Sofa On A Budget: 9 Tips From The Great Depression

The Best Online Sofa

For our first guide to online-order couches, we spent over 40

Hours exploring couches from the top online furniture

Companies and interviewing experts on couch construction and

design. Then we brought seven sofas into our workplace--creating

The greatest showroom--and invited members of our

Sweethome and Wirecutter teams to test them. After all that,

We recommend Joybird as the couch company that offers the

Best couches that work for most people. We believe Joybird

Couches give the best mix of durability, comfort, and

Significance for individuals moving into their first house or

apartment.

We recently discovered that Joybird, the maker of our top pick, has begun to charge for transport: The

Company now imposes a curbside delivery fee of $99 to $149, and an in-home delivery fee of $149.



Change our overall decision regarding the sofa.

policies section below.

Our pick

Of all the couches we tested, Joybird's offers the best mix of quality construction, comfort, and price.

The company's wide range of midcentury-inspired styles come under the umbrella of a generous



Joybird offers an appealing couch, washed with a midcentury sheen, at a moderate price. If the

Model that we tested is indicative of the company's other models, its couches are comfortable

and well-made.

A style that will suit everyone--we think that, with the range of sofas this company offers, it's

A great fit for many people. To counteract the natural skittishness that may arise when you're

ordering furniture online and sight unseen, Joybird offers a generous 365-day return policy.

(Figuring out if a couch works for your lifestyle takes at least two weeks.)

Also great

Super-customizable, Speedy turnaround



 It

can manufacture sofas to a customer's size and fabric specifications quickly, typically within a week.



meticulously constructed. If you need a sofa in a special size or in less time than the industrystandard

Wait time of eight to 12 weeks, BenchMade Modern typically offers the ability to make

a sofa in seven days (its current turnaround time is 21 days and beyond for premium fabrics and

leather sofas), without sacrificing quality, comfort, or design. There's a premium for speed,

Though, and BenchMade Modern's sofas are also a bit more expensive than those from Joybird.

Budget pick

Report Ceni Sofa





Article's sofa is a Fantastic upscale budget pick; it's more comfortable, better constructed, and more

uniquely styled than our other budget pick, IKEA's Kivik sofa. The model we tested, the Ceni,

Was more stiff and less comfortable than our principal pick, Joybird's Korver sofa. Offering a nice

Selection of full-size styles, Article makes its sofas available in a couple of fabric choices that could be

Dispatched in a couple of days, selling for just under $1,000.

Budget pick

Simple and very Affordable

IKEA Kivik Sofa



construction and comfort leave much to be desired.

If you are in a hurry to purchase a couch and money is the biggest factor in making your decision,

We believe your best bet is to head to IKEA (you may also order IKEA's sofas on its own site).



nor particularly comfortable. However, their affordability, their availability, and the company's





Why you should trust us

I've been writing about home design since 2008, first for Apartment Therapy and now for a



editor-at-large for Los Angeles. I've reviewed dozens of products, I've interviewed a significant

Number of interior designers and artisans about the details of furniture quality, construction, and

design, and I've read hundreds of articles on furniture and soft goods. I'm also a known couch

Commitment-phobe who has swapped out her couch seven times in 10 years.

We interviewed Betsy Burnham, a veteran of the interior-design industry who has overseen the

construction of sofas throughout her career and recently launched her own direct-to-consumer

Couch company, Wardrobe by Betsy Burnham, which offers craftsman-constructed pieces with

eight-way hand-tied spring coils and down-wrapped foam cushions. We also spoke with Natalie

Berschneider Wiweke of Gina Berschneider, Inc. in Los Angeles's La Cienega Design Quarter, a

purveyor of custom-made sofas for notable interior designers. Moreover, we talked with Greg

Upson, regional sales manager for the Greater Los Angeles Area at the UK-based George Smith,

One of the major retailers of handmade, high-end sofas. And to choose our finalists, we also

read dozens of blogs, reviews, and articles about sofas and sofa construction.

Everyone needs a couch

When it comes to furnishing a first home or apartment, after spending money on a mattress,

Buying a couch often accounts for the largest expense. Although there are no rules regarding how

Much to budget for a sofa, we suggest considering its cost-per-use factor. Consider its many jobs:

In a first home that may not have a separate guest room, it doubles as a bed for overnight

visitors. It offers seating for people of different shapes and sizes. It's the site of Netflix

marathons. Kids and animals abuse it. And it's a spot for afternoon naps. That's a lot of wear

And tear on a single piece of furniture. To handle its many chores, it needs to be fairly durable and

comfortable.

Though a well-made couch may last 10 years, and a particularly sturdy one, reupholstered from

Time to time, may last a lifetime, the average lifespan of a couch--and the point at which it has

Lost 75 percent of its value--is five to six years. As a conservative estimate, consider this: If you

Keep your couch for five years and sit on it for two hours a day for 350 days out of the year, that

is 3,500 hours of couch sitting over its lifetime.

How we picked

For this first guide to couches, we looked for sofas which would be suitable for individuals moving into

Their first house or apartment. We sought couches that hit the sweet spot of durability, comfort,

Price, and availability of fashions. More specifically, we wanted to find sofas that were readily

available to all customers, including those living outside of big cities, and that could be ordered

online. We looked for couches that offered some customization, such as fabric choice, and

Companies that extended a generous return policy (because in case you hate your sofa, or it does not fit

Into your space, you will want to return it). We looked for affordable couches and pieces that

offered contemporary styling plus thoughtful construction details that suggested that your new

sofa won't fall apart two weeks after it arrives.

While we began by looking at couches from retailers such as Bloomingdale's and Macy's, as

Well as pieces from familiar resources such as CB2, Pottery Barn, and West Elm, we found

Ourselves focused on an increasingly popular subset of couches: those that are available on the internet,

That are designed and sold by the same company, and that at their base price cost less than

$2,000. As reported in The New York Times (parent company of The Wirecutter and The

Sweethome), this is a fast-growing category. And for good reason: The average couch-buying

experience is frustrating. At the very least it's time consuming--you have styles to Think about,

Sizes to account for, and, ideally, a couple of solid hours spent sitting on showroom models before you

Opt to take one home. Even test-driving a sofa can be deceiving. Customers are often

Disappointed to discover that the identical model they loved in the store is noticeably firmer when

It's delivered new to their dwelling. Floor models are more indicative of how your couch will feel

Once you've broken it in. Then there's the "what's under the hood" element to consider. Myriad

tiny details of construction ultimately determine a couch's comfort and durability, and schooling

Oneself on them can be overwhelming to a first-time couch buyer who merely wishes to find

Something to fill up that cavernous space in their living room as fast as possible.