Reupholster/recover or buy new sofas?

hethmar · 5 January 2013 at 1:00PM

Hope this is the right board.

Advice please - we have two leather sofas we bought about 6 years ago from Furniture Village, lovely red ruby colour BUT on the three seater there are areas of the leather wearing off. We have had a leather restorer in and basically he tells us its cheap leather composite (apparently a bit like chipboard is to real wood ) and the cost of repairs would be beyond the original price paid for these, which was about £800 for the pair.

NOW, we were thinking we may as well replace them with some decent quality ones (shame, as they look great style and colour wise) but we now wonder whether it would be better to have our 18 year old multiyork sofas (which the leather ones replaced in the main room) recovered and reupholstered?

The frames seem totally fine, but years of kids and dogs ruined the covers and of course, the back cushions which were feather filled are sagging and need replacing and I dare say the seat cushions could do with replacing too. They are currently covered in throws and in two different rooms and rarely used

So - here is the problem. The sales are all on at the moment, should we rush out and buy new sofas or have the multiyork ones (which would cost something like £3500 in the sale nowdays) freshened up?

Any advice welcome please.

cattie · 5 January 2013 at 2:52PM

My living room furniture is Multiyork and it's so lovely and comfortable that, rather than pay out for a new comparable quality suite when the covers started to look past their best, I decided to get Multiyork to make me new covers.

However, my back and seat cushions are in perfect condition, so it was only new covers I was in need of. I was lucky in finding that one of their top quality fabrics that I liked was reduced as it was going to be discontinued. Having new covers made was far cheaper than buying a new quality suite and should I ever decide on a change again, it'll be more new covers for me, as the frames really are built to last.

hethmar · 5 January 2013 at 3:09PM

Thanks cattie, dithering over what to do. Whether to buy cheaper sofas but replace them every 6 years or so would probably work out much the same as buying two multiyork sofas now, even in the sale. Its a conundrum. I got the leather ones because I thought it would be more suitable with our two dogs. I know, I know - but there is no way they are not going to get up on the sofas so I have to work with that, rather than fight it

Multiyork covers would work out at about £1500 from them - which is a bit of a stomach churner and Id need the cushions replaced. I was looking at Plumbs site which seem to have the templates for multiyork and wondering whether to get a quote from them. Add to all this, our local multiyork shop rang this morning to say their sale ends tomorrow if Im interested in buying sofas at the current sale price less an extra 15% ............

PollyOnAMission · 5 January 2013 at 3:41PM

Try contacting Furniture Village; there was a big blow up recently regarding them mis-selling composite leather sofas as genuine leather. I bought mine from them over five years ago, found out about the composite thing (thanks to this forum) and contacted the store regarding their mis-selling. They sent someone round and offered me £300 (I think) store credit or £150 cash. I took the cash and told my friend (who had the same sofas) about it; he got the same offer.

It might be worth you pursuing this; although there's no guarantee it applies to your sofa, it can't do any harm!

PollyOnAMission · 5 January 2013 at 3:51PM

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2274725&highlight=scala

wallbash · 5 January 2013 at 4:33PM

You have had a sofa costing £400, lasted six years with kids and dogs , seems to me you have had your money's worth .
My FV sofa's ( without dogs) nearly 10 years old still look great.

gibson123 · 5 January 2013 at 5:38PM

Is it worth trying some DIY upholstery on your old sofa? It can be straight forward depending on the shape of your sofa, time and whether you know one end of a staple gun from another, lots of on-line tutorials and at the moment you can get some good upholstery fabric bargains on line.

hethmar · 5 January 2013 at 5:41PM

wallbash wrote: »

You have had a sofa costing £400, lasted six years with kids and dogs , seems to me you have had your money's worth .
My FV sofa's ( without dogs) nearly 10 years old still look great.

Hi, the Furniture Village leather sofas have had only two middleage adults

The Multiyork sofas were the ones who took the brunt of two growing boys - who are now in their late 20s and early 30s and not at home

The FV sofas were a bargain bought for their colour and style, not quality - I was not complaining about them, though I am now very interested to note that there has been a lot of complaints re them mis-selling composite leather as real leather. The odd thing is the worn areas arent in places you would expect wear at all.

hethmar · 5 January 2013 at 6:19PM

Polly - thank you SO much! Ive been reading through those posts and whilst I first thought it is too late to complain, I see some of them had sofas as long as we have and as they say, its not a case of the time involved but the fact the sofas were sold as leather when they patently werent. We had the alexis sofa set in ruby red.

I did send an email to FV customer services on 20 December, before I knew about all the other people complaining, or the fact that FV has received a ruling about misselling - I had an email back the same day saying our FV shop was closed and that the manager would contact me after christmas. He hasnt and I wasnt going to pursue it until I read all those posts. I have just contacted the customer services again saying the Manager hasnt contacted me and that since my previous mail I had become aware of the problems of FV misdescribing these sofas.

I will let you know of the outcome.

PollyOnAMission · 5 January 2013 at 7:35PM

Good luck

hethmar · 5 January 2013 at 7:52PM

Just found the receipt - August 2006 but as that thread says, its the miselling that we should go for. Leather sofas should last longer than 6 years. Its also interesting that on the receipt it refers to the sofa as "hide" which patently it wasnt/isnt!

Reupholster/recover or buy new sofas?

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