The Couch

Have you ever heard of Alberto Nieri? I had not, until we found this great settee. It’s hard making a really good picture of such a large piece with my simple camera, so these photo’s don’t really do it credit, but you can clearly see the woodwork is handwork and the shape is well thought of: it is so comfortable!!

Underneath the cushions I found the label. Believe me, this is Italian top design. Here's the link to their official website. In fact, Ferrari designer Pininfarina designed a special line for the Nieri group. Read about that here.

When the BF moved upstairs two years ago (see previous post) I gave him some old furniture I didn’t have place for, a neighbour donated dining-room chairs and we bought a couch in the thrift-shop. He and his mate chose one that was comfortable and cheap. I found it ugly, but it’s his place, so I said nothing. Early this year we found an easy chair in great condition on the curb that matched with the colour of the couch. There was a small couch of the same model as well on the curb, but since he already had one that was slightly longer, we settled for the chair. We also didn’t have that handy dolly yet and I wasn’t looking forward to carrying the couch, especially as the chair turned out to be heavy as it was.

A few months later he decided to throw out his old two-seater couch anyway, since he was now always using his easy chair. But this summer he started talking about looking for a larger couch. I just knew he was going to want a couch again. We saw many at the curb, but none good enough to be worth the effort of bringing it up the narrow stairs.

Then last September we finally had luck. We went into the 'rich' part of our neighbourhood (large apartment blocks built some ten years ago) and already at a 100 meters distance, seeing the outline of a couch I said I’d better go home for the dolly. A closer look proved what I suspected: it was made of genuine leather, a three-seater and in great condition. This neo-classic design wouldn't be my personal choice, but the great condition and the quality of the woodwork made it easy to decide this one was going home with us. And the more I look at it, the better I like it.

As I turned to go pick up the dolly at home a man just stopped with his bicycle and wished me a good evening. I had never seen him before, but feeling happy about our find I just smiled and greeted back. When I returned I found the man and my BF chatting in French while turning around and admiring the piece. The man turned out to be a Moroccan who lives in that street and most of them love to speak French. He also pointed out the logo (AN) on the couch to us which made me suspect more and more we had found something really expensive.

I know a lot of Moroccans pick trash and recently I found out why: they load it up vans and trailers and ship it to their family at home! (And unfortunately for a good reason-there is still a lot of poverty there) So if we had arrived a minute later, I’m sure this lovely piece would now be in North-Africa. However the guy was kind enough to even help us loading it up the dolly. Now that’s real trash-pickers ways as it should.

PS: note that in between the first and last pictures the tv and rug have changed? I'll come back later to those finds :)