<\/p>\nIn the story, the designer of this room said that \u201ccomfort and functionality were key for this family.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have no problem with functionality, of course. Who wants a dysfunctional living room?<\/p>\n
Comfort, on the other hand, can be a curse.<\/p>\n
When I first moved to New Jersey in 1990, I found myself furnishing my place with furniture that was plush and overstuffed.<\/p>\n\nI wanted people to make \u201cMmm\u201d sounds when they sank into my sofa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nAnd that\u2019s precisely what they did. I would invite them over for drinks or to watch a movie and they would spread out on my sofa, tell me how comfortable it was and then \u2026<\/p>\n
Zzzz …<\/p>\n
Fall asleep.<\/p>\n
Just like that. Out like a light.<\/p>\n
To be honest, it annoyed me. We\u2019re watching a movie or having a conversation, and the next thing I know, you\u2019re in Dreamland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis sofa is sooo comfortable,\u201d they would tell me, as I gently nudged them awake. Or screamed at them. Or jabbed them with a mop.<\/p>\n
Comfort, as you may already know, can lead to all sorts of negative things. Complacency. Stagnation. Unhealthy social behaviors.<\/p>\n\nWas Gandhi comfortable? Was Van Gogh comfortable? Einstein? Lincoln?<\/p>\n
As Nietzsche said: \u201cSociety tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, yes, I hold man\u2019s furniture personally responsible.<\/p>\n
When I bought my first house in 1998, I decided that I should invest in some new furniture that suited my new outlook.<\/p>\n
I wanted to ditch the overstuffed grandma stuff for pieces that were more modern, structured and severe.<\/p>\n\nYes, I was becoming a brutalist, intent on punishing my sleepy guests.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t want anything mushy that would be too cushy on their tushy.<\/p>\n
I had also reached a point in my life when I was making decent money and no longer had to shop in stores that had \u201cdiscount,\u201d \u201cclearance\u201d or \u201cto go\u201d in their names.<\/p>\n\nWe didn\u2019t use the phrase \u201ccomfort zone\u201d in those days, but I was intent on going outside of mine \u2014 that symbolic place where everything feels safe, familiar and free of stress.<\/p>\n
So I marched into a real, live grown-up furniture store where nothing was cheap or cheesy or stuffed with polystyrene peanuts.<\/p>\n
As I moved slowly through the showroom, with my nose in the air, a nattily-dressed salesman approached, unsure whether I was worth his time or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay I assist you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, my good man,\u201d I replied. \u201cI\u2019m looking for a sofa.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked what I had in mind.<\/p>\n
I stared him in the eye and said, \u201cI want something expensive and uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes widened gleefully. And my guests have been sitting at attention ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.northjersey.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These furniture pieces are worth splurging on for your new home: Video Buying your first home is an investment. Filling the space with furniture is a whole other story. Here\u2019s advice for saving and splurging. Today\u2019s topic is comfort. And why I\u2019m against it. It was inspired by a recent House Beautiful magazine spread that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2186612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[39915,22220,43013,421802,349305,6297,21741,240269,305252,311659,42645,421800,24215,374567,421804,339770,374566,421801,305430,348707,421803,21739,298114,305244,366383,211924,366384,35411,366389,325567,305209,239343,239453,305243,339337,67134,305245,239344],"class_list":["post-2186611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-affiliate","tag-arts","tag-content","tag-decor","tag-design","tag-eamotion","tag-entertainment","tag-exclude","tag-exclude-from-paywall-logic-testing","tag-facebook","tag-from","tag-furniture","tag-home","tag-home-improvement-hub","tag-home-u0026-interior-decor","tag-hub","tag-improvement","tag-interior","tag-jersey","tag-living","tag-living-room-furniture","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-logic","tag-morristown","tag-neutral","tag-newton","tag-nj","tag-nj-content-sharing-morristown","tag-nj-content-sharing-north-jersey","tag-north","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-paywall","tag-room","tag-sharing","tag-testing","tag-u0026"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Modern-furniture-is-pretty-and-pretty-uncomfortable-says-Ervolino.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186613,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186611\/revisions\/2186613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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