I'm getting a new sofa and chairs!! Where to shop?

[dianna]

I'm finally getting a new Sofa and Chairs! Any ideas for me?

My taste is pretty classic - clean and polished. I love the look of Pottery Barn, but I also like things a little more traditional. (Something that would look good in a big, classic home.) I'm not sure if I want leather or upholstered. Leather might be better with kids, but I do have brown leather in my main living room - this is for the family room where we spend all our time. Is leather too "cold" for that? Especially during a MN winter?

I plan to check out some local furniture stores and Pottery Barn, but any other favorite furniture places or suggestions on a particular brand/look?

[emmiem]

How about Ethan Allen? Thomasville?
Michele

[SnuggleBuggles]

I 2nd the recommendations by the pp. You can also look at Arhaus or independent stores in your city.

I wanted to recommend steering away from the "microfiber" fabric. We paid the extra $ for the warranty (we were afraid the cat would scratch it- she hasn't). Well, everything shows on. Drop a craxker crumb? You get a spot. Since we were under their warranty we were only permitted to use water to clean spots and I found that to be inefficient. We have long since given up on the rip off of a warranty since there were so many catches with it (how you could clean it, maintenance...including having it professionally cleaned every 3 months and it cost us over $100 b/c of the sectional's size!!). Off my rant about the warranty. We never buy those things either. Grrr.

I really dislike my IL's leather sofa. It is very comfy but it is too cold in the winter. And in the summer if it is hot and you have shorts on you stick coming off.

I would look for a couch that you can flip the cushions over on and rearrange. Some cushions will get more use and you don't want to find that some are overly worn. It's nice if you can do the same thing with the back cushions or at least can access the "stuffing" so you can fix it.

I'd look at fabric over leather. Hopefully other posters will have a fabric recommendation. I just can't recommend the microfiber.

Beth

[neeter]

Storehouse is going out of business, my local store had 20-30% off.

[Corie]

We absolutely love our Ethan Allen furniture! The sales
people are extremely helpful.

(My brother still has a couch, chair, and endtable that my
parents bought from Ethan Allen back in 1968.)

[brittone2]

A great resource is the furniture and decorating boards at thathomesite.com. They have a lot of info on various manufacturers' quality, grades/types of leather that hold up better, etc.

Also, I know a lot of places including Pottery Barn outsource their furniture production to other companies, so if you buy directly from the company that makes the sofa, etc. you are getting the same look/quality as PB (sometimes a different leg style or something as they might only make a particular leg style for Pottery Barn) but saving money by avoiding the "label", if that makes sense?

I'm no expert but when my parents were buying furniture a few months ago I found a lot of helpful info for them there.

[kijip]

I will chime in as a "I hate microfiber" person. I actually traded my red microfiber sofa that was less than 2 years old to a friend in dire need of a sofa. She uses a slipcover. We were ridiculously on top of cleaning it, all to no avail after a while. I voided the warrenty by using spot shot and it worked for awhile but the stains just came back. I am much happier with a durable beige velour type fabric and a brown leather club chair.

Pottery Barn furniture is pretty low quality for the money. I have had good luck at the clearance centers of Macy's, not drastically better quality than pottery barn but half the price.

[mcdonald29]

I would not recommend Pier 1. We purchased a sofa, chair, and ottoman there a few years ago and the color did not stand up to sun fading at all (to say nothing of kiddo stains). They were originally a nice olive green, now a gross yellowish pea soup. The fabric on the ottoman also tore at the seam -so much so that when DS1 started pulling out stuffing we decided to get it recovered with a more kid-friendly pseudo-leather, washable vinyl. The one thing going for them is that they are made of lightweight material- I can lift and move the chair on my own.

[mommyoftwo]

I highly recommend England Custom Furniture Direct (www.englandfurniture.com)if they have one in your area. We got our couch custom made in three weeks at an incredible price and we LOVE it. We get compliments on it all the time and they have a GREAT warrenty. They have tons of different styles and fabrics to choose from and you are guarenteed to get your furniture in 21 days or less. Or you can also buy their instock furniture, but I was totally willing to wait 3 weeks to get my perfect couch. We had a very limited budget and I never thought we would be able to get something custom made but it was the best deal we found looking around at all the discount furniture stores in the area and the quality was nicer. Can you tell I'm thrilled with it, lol?

[tiapam]

It looks like Room and Board might be local for you, and there is even an outlet in MN:

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/locations.do

-Pam

DD - Two years old!

[Fairy]

Want to chime in. We got our couches from Marshall Fields furniture, and we HATE THEM. Fell in love with them, but in seven years, they have held up NOT. Way before kids, way before cats, these couches began falling apart. They are made by Bahaus, and we were fit to be tied. Agree that the warranties are more trouble than they're worth (try to clean with anything significant, the warantee is no good). The cushions and pillows began getting lumpy and unsupportive in less than a year and a half.

However, our cheap crap from Bay Furniture has held up like a dream. I wanted the "adult" furniture from a nice store. DH wanted the football furniture. Excuse me, I have to go eat more of my crow now.

[jasabo]

We got our family room furniture at Costco Home and have been very happy with it. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since the kids are still young are pretty rough on our furniture. When we get our nice stuff down the road, Ethan Allen is at the top of my list - I love their stuff.

Anyway, the sectional we got is leather and it's held up very well for us. It's very comfortable and seems durable so far. I prefer leather over upholstery as I've yet to find a fabric that can stand up to my family's abuse. We've had a few different sofas with various fabrics and stain guards, and they still look bad after a year or two. I actually think leather looks very warm in a room, assuming the rest of the room is decorated in warm tones. When I think of winter lodges with roaring fires and brandy snifters on the end tables, I think of leather sofas :)

Costco Home is very reasonably priced for most things. I can't speak to the quality if everything, but the few things we've bought from them have worked out great.

Have fun shopping!

[JBaxter]

I LOVE my leather. Its a very classic design/color. With 3 kids and a dog it holds up VERY well. This is my 2nd leather set. The first was 11yrs old and now its the basement furnature ... still holding up well. I have Lazyboy sofa/loveseat and chair now. I do recommend you get the leather protection insurance. Leather is fairly easily repairable ( if say a toddler has tried to peel an orange with a steak knife stolen from the running dishwasher and pokes holes in the arm) We paid the guy but it would have been covered by the "leather isurance" PM me if you want to see pictures :)

[LBW]

I think you'd love Lee Industries furniture. We just purchased two sofas (one w/ a chaise) and I can't wait to get them. We shopped around at some local store and researched on thathomesite.com. Lee came highly recommended by everyone as great quality, American made, stylish, etc. Once I found the style I wanted, I emailed Allen Ferguson in NC for quotes. They were 25% cheaper than the local company's "sale" price. Plus, they didn't charge tax.

Here's the Lee web site: http://www.leeindustries.com/

Here's Allen Ferguson's email (I worked with Patrick - he's great!): [email protected]

This is the first time I've shopped through a NC store, and it's been so easy!

[elizabethkott]

We got our sofa and love seat from Macy's Furniture, as well as our dining room table and chairs. My only complaint - it took a while for them to come in - like 4-6 weeks for the sofa/love seat, and like THREE MONTHS for the dining room table and chairs. If you're okay with waiting, you can't beat the pricing, especially compaired to PB, whose look I love but whose price I hate!
You may also want to try looking at a Raymore and Flannigan (IDK if this is just an east coast store or not). They have some beautiful, classic stuff there, and most things will deliver in THREE DAYS, if you can believe it!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Dianna if you are interested in leather I have a lot of eperience with many brands. PM me and maybe I can help.
Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06