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We're soon moving into our first 'bought together' house and the current chaise sofa wont fit/work in the living room so we'd like to buy two leather two seater sofas.
Wondering if anyone has bought a sofa in say the last 5 years and been happy with it or really disappointed? I know plenty of people may have bought one ten-twenty years ago and had many many years of good use from it but lets face it most stuff doesnt seem to work that way any more.
I bought from SCS with an ex within the last 5 years and was really disappointed in how quickly it looked rubbish and saggy. Happy to pay more if we're actually going to get more life out of it and it still be good in ten years time. Next sofas for example are about double the price of one from DFS.
We bought a couple of sofas from DFS somewhere between 5-7 years ago and they have been perfectly fine. We did replace/upgrade the budget cushions on one of them but only because we should have done that in the first place.
We have some newer (last 2 years) wooden furniture from Next (sideboard, nest of tables, display ladder thing) and it seems to be pretty decent quality. I think that’s where our next (lol) sofa will come from.
We bought a couple of refurb ones from the charity in Kendal that gets people back in work. Decent stuff and a sensible price.
What's your budget?
In the last year I’ve bought new sofas/sofa beds from Thomas Lloyd/Sofa Sofa, Swyft and Cocoon. The first was great - we had 2 from them in our previous house for over 20 years. We now have a new leather one in the kitchen diner - more commonly used as a dog bed!
We bought 2x Swyft 3-seaters for our lounge - slight snag when they delivered 1 2/3 rather than 2, but resolved promptly and they gave us £200 refund as a gesture of goodwill.
Cocoon were a nightmare - gave them our delivery address when we placed the order for a sofa bed and they gave us a delivery date in 6 weeks. Regular emails informing us of progress and despatch - promising delivery in 2 weeks. 10 days after the delivery date I emailed to enquire - turns out they didn’t realise we lived on ‘a Scottish island’ and they’d sent it by the wrong carrier and it was now on it’s way back to factory (in Poland) to be put on a different truck! After another couple of weeks it arrived without warning in the pouring rain on the back of an open truck! Fortunately, well-wrapped in plastic so it was OK, but a total mare to deal with.
I can recommend Springvale Leather in Rawtenstall, I live opposite and always chat to Peter the owner - he's a good community spirited guy.
I've seen their frames before the sofa's are made and know what leather and foams they use, they export a lot to Europe and are always busy.
Not M&S.
We ordered 2x 2 seater sofas during lockdown in February, mostly as they were the only company we could find that said we could return if we didn't like them as we couldn't sit on one before ordering.
Initial 6 week delivery time ended up being 16, within a week one of them had partially collapsed and it took another 14 weeks for them to get a replacement to us with 2 cancelled delivery days.
By the time the replacement arrived the other one has started to creak and has a noticeable sag in one side.
Can't face the hassle of trying to get them to fix it so will put up with them for a year or so then get some more.
They do look nice though.
I think the bottom line is that you get what you pay for. I bought a 2.5 seater sofa and foot stool in 2003. It cost £2.5k. I had a local upholstery firm refill the seat and back pads a couple of years ago. Cost £220. It looked like new when it returned.
The day room sofa was from IKEA in 2008. Still looks new. Best £700 sofa I’ve seen.
SiL has had at least 4 three piece suites from DFS and the like in the same time. Spent more and they are horrible things to sit on.
That there Springfield Leather sounds like a decent place to start.
Look at the Tetrad factory shop in Preston, they list their stock on fb. They are pretty big so check the measurements.
I got a new L type sofa with the non-slippy leather on from…, damn, one of the main places. It was about 2.5k so at the top end of what I was going to be able to pay.
It arrived reasonably quickly, went together well and was pretty well put together. I found a couple of pinholes in the leather and, without question, the shop sent out a chap to replace the sections.
I left the country pretty soon after that, and sold it for 900 quid or something, so lost a lot of money on it. Kind of wish I had just gone with a second hand one to start with, but that’s something I can’t change.
The good thing about buying new from a shop is that you can sit in the sofa and feel what it is like. As much as I liked my old sofa (and I did) it was super-old, smelled of dog and was pretty knackered. The new one was more comfortable. Probably too big for the room though.
We got our leather sofa from Furniture Village, although that was almost 10yeard ago.
There were two that we liked the look of & the sales guy was really helpful. He advised in one, over the other due to the construction method.
One was just foam cushioning while the other was more of a sprung construction. I can't remember the exact details, but he made the point that the foam one feels good when new, but quickly gets crushed and squashed which will leave it feeling tired and worn, while the sprung one will have a much better lifetime.
So far that seems to be bearing out, as they are still comfortable and looking in reasonable condition. The leather could probably do with some TLC, but that's down to us being lazy.
We've had a couple of IKEA sofas and they've been good. Can generally get replacement covers and cushions as well, should the kids or pets mess them up. Plus a lot are machine washable.
Bought from Sofa Workshop (Deansgate branch in Manchester) about 3 years ago. Fabric, not leather as was done with leather sofa's and sliding off continuously...Sofa took 4 months to arrive but has been brilliant and seems to be standing up to the rigours of small children pulling the cushions off and using them to play "The Floor is Lava" on a DAILY basis. Sofa Workshop now opened by DFS I think, but that was in place when we bought and the quality has been great. Also good being able to try it out in the shop too.
Not M&S.
This. Our first leather sofa was an ex-demonstrator from the main store in Chester, lasted 15 years. On the strength of this got a new one a just before lockdown and the arm collapsed within a couple of months. Got repaired, by replacement of the arm card, and the bloke strengthened it by putting webbing under it.
Was somewhat surprised to see that the arm card was exactly that - thick cardboard. TBH, it's not that comfortable to sit on either.
In between the two M&S we had a Next one. Leather surface started to fail, (can't remember how now) inside 2 years so that one was refunded.
Like Stumpy, we've also got a Furniture Village one that's doing good service, but that's way past 10 years old now.
Budget wise considering we only want a two seater sofa so nothing posh with recliners I wouldn’t want to pay more than £1500 each really.
Saw Springvale but wasn’t sure if they did any sort of payment plan as website doesn’t mention any and that’s important really.
No kids to ruin the sofa and dogs have their own beds, they don’t sit on my sofa.
I think the bottom line is that you get what you pay for.
Bought from Sofa Workshop (Deansgate branch in Manchester) about 3 years ago.
Out two sofas came from Sofa Workshop Direct about 18 years ago, think they cost £300 (3 seater) and £200 (2 seater). Still on original cushions, covers etc and are structurally fine. The fabric, whilst very robust, hasn't really held up to four cats using them as scratching posts day in / day out. You can at least take the covers off and wash them, which is very handy when one of the four throws up a partially digested mice etc on them.