Buyer Guide

Sofa Buying Guide
Check out this sofa guide if you don’t know what’s good for you! Yeah, you read that right. If you don’t know what’s good for you, how will you ever know what you should do before buying a sofa? This buyer guide to sofa quality can help.

How much do you know about sofas? A sofa is a big investment—one of the most expensive pieces of furniture you will ever buy for your home. Doesn’t it make sense to ensure you are getting maximum quality for your investment?

What do you need to know before buying a sofa? This buyer guide to sofa purchases recommends the following:

• Make sure you get a frame made of hardwood that is kiln dried. Softwood, like pine, cracks too easily. If you have kids who like to jump on the furniture, or teenagers who like to flop rather than sit, you’ll be lucky if a softwood sofa frame lasts out the year. Several hardwoods are great for making sofa frames.
• Ensure that the hardwood frame is at least an inch thick. One and a quarter inches or thicker is even better. Thin hardwood sofa frames aren’t much better than softwood frames. They are too brittle, and therefore too breakable.
• Strong frames are usually joined by a combination of dowels and wood glue. Never buy a sofa with a frame joined by glue only. It will never last.
• How much do you know about sofas with metal frames? You might find sofas with metal frames, or metal sleeper bed frames if you are looking at sleeper sofas. Make sure the welds don’t look rough or clumpy—a sure sign of shoddy workmanship.
• Check the springs. Steel coil springs usually hold up well. The S-shaped springs found in many sofas are not the best on the market. They break down easily and are much less comfortable than coil springs.
• Insist on trying out any sleeper sofa that you might be interested in. Sleeper sofas are notoriously uncomfortable. If you plan to have people sleeping on the sleeper sofa often, make sure the sleeper bed is more comfortable than sleeping in the local gravel pit. That is, of course, unless you are trying to discourage people from spending the night at your place.

Remember, this sofa buying guide is incomplete. Neither this nor any other sofa buying guide is likely to offer every morsel of information you might be interested in. Therefore, it does not contain all the information you need to make the most informed decision about buying a sofa. Each sofa guide you read may contain new information or ideas. If you need more information about sofas, check around and ask questions. You should learn as much as you can. Check with several salespeople and ask them questions about quality, comfort and style. Ask your friends and neighbors. Look at another buyer guide to sofa buying. You may get some ideas you never thought of before.

Above all, make sure you measure your doorways, hallways and the room where you plan to park the sofa. You don’t want to have to tear out a wall to get a sofa inside after you’ve made a purchase.