Buying new sofas advice

Susan1942

I am in the process of choosing new sofas and wondering about reviews posted on one particular brand. Duresta. I have the brand which has given good service but looking online there seems to be multiple problems with late delivery errors with the order and dissatisfaction with how complaints are dealt with.
I have found another brand David Gundry but I am unable to find any reviews.  Any advice would be appreciated 

Mutton_Geoff

Another option is sofasofa.co.uk - no connection to the business but bought several sofas & chairs from them in the past and been very happy for the price. In my main living room, I have a Michael Tyler sofa which is top quality.

kdotdotdotdot

Susan1942 said:

 I have the brand which has given good service but looking online there seems to be multiple problems with late delivery errors with the order and dissatisfaction with how complaints are dealt with.

In my experience, there isn't a single company on this planet that doesn't have complaints from customers about something.  If the delivery problems are in recent reviews, then that's more likely to be either Covid-related, or Brexit-related (or both!), and may still be an issue for the timebeing.  

Are you able to get to furniture shops? There is such a huge range of brands and options that it's worth taking a look in bricks and mortar shops and speaking to the people working there, rather than just looking online (if that's what you're doing). 

Good luck choosing your sofa. I practically had a second midlife crisis choosing mine - couldn't imagine that choosing a damn sofa could be so stressful!

Grumpy_chap

How do you choose a sofa and assess the quality?

I ask as an addition to this thread because we saw a sofa in a shop during lock-down and when we passed the shop last week, popped in to have a look.  Fortunately, the sofa was really uncomfortable as the price tag was £7.5k 

So, comfort has to be a criteria, but all sofas are really just cheap timber frame, some foam and cloth over.  How do you assess the quality?

How can any sofa be worth £7.5k?

Another_Level

John Lewis is my first consideration. 

daveyjp

Grumpy_chap said:

How do you choose a sofa and assess the quality?

I ask as an addition to this thread because we saw a sofa in a shop during lock-down and when we passed the shop last week, popped in to have a look.  Fortunately, the sofa was really uncomfortable as the price tag was £7.5k 

So, comfort has to be a criteria, but all sofas are really just cheap timber frame, some foam and cloth over.  How do you assess the quality?

How can any sofa be worth £7.5k?

Quality is largely in the bits you can't see, i.e. the frame.

You can test how well it is built by seeing how heavy it is.  Try moving a single chair.

On a sofa, choose the three seater and lift it on one corner at floor level.  If its easy the frame is light.  

You then need to see how far you get the corner off the floor before the other end starts lifting. If its many inches the frame is twisting showing little support along the front, you will see the twist.  No more than an inch and its well built.

kdotdotdotdot

Grumpy_chap said:

How can any sofa be worth £7.5k?

That depends on what it's made of (solid, quality wood for the frame versus roughly sawn rubbish wood), what it's covered in (finest Italian ostrich leather or vinyl) and how it's made.  I covet a sofa that looks like pink marshmallows (see here: https://www.dezeen.com/2009/04/24/cipria-by-fernando-and-humberto-campana-for-edra/) but unfortunately don't happen to have the roughly £20k to buy it and ship it to the UK.