Sofa Shopping Guide Part 1: Know What You Want

No matter what your budget, buying a sofa is a big investment of time and money. Getting a new sofa is a big deal, and the process can be stressful and time consuming. There are so many things to think about! We want to help make sofa shopping a little easier and more enjoyable for you, so we chatted with Eric, the General Manager of our exclusive North Carolina Furniture Workshop, Sutter Street, to get his professional expertise on what it takes to find the perfect sofa.

First on the to-do list? Know what you want. Take a look at Eric’s tips below!

1. Know what you’re buying. Understand the quality, ask questions.  More than anything, you need to feel the furniture with your own hands. “There’s so much you can find out by just putting your hands on a piece of upholstered furniture. Put your hands on top of the arm, the back and feel what’s there,” says Eric. “You shouldn’t be able to feel the wood. You’ll feel firmness, but you shouldn’t be able to feel staples or nails or wood through the fabric.”

2.  Decide where you’ll use your sofa before you start looking. “Where you use a sofa is going to determine what kind of furniture you should purchase. For example, in a den, you might want a piece of big, chunky furniture like Pearce, that can stand the test of time,” says Eric. “It’ll also determine what kind of fabric you select. You might not want something that’ll wrinkle. Everyday Suede will stay looking smooth and soft.”

3. Make sure it fits you. “If you’re the type of person who’s really particular that everything is crisp and clean and lines up, then a slipcovered sofa is just not for you,” says Eric. “It’s going to look lived in. Make sure the styling of your sofa and its maintenance fits you.”

4. Understand the difference between a floor model and a new sofa. Seeing a sofa in person is important, but it’s also important to understand that a sofa in a store won’t be exactly the same as the one you purchase.  “Your sofa will adjust to you,” says Eric. “Any sofa in a store has been sat on and bounced around on numerous times. Yours will sit like that eventually, but not at first.”

Want more?  Read part 2 of our sofa shopping series!