How to choose a sofa you will keep for 10 years

Most of what you are paying for in a sofa is invisible: the frame, the springs, and the foam. Here is how to judge all 3 before you sit down, from someone who builds them.

By Callum ReidOct 1, 20262 min read

A curved white sofa behind a live-edge wooden coffee table, before a glass wall onto a courtyard tree

Living room / Buying guide / Sofas

A sofa is the most used and the least understood piece of furniture in a house. The cover is what you see, and it is the part that matters least to how long the sofa lasts. Judge the rest first.

The frame is the sofa

Lift 1 corner. A good frame is solid hardwood or birch plywood, glued and doweled, and it does not flex or creak when 1 corner leaves the floor. Ours are oak, which is why we guarantee the frame for 10 years and expect it to last 3 times that. A frame of particleboard and staples is a 5-year sofa however good the cover looks.

Sit for 10 minutes, not 10 seconds

Every sofa feels fine for 10 seconds. Sit for 10 minutes with your feet on the floor. The seat should hold you at the thigh, not just at the hip, and your lower back should touch the backrest without a cushion wedged behind it. Then slump, the way you will on a Sunday. If the seat front cuts into the back of your knee, the depth is wrong for your height.

Foam, feather, or both

Foam seats keep their shape and need no plumping. Feather seats are softer and need plumping every day. Most of ours are foam with a feather wrap, which is the honest compromise: shape from the foam, softness from the wrap. Ask the density of the foam. Below 30 kg per cubic meter it will sag within a few years.

Match the sofa to the room’s job

A room for conversation wants 2 sofas facing, or a sofa and 2 chairs. The Ada 2-seater is built for this.
A room for watching television wants 1 long sofa or a corner. The Greta corner sofa seats 5 without a second piece.
A room that is also the guest room wants a sofa bed that is a sofa first. The Otto is.
A room where the sofa is seen from every side wants a curved back. The Halo.

Cover last

Choose the cover after the frame and the seat, never before. Leather and fabric each suit a different life, and there is a whole story on that. Whatever you pick, ask for a sample in the showroom and put it on the floor of the room for a week, because the color in a showroom is never the color at home.