Every sofa at C&B has a different manufacturer. The Bayside is made by Lee but I think that's the only one. Other manufacturers are McCreary Modern and Mitchell Gold. Personally, I would just buy a Lee Industries sofa from Alan Ferguson's in NC. I paid about $1500 for my sofa plus delivery and it's the most comfortable sofa ever. There are some recent threads talking about Lee and AF, you may want to check them out.

If you have the chance to buy one of their pieces, you should! I bought a sofa and loveseat at Macy's in 2002 made by Southern (for $1400 on clearance!!). It has lasted thru two little kids and all their friends as the primary family room set, two standard poodles, and two cats. Not only do we still have the set, the seat cushions are still completely puffy! We regularly remove the covers on the cushions and wash them (they are chenille) and they don't shrink, fade, and have just now developed a slight hole along a back seam. While the set looks somewhat dated and I'd like to replace them, I just can't get past having to pay $4000 for a comparable set that will probably only hold up for two or three years. Ours are still insanely comfortable and a quality I haven't seen in modern furniture stores (Lee, Rowe, Restoration Hardware, etc). Southern still makes the sofa set I have, only now it is upholstered in linen. My husband just said to buy from them again or have someone slipcover it in a heavy linen. I wish I could find a dealer by me in Florida! And trust me, I've tried.

We have the Rowe slipcover sofa and chairs and really love them. They are extremely comfortable and the slipcovers are easily cleaned (a real boon with 4 grandchildren!). You can use the arrow at the bottom of the pictures to see other pictures of the furniture. Slipcovered furniture never has the crisp, perfectly neat look of regular upholstered furniture, but I love the slightly rumpled comfortable look. It is fairly easily to smooth out any wrinkles, but I didn't for the pictures so you could see how they look on a lazy Sunday afternoon when they have been used all day! I didn't even pick up the magazines or evict the cat! I chose Rowe because I liked their color patterns and the comfort of the seats. I can order new slipcovers anytime in the future because Rowe keeps the patterns, even when a line is discontinued. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful:

Wow, this has turned out to be a fascinating read! I am the OP and thank everyone for posting about their experiences and ideas and philosophies of furniture acquisition. :-) Sorry I disappeared for several days but work gets a bit hectic at times, and I'm just now resurfacing. So, using the amazing powers of the internet, plus speaking to some friends and family members who have decorated in a taste and style that I like, I came up with a preliminary budget. After interviewing several people, we picked one, and so far we are very happy with her. She has been very communicative - looked at the photos of the things we said we liked, and the room photos (from magazines) that project the "feel" we want, and she has been suggesting appropriate lines and pieces. And yes, I did want to discuss budget with her, so we would be on the same page. I do NOT want to even look at a $7000 coffee table - the one we currently have has a constant parade of tiny fingerprints on it and bits of goo, and I just can't imagine worrying about a piece like that, which is SOOO perfect in size for kids to put their coloring books and sippy cups on. It would be terrible to be a child in a house and not be able to use the coffee table because your parents spent a ridiculous amount on it and don't want it to be used! She actually did say that she was appreciative of the budget guidelines during the interview. After we hired her, she suggested I look at the websites of a few companies (that I'd never heard of) and I've seen some pieces that look nice, so we will plan some shopping trips together to a design bldg (I think she said Lexington near 34th St, need to check my notes) when work slows down, and maybe the same day or another one, we'll go to the Decorator's bldg near Bloomies (on 3rd Ave) as well. For you NYers or frequent visitors to NYC out there, you might already know these places and it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on "can't miss" showrooms... Even if a place is astronomically priced, I don't mind walking in and looking around as you can glean some inspiration from it. The one place I told her I'd been to several times already during our reno is the A&D bldg, b/c there were a lot of kitchen/tile/plumbing type stuff there, and just a few furniture places which I'm already familiar with, so no need to visit that one together. She did not give me the impression that she will waste our time (yes, we are paying by the hour, with a small commission on the furniture) - she seems very organized and efficient. I do think this is fair, b/c her hourly rate is quite reasonable, and in total, the hours this will take are not huge. She also lives in NYC, and honestly, to make enough to live here, I do think the commission to the decorator is necessary, so we have no problems paying that.