So this is what our living room looked like for a bit this weekend. LUCY ATE THE COUCH. Just kidding.

broken couch dog

We LOVE our sectional sofa, but there was trouble in paradise. When we moved the sofa to put the console table behind it, I noticed something under the sofa. Something no good. No, no. Definitely no good. After inspecting and turning things upside down, it was clear the frame was JACKED. UP.

broken ikea karlstad sofa frame

The frame for the corner piece felt a bit loose when we first put it together. I had a “This doesn’t feel right, but what do I know?” reaction. Two months later, we were certain something was wrong. I mean, I’m all about collapsing on the couch, but come on. Thatz not okay. So we decided to use our IKEA warranty.

To scope out the warranty process, I called the IKEA hotline.

“Yeah, so this thing happened with my sofa. Back story, bobloblaw, what do I do now?”
— Oh, just bring it in with your receipt! We’ll exchange it out!
“Schweet!”
*click*
Oh %&#@ do I still have my receipt?

Yes. Whew.

Wait a second. Bring it in? Like, the whole sofa? Or just the corner piece? With or without cushions? ARRGGHH.
*Furiously redials IKEA*
“Yeah, I’m going to need some clarity on this…”
— Just bring the defective part, we don’t need anything else.

Easy enough! Dear husband helped me disassemble the couch again. We loaded it in our tiny car and set off to IKEA (2 1/2 hours away!) before 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Beep beep! Broken corner coming through!

ikea warranty sofa exchange

We pulled a number (809) and waited. Then when our number was called, we explained our problem and were told to wait a little more. Some time passed and an IKEA employee wheeled out a WHOLE new Karlstad. Whaaaat.

— Do you remember which box that piece was in?
“Uuuhhhh…that one that’s kinda shaped like it?”

Success! So yeah, swapping out that piece was painless (though it did take an hour, and that was before lunch). They didn’t even hesitate to wheel out another couch for us to pull the piece we needed. Good job, IKEA!

When we saw the new frame, our reaction was Whoooaaa, our corner was really messed up! We truly had no idea how crooked and goofy part of the original frame was. Manufacturers make mistakes, but that’s okay, because the IKEA warranty will take care of ya.

ikea warranty sofa exchange

After the brief trip, we grabbed lunch at a Vietnamese sandwich shop that had great reviews on Yelp. The shopping center was a veritable hellscape – trash, potholes and a half dozen mobile car washes (ie out of a creepy van) littered the parking lot and the interior of the strip mall had pockmarked tile, jaundice yellow walls, flickering fluorescents and an abandoned fountain. And it smelled like cigarettes. But the people of Yelp were right – that sandwich was delicious.

le's sandwich shop tryon charlotte vietnamese

Anyway, we returned home and I took advantage of the sofa being in three pieces. The light legs are a bit cheap looking, so I covered them up with a couple coats of satin black spray paint.

ikea karlstad furniture legs spray paint satin black

Quick throwback:

And now with the black legs:

charcoal sofa black legs ikea karlstad spray paint

If you have a keen eye, you may have noticed we bought lamps for the console table. That’s all the decorating we’ve done so far. Still haven’t filled those frames…sigh.

charcoal sofa black legs ikea karlstad spray paint

Better? Better!

Aaaaaand I may have bought a little something else at IKEA. But that’s for a different day. I need to iron out the wrinkles and lift the curtain rods a bit higher. But black legs + unbroken corner piece = happy day in the living room.

Have you ever taken advantage of an IKEA warranty? Have you ever had an unexpectedly easy exchange process?

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