossible to have one, unless I ban my kids from “living” in the living room. Learn about fabric options, furniture protection coverage and warranties offered by your local showroom. If you have a cat, consider the fabric, is it nubby? Cats love a nubby woven texture, from personal experience, I’ve found that the tighter the texture-the less likely the cat with scratch. Also I’d avoid glass tables if you have small children-it is almost like the definition of insanity, cleaning that glass over and over again, expecting different results—when you turn around to a table full of finger prints.

7.  Do visit the retailer’s website prior to your visit.

Get a sense of what they offer, and if something strikes your fancy, be sure that it is available at the showroom you plan to visit.

Now that I’ve shared what I’ve learned over the years, it’s time to share my reveal!  I’m pretty excited about this as we slept in the livingroom for the first few months after moving in, and just recently, finally moved into the bedroom.

 

Here’s what the space looked like when we bought the house:

We are still debating on flooring options (whether to refinish, install carpet or paint-so just ignore them for now, lol).  But without further adieu—-

Welcome to our Bedroom (Warning, photo overload):

  

Our home is a Mansard Victorian, which means that all exterior walls of our second floor has sloped walls, which makes it very hard for furniture placement.  Our beautiful furniture from our old home, unfortunately, just didn’t work out well because of this.  But the plus side is that we have a new walk-in closet that we recently finished up, so we weren’t in need of a ton of clothing storage like we were in our old house either.

Our room is not massive with a 13×13 footprint, which made the Chandler Queen Bed a wonderful option as it is much smaller in scale compared to our old bed.  It’s still a queen, however, it’s much more sleek and stream lined.

I just love the beautiful blue hue and the velvet-like texture.  But what might be the best part about our new bedroom, is our new Stearns and Foster Hurston Queen Mattress and Reverie adjustable base.

 

My husband and I both sleep so much better now.  The mattress is a mid-level firm, so not too firm, but just enough to support our hips and backs. I shared my love for the adjustable base above (see Tip #3).

I love white bedding, and decided to go with a white channeled quilt,  and a light throw as the nights are getting cooler already and it feels as though we are easing into fall already in New England.

The blush pink, whites, and creams along with the navy bed, just seem like a natural combo, and are cohesive with my closet’s blue built ins.

The sheets are plain white, but they’re super soft and delicate when paired next to the sharp lines and dark tone of the headboard.  I just adore the ruffled trim on the top sheet.

The rug, was once in our dining room, but was a little too small for the space, so I brought it upstairs.  I love that it has a soothing gray tone along with hints of blush, it really compliments the color scheme in here.  Speaking of color scheme–when I was finished choosing items for this space I asked my husband how he felt about me adding all of this pink to the bedroom, he looked at me and said “All I do is sleep in here, I don’t care!”  Good answer, I thought— he never really has strong opinions on décor (Thank God!)

 

 

 

The table lamps, ahhh! I’m pretty much obsessed with these lamps.  I just adore the texture they add to the space, they’re so cool!

Because our bed had to be placed in front of the window, I chose extra long window treatments that almost extend wall-to wall, and ceiling to floor.  They give the room a luxurious feeling, and help to anchor the bed.  You may notice that I went with just a shade on the adjacent wall.  Well, that also has to do with our sloped walls.  With sloped walls anything that you hang on the wall takes up floor space, so I made the conscious decision to keep that window bare as I wanted the room to feel open and not closterphobic with curtains on that wall taking up additional space.  Ideally, I would have purchased woven shades that were a bit wider, and installed them a bit higher on the outside of the window frame, but I had already invested in these from early on so I decided to make them work–I may eventually switch them out if I find something that I love.

The nightstands, that are actually end tables, work perfectly in the space.  They are deep enough to hold a nice sized table lamp, have excellent storage with an adjustable shelf, yet they look light and airy with their open, decorative sides.  I also love that they have a pullout tray for even more table top space.

 

We typically keep a television in our room, so we chose the Pryce server for our bedroom to act as a television console.

The funny thing is that since the furniture arrived, we actually decided to try going TV free in the bedroom for a while, I’ll have to let you guys know how that goes.

I removed the wine rack insert and opted for a knit basket to store miscellaneous items.

 

 

The large mirror was brought up from our dining room, as I’ve recently replaced it with a gallery wall.

The wall color we chose was Repose Gray.  It’s very similar to the gray we used in our old bedroom, as I love for our room to feel calm and soothing.  The large wall art was a 3-minute DIY, and the other 2 are framed prints from an old art book.

I typically don’t like to put chairs in the bedroom, as we all know how that ends up—it becomes a landing zone for clothes, but the corner looked a little sad, so I took this one from our old living room to create a little reading area, with a wall sconce.

My husband recently surprised me with the tall bamboo (Chinoiserie?) shelf.  I love this addition to our bedroom, as it provides some interest and a place to display things I love.

 

 

And that about wraps up my bedroom reveal! Thanks so much for stopping by, let me know your favorite part down in the comments.

Before

 

After:

We are so grateful to Raymour & Flanigan for partnering with us once again, to make our new bedroom a beautiful and comfortable space to retreat to.

Furniture Quicks Links:

Chandler Queen Bed

Reverie Adjustable Queen base

Pryce Server

Stearns and Foster Hurston Queen Mattress

Dahlia End Table

Click HERE for additional Bedroom Sources