What Is Comfort? (and How to Get More of It)
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Bill Primavera
There is definitely something comforting about the word comfort and all of its meanings: physical, mental and spiritual. But, here, let’s get physical.
When I got my first apartment on my own when I was in college, it came unfurnished, and all I needed to get started was a bed. I decided to combine the functions of a sofa and a bed by buying a wooden door, hollow, and propping it up with four cinder blocks and covering it with a layer of foam rubber, then tacked fabric on top of that to hold it all together.
Thank God, my younger body was almost able to accommodate this self-induced torture device until I was able to acquire a regular spring and mattress.
Again, when I moved to New York City in the dark ages, I found myself in an uncomfortable situation in a five-floor walkup “cold water flat” (now illegal) where there was a bathtub in the middle of the kitchen. The tub had a flat wooden cover which served as a dining table when it was down. Nothing like eating on the same device used for cleaning oneself. It was primitive and far from a comfortable situation.
But my next apartment was in a new building in Brooklyn Heights. I had graduated from having to have two roommates to the luxury of living alone, but I had no furniture to start. My first purchases were a kitchen table set on the bargain floor of Macy’s and a Swedish modern sofa, purchased at a discount furniture store close out. The table set was a bargain because it came with only three chairs instead of four. I don’t know what happened to the fourth chair, but at the bargain price of only $35 for the whole set, I didn’t care that I could only invite a limit of two guests for dinner at a time. Not that I had yet learned anything about cooking. (And I still don’t, but, luckily, I eventually found a wife who’s a great cook).
The Swedish Modern sofa doubled as a bed: a foam-rubber nightmare that is responsible for my eventually banishing anything made of bounce-back material from my life. Now when I plop down on a pillowed chair, I expect it to stay plopped.
Having been educated at the College of William & Mary in that bastion of history, Colonial Williamsburg, I was very much into colonial-style furnishings, but could not yet afford them, and that Swedish Modern really went across my grain, both looks-wise and comfort-wise.
My next piece of furniture was a Chippendale-style settee purchased at that great store, B. Altman, in its Colonial Williamsburg shop. To make that purchase, I invited along a young woman who worked as a secretary in my publishing company. That piece of furniture was richly comfortable, and I still own it. I should say WE still own it, because I ended up marrying the young secretary I invited along for approval of the covering fabric I selected. Together we still enjoy sitting on the well-tufted piece.
But the most important thing in considering comfort and allowing for it is where we spend one-third of our life: the mattress (and as I write this, my TV is showing a Stearns and Foster commercial). My mattress is like a gentle massage to my body and helps me to lull myself to sleep in minutes.
In fact, one of my greatest regrets in terms of home furnishings is when I let go of a big and comfortable wing-backed chair that I thought would be too bulky for my downsized condo when I moved some years ago from a large colonial home. The buyers liked our taste and invited us to leave any furnishings for them along with the sale. At the time, I was glad that I didn’t have to find sources for disposing of the extra furnishings that we weren’t bringing with us. But to this day, I still regret losing that great comfortable piece.
I guess the moral of the story is to put comfort above anything else in your furnishing decisions. I think about that every time I sit in my newer wingback chair that isn’t nearly as comfortable as that old, unattractive, bulky –but comfortable — piece.
Bill Primavera is a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate and Founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com, specializing in lifestyles, real estate and development. To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
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