Best of the high street sofa brands

[LeadFarmer]

Anyone know what fillings to look for in sofas? Our Next sofa seats flatten and compress and ae uncomfortable, whereas our M&S sofa is fine. But I don't now what fillings are in them. What are the fillings to avoid?

[guindilias]

DFS just have cheap foam, as you'd think - mine is still fine about 17 years after I bought it, even though spend much of my life in the same seat.

[Teddy Lop]

Dan_1981 said:

Bump.

Any new views on the high street?

Furniture village / DFS / sofology

All the same?

How much further haggling can you do on the ticket price?

18 months old and the "leather" flaking off. After cross social media harassment (initial polite communications ignored) they came and replaced the whole base section. Ditto, plus whole base kind of slightly collapsed and was wonky and you had to sit in the right spot or it hurt your back.

[PositronicRay]

LeadFarmer said:

Anyone know what fillings to look for in sofas? Our Next sofa seats flatten and compress and ae uncomfortable, whereas our M&S sofa is fine. But I don't now what fillings are in them. What are the fillings to avoid?

If you otherwise like the sofa, would it be worth getting the cushions re-stuffed?

[eliot]

I've been to sofology twice now - no problems.
Only thing to be aware is that they charge something like £50 per piece to deliver them - so the ticket price isn't the actual price you pay and it's not negotiable.

[Glosphil]

Bought G-plan 3-seater & 2-seater fabric covered sofas 9 years ago from Park Furnishers in Bristol - paid for by house contents insurance following a flood. Insurance Co wanted me to use a supplier 150 miles away at almost double the price.
Had foam in base cushions replaced 3 years ago by a local company. Fabric has very little wear.

[hotchy]

Teddy Lop said:

Dan_1981 said:

Bump.

Any new views on the high street?

Furniture village / DFS / sofology

All the same?

How much further haggling can you do on the ticket price?

18 months old and the "leather" flaking off. After cross social media harassment (initial polite communications ignored) they came and replaced the whole base section. Ditto, plus whole base kind of slightly collapsed and was wonky and you had to sit in the right spot or it hurt your back.

Iv got a second hand 10 year old leather one the other month. Not one mark on it but had to open it up because the middle had collapsed. Big clip things had snapped so fired a bit of wood down the middle. Low and behold my back doesnt hurt. Makes zero sense haha. It's a free hand me down while I wait months for mine to turn up.

[Teddy Lop]

hotchy said:

Iv got a second hand 10 year old leather one the other month. Not one mark on it but had to open it up because the middle had collapsed. Big clip things had snapped so fired a bit of wood down the middle. Low and behold my back doesnt hurt. Makes zero sense haha. It's a free hand me down while I wait months for mine to turn up.

gave it up as a lost cause, and couldn't give it away. Currently sat on a himola as the mrs wanted a recliner and I didn't want something designed for octogenarian aesthetic. FV is smashed to bits and filling up the mrs Forrester (turbo) awaiting the tip.

[Nickyboy]

guindilias said:

DFS just have cheap foam, as you'd think - mine is still fine about 17 years after I bought it, even though spend much of my life in the same seat.

DFS have as standard fibre filling, you have to pay extra for actual foam, which is actually pretty good. My first DFS sofa lasted nearly 12 years before i decided to change it, was still nothing wrong with it. They are expensive but i've yet to find a "cheap" sofa that is any good.
Plus, the price you see advertised for a DFS sofa is never what you pay.

[Dan_1981]

Do sofology negotiate in price / haggle?

They don't do sales apparently.

[Jaguar steve]

Our 5 year old Next sofa has become so saggy and uncomfortable I'll often bung the cushions on the floor half way through the evening and sit there instead.

[rjfp1962]

Had my DFS sofa for about a year - So-far-so-good...!

[surveyor]

Worth noting that DFS now own Sofology...

[guindilias]

Nickyboy said:

DFS have as standard fibre filling, you have to pay extra for actual foam, which is actually pretty good. My first DFS sofa lasted nearly 12 years before i decided to change it, was still nothing wrong with it. They are expensive but i've yet to find a "cheap" sofa that is any good.
Plus, the price you see advertised for a DFS sofa is never what you pay.

Mine were £1000 or less when I bought them (2 seater and a 3 seater) corrected grain brown leather (which has been bulletproof), and no extra for being foam filled. That was 17 or 18 years ago, mind. I think they were advertised at £1500, but back then haggling was just a case of walking out and having the guy chase after you with a better price - I actually signed the order on the bonnet of my car!

[LocoBlade]

Can't recommend Sofology at all, we got a faux suede 3 seat sofa with reclining ends and a 2.5 seater matching fixed sofa from them about 4 years ago. The 3 seater that gets used the most has softened up way too much, there's a noticeable gap between the back and base cushions when you sit down giving zero lower back support meaning you have to sit leaning against a cushion all the time, plus that gap opens up into ridiculously large voids down the back that you could fit a football in, meaning things like remotes can disappear never to be seen again!

On top of that the fixed sofa that doesn't gets used much has an issue whereby the faux suede material on the base cushion is sewn to a generic bit of black material as it goes under the back cushion, but there's no enough overlap so as the back cushion has softened and compressed a bit over time, there's now a black line of material showing along the back of the base cushion.

We complained about most of these issues within the first year but it falls on deaf ears, absolutely useless.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

Jaguar steve said:

Our 5 year old Next sofa has become so saggy and uncomfortable I'll often bung the cushions on the floor half way through the evening and sit there instead.

We have a Next one which is coming up to 5 years old and it’s in close to new condition despite being the sofa which gets 90% of the use in our loving room.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:

We have a Next one which is coming up to 5 years old and it’s in close to new condition despite being the sofa which gets 90% of the use in our loving room.

You have a loving room ? Very 50 shades

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

You have a loving room ? Very 50 shades

That was a slip of the tongue!

[MJNewton]

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:

That was a slip of the tongue!

As was that!

[blade7]

guindilias said:

Nickyboy said:

DFS have as standard fibre filling, you have to pay extra for actual foam, which is actually pretty good. My first DFS sofa lasted nearly 12 years before i decided to change it, was still nothing wrong with it. They are expensive but i've yet to find a "cheap" sofa that is any good.
Plus, the price you see advertised for a DFS sofa is never what you pay.

Mine were £1000 or less when I bought them (2 seater and a 3 seater) corrected grain brown leather (which has been bulletproof), and no extra for being foam filled. That was 17 or 18 years ago, mind. I think they were advertised at £1500, but back then haggling was just a case of walking out and having the guy chase after you with a better price - I actually signed the order on the bonnet of my car!

I bought 2 Rancho thick hide sofas from DFS around 20 years ago, £1k & £1.2k. Everything else in the store was on sale over the previous 12 months, these never were. They absolutely reeked for the first couple of weeks, but the leather still looks great today. The cushion I've sat on for 2 decades has sunk though, so I'd like to find someone that can repair that?

Edited by blade7 on Sunday 11th October 22:58