As most of you already know, we’ve been participating in an ongoing contest in which we’re blogging about redesigning our living room. The whole thing is sponsored by local retailer Su Casa, who informed us that our couch has in fact been built and shipped, and is right this very moment on its way to us from California.

Most of the furniture we’ve added so far has come from Su Casa, although the sofa we ordered is coming from their sister store across the street in Fell’s Point, Pad. While Su Casa’s stores hew to the contemporary with heavy doses of eclecticism, Pad is a bit more sophisticated with an overall modernist aesthetic.

Looking over some of the other contest entries, it appears that we’re the only blog that chose a piece of furniture from Pad. If those other bloggers didn’t check out Pad we’d say they missed the boat, and while we wait for our couch to arrive we’re going to take this opportunity to show them the view from the deck of that boat.

The first thing in Pad that’s going to catch your eye, maybe even before you make it into the store, is the Mood Rocking Bed. As ecologically friendly as it is visually stunning, this bed is available in sizes from twin to king and in a variety of metal finishes. Designed for indoor/outdoor use, it also comes with rubber chocks which hold it stable in a flat or angled position. Since we’re not shopping for a bed, we resisted the temptation to lie down and start rocking, but for anyone who wants to give it a try, Pad is happy to accommodate.

The bed is so stunning, in fact, that it’s easy to overlook the modernist light fixtures hanging directly above it. Our hands-down favorite is this one, made from reused bomber bottles. Hanging lamps like these are more often found in upscale restaurants and lounges, and bring instant cosmopolitan cred to any kitchen or man cave, or even work in a sunroom or creative space.

Now that we’ve got all of our larger furniture pieces bought and paid for, we’re starting to be on the lookout for things like light fixtures and the other finishing touches we’ll need to round out the space. This Geometric floating shelf is very high on our list and would allow us to sneak in a little book decor, which is one of our favorite things. At only twenty bucks, the shelf is a steal.

While you’re in there testing out the goods, be sure to set a spell on the Barcelona chair. We’ve got a good friend who owns one of these, and we can vouch for its comfort and function in a real life apartment. Of course, it doesn’t need us to vouch for it since it was designed by Mies van der Rohe for the Queen of Spain and won a Museum of Modern Art Award and became a modernist icon and etc etc etc.

But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Pad has the chair on sale. In fact, when we were in there last week there were quite a lot of items marked down on sale. If you buy the Barcelona chair though they’ll give you the matching ottoman for free. They’ll also deliver it and haul away your crappy old chair for free, and donate it to charity, although that’s not part of the sale. It’s just what they do for every customer every day.

The truth is that there’s more fascinating furniture on display in Pad’s showroom than we can possibly feature here. From the bedroom to the kitchen to decor items and even monthly displays of original artworks, anyone visiting Fell’s that doesn’t pop in for a look is definitely missing out. We’re incredibly excited to take home a piece from the store, and can’t wait to put our feet up on our new sofa.

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Pad is located at 1500 Thames Street in Fell’s Point. (410) 563-4723. You can read the rest of the posts in this series and see the progress of our living room design here.