I am helping my adult daughter find furniture for her office. She is a therapist so what she is furnishing is essentially like a very small living room. It’s in an urban hi-rise office building, so think SMALL.

It needs to be quality for the price. Not IKEA. Style looks too cheesy for this purpose. It should transmit “successful” but not “this therapist will cost us too much”.

Style: simple and modern. We are thinking neutrals: she wants grey, white accents, with medium to dark woods. Then color will be added with the rug, throw pillows, art on the walls (not prints, but not $ either).

Here is what she needs, in order of importance: as things go down the list she does not have a budget: it gets fuzzy. It depends on what she saved or had to spend on the bigger pieces. We are trying to choose in order as each piece found reduces the range suitability of the remaining pieces.

Sofa large enough to seat 3 people. No fabrics that can’t take wear, no velvet, chenille, etc. Max of $ 750, hopefully less.

Armchair for her to sit in. She will spend all day in this (ouch), so if she needs to spend more there, she’s good with it, if she can cut somewhere else. This is where we hope to introduce some color. Either pattern or a rich solid. She’s thinking purple, I hope to steer her to blue or teal as it’s easier to match to other things. $ 400 tops.

Desk the size of a console table. It cannot be deep, there’s no room for it. Does not need file drawers. Files will be elsewhere. Just room for her laptop and notes. $ 200?

3 side / end tables. Wood, not glass. 2 will hold lamps. Again, cannot be large. Those need a drawer. One each side of sofa, one for next to her therapist chair. $ 150 each, hopefully less.

Area rug. $ 150

2+ lamps. There is also a ceiling light which will always be on. Not traditional. I think a good modern styled lamp will set a tone.

Wall art. A piece for over the sofa, and one for next to her chair. I have all sorts of opinions on this but will keep my mouth shut. Mostly. Not a place for originality. Think soothing but modern hospital art.

2 table clocks. One for her to see, the other for the client.

We need to get the most bang for her budget. We shopped all day yesterday. I told her to choose the sofa first and we would build it around that. After the whole day we finally found a sofa that would work. It is $ 500. She did not commit though: now that we’ve been to a lot of stores she is taking a day to think things over. We both learned a lot in the process. We will go out again tomorrow.

So here is basically what I am asking. Most of what we saw in stores was too oversized for her space. The sofas were fine. We found NO armchairs that she even remotely liked.

I don’t know if these chains have any relevance for people outside Chicago.

We went to Bob’s Discount Furniture in her area (she liked their website). Despite the name, not too cheap. It looked decent. Prices were more than at the “better” stores in my area. We found that area had a LOT of furniture stores but we didn’t want to waste time, so went to chains where we had some idea what they had.

World Market in her area : the supervisor who’s leaving bought all her furniture there. Not a very big selection but it seems like every store has different things. Could be good for the end tables and the rug.

Home Goods in her area: nothing. Maybe lamps, once we get that far.

In my area we went to Steinhafel’s (BIG store, many sofas). Some good sofa choices. No suitable armchairs or end tables.

Ashley Furniture. That’s where she found her best choice sofa. No suitable armchairs or end tables.

I would love suggestions of where else to look.

I like Dania for style (that’s where I took my son for his furniture) but most of the store is too expensive for her budget. Maybe too glass and metal oriented as well. We didn’t go there, I am judging by memory.

She is looking online but that gives me a lot of hesitation - for her to buy something she can’t touch or try out. She likes the arm chairs at Wayfair. If anyone has any experience with this or other reliable online furniture sources, please chime in.

I would appreciate any leads. Thanks!