My Knight in Shining Armour: The Chesterfield Shop

By: Christina Wallaert

(From the blog: Not A Shopaholic)

Once upon a time there was a lovely girl who grew up in the suburbs and dreamed that one day she would be able to afford a condo in the city somewhat bigger than the size of a shoebox. When that day eventually came, she packed up her fantastic wardrobe, IKEA bedroom set and moved into said condo with its hardwood floors, spacious bedroom and gigantic balcony. Having lived with her parents her entire life, she had no furniture to speak of. The bigger than a shoebox condo remained relatively empty for over a year. A leather club chair, ottoman and barstools were the only furniture pieces to keep her company. After a year and a half of owning one piece of furniture and scouring the city and suburbs far and wide for a sofa that would fit in her beloved condo, the girl decided to buy a sofa and a slipper chair from a reputable retail chain. After many visits to the store, many searches online, measuring her living room and furniture selections, she came to terms with the price and took the plunge. The girl filled out the proper papers, picked out fabric for her furniture that would have made it magazine worthy and handed over a deposit. Now she was tortured with waiting 8-10 weeks for her magazine worthy furniture to arrive.

She waited patiently for the day her furniture would finally arrive, well maybe not that patient but she did the best she could. At the 8 week mark she called the store to check on the date of arrival, after all this was the most important day of her life. To move the story along quickly, it turns out the magazine worthy furniture was never ordered by the reputable retail chain. Hmmm, what? Yes, you read right. The order was never submitted. She wasn’t going to be getting furniture anytime soon. They offered to rush the order, but this girl had had enough. She demanded her deposit back from the big bad retail chain, much to the horror of her family and friends who thought she should have stuck with the original order. But lovely girls in the city don’t believe in rewarding bad behaviour so this girl set out to take her business elsewhere.Now, the situation wasn’t as bad as you might think, for this girl already knew where she was going to go. Having visited a friend’s condo a few months before, she was smart enough to inquire as to where the friend had purchased her furniture. When the friend replied “The Chesterfield Shop”, the girl had no idea what she was talking about. After the big bad retail company screwed up her order, she knew she had to look up The Chesterfield Shop and check it out. The salesperson was very sympathetic to her predicament. He was a great help in pointing out their condo sized sofas, provided her with pricing and matching fabric to her sample. Within an hour of entering the store, she had a sofa and fabric picked out and signed on the dotted line. This purchase ended up costing less than the previous so some good came out of it. She settled in to wait another 6 weeks for her sofa. Luck was on her side this time because at 4 weeks she got a call and her sofa was delivered on a beautiful Saturday morning in September. It was so pretty and nice she didn’t even want to sit on it for risk of getting it dirty. It has become the centrepiece of the living room and this girl couldn’t be happier. Now her condo resembles an actual home thanks to The Chesterfield Shop and many other stores. The Chesterfield Shop will always have a special place in her heart. It is now the store she recommends to anyone who needs furniture. As it turns out, the lovely girl’s best friend and husband ended up buying furniture for their house there too. And they saved money compared to the place they had originally been looking at. See a trend here?

So now that the lovely girl has her beautiful sofa in her beautiful condo, what is she to do with her time? Why search for her Prince of course!

Authors Note: While I was working on this piece, I came home one day and there was a delivery truck from The Chesterfield Shop parked in front of the condo building next to mine. Its was pretty funny timing.

My sofa and I are very happy together.