The days of my marketplace couch are officially over

It’s 9pm on a humid weeknight. I’m sweating bullets as my partner and I lift our beloved old IKEA couch into our apartment hallway.

We’re getting our replacement – a King Living modular couch – delivered in the morning, and something about it feels like a rite of passage into adulthood.

In some ways, saying goodbye to this piece of furniture feels more adult than being a first-home buyer: we are now making our apartment home, one big adult purchase at a time.

In 2021, when our IKEA couch – along with many other marketplace finds – made the move with us, we’d not yet settled on a style of our own.

The decor was more a product of circumstance: that is, the charming but eclectic mix of furnishings that result from living in a share house.

With time, and many Saturdays spent pottering and rearranging, we learned how best to utilise the space in our new home. We watched countless videos on small-space living, all from the comfort of our trusty couch.

It was a key part of every layout we tried on for size, staying the same even as little things in our lives and surroundings began to change.

We’d put off replacing it for as long as possible. In its heyday, one regular guest would rave about its supreme comfort, but now it was no longer comfortable, was getting lumpy, and the fabric was warping at the back.

After many failed attempts to find something online, we stepped into a King Living showroom. We’d decided to shop around, but from the moment we sank into the velvety cushions of the sage green modular, there wasn’t a contest.

It was love at first sight.

My partner and I are both quite tall – we couldn’t believe the fact that we could both stretch out. That alone felt like true luxury – more so than the 25-year warranty that it came with it.

I love the cushy newness, I love the colour, and while its lack of scuffs and stains doesn’t tell much of a story – yet – there’s no doubt we’ll enjoy many new memories with this sofa in our home.

Elements of our past lives, marketplace finds and all, remain. The rug in our living room was inherited from an old housemate, as was the coffee table. Even some of the cushions, now on the new couch, are ones we’ve collected.

With this beautiful addition, it feels like our space is in its final form. At least for now.