Struggling to find the perfect sofa for your home? Sofas today come in all sizes, shapes, fabrics, and designs—from recliner sofas and sofa sleepers to sectionals and loveseats—and the wide array of online options can overwhelm even the smartest furniture buyer.
At Big Sandy Superstore, we want to simplify the sofa-buying process and help you find exactly which sofa style suits you, whether it’s a comfy sectional to curl up with the family on movie night, a contemporary sofa to seat and entertain guests, or a sleeper sofa that doubles as a bed in an apartment or guest bedroom.
With nearly 70 years of experience and an extensive sofa inventory of time-tested furniture brands, Big Sandy knows how to help you pick the perfect sofa for your family’s lifestyle while also getting the most bang for your buck.
Here are the 4 most important things to consider when picking the perfect sofa:
Choose the Best Sofa Fabric
Choosing the best fabric for your sofa recliner, sectional or loveseat often depends on its location in the home, how it will be used and who uses it the most. No matter if you prefer natural materials, man-made fabrics or a blend of both, each offers its own advantages.
Polyester is inexpensive, durable and can be used alone or blended with other materials for living room furniture. Easy-to-clean microfiber, a popular choice in upholstery today, contains polyester-blend fibers that are finer than a strand of silk but much more durable.
Natural Fibers, like cotton or linen, are aesthetically pleasing but typically not as durable or inexpensive as synthetics. Both materials also stain and wrinkle easily. While cotton may be more resistant to wear and fading, linen requires professional cleaning when soiled. To get the same clean-linen look that holds up better, try choosing a fabric blend of cotton and polyester.
Performance Fabrics, a growing trend in the furniture industry, offer greater durability and resistance to stains, abrasions, and fading. With softer and more user-friendly materials now available, Big Sandy recommends performance fabrics for heavy-use sofas.
Leather, traditionally known as a durable and luxurious upholstery material, is a natural product made from only the best hides of cattle. It’s typically more expensive than most fabrics, but it holds up well to everyday wear and tear from kids, pets, scratches, abrasions, and stains. It’s also hypoallergenic since dust and grime don’t penetrate the material.
Pick the Right Sofa Frame
To eliminate the guesswork and make sofa shopping easy, Big Sandy Superstore gives every product a rating—Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum—based on the quality of construction and materials used. This rating becomes especially important when selecting a sturdy sofa frame that will support an active family or a large group of guests because better materials typically mean better construction.
The possible materials used to frame our sectionals and sofas include:
- Hardwoods (such as cherry, birch, maple, oak, and poplar) are of higher quality and cost more, but last longer. Rated only Gold or Platinum.
- Softwoods (such as pine and cedar) are cheaper and less durable, with a lower density than hardwoods. Rated only Bronze or Silver.
- Plywood is manufactured wood engineered from slices of lumber glued together under high pressure. It’s stronger than OSB but more expensive. Rated Silver, Gold or Platinum.
- OSB (Oriented Strand Board) is manufactured wood made from wood chips glued together under heat and high pressure. Rated Bronze and Silver; some OSB sofas rated Gold.
Select Quality Sofa Suspension
Ever purchased what you thought was the most comfortable couch, only to find yourself struggling to extricate yourself from the saggy sofa a few months later? It’s probably due to poor suspension.
The suspension of your sofa, loveseat or sectional determines the evenness and stability of the seating. Types of suspensions offered in our living room collections include:
- Blue Steel Construction: Thick, tempered steel bands spaced every few inches across the length of the frame. Unique to Flexsteel products.
- Tornado Coils: Heavy gauge vertical springs attached to the frame or sinuous springs.
- Sinuous Springs: S-shaped springs spaced every few inches across the length of the frame. The most common suspension system used in furniture.
- Web Suspension: Elastic bands or non-stretch webbing stretched across the frame and tacked into place. Used in Robert Preston line, also luxury cars.
Find Your Sofa Cushion Comfort Level
Whether you’re shopping for a leather sofa recliner, a five-piece sectional or a contemporary-style loveseat, most customers decide to buy based on comfort level. Find your level of softness, firmness or something in-between by checking the material used to construct the sofa cushions.
- Dacron Wrap is a polyester fiber that wraps around the cushion core as a comfort layer. Typically found in entry-level Bronze products.
- Foam, commonly made from polyurethane, is rated by its density (firmness) and resiliency. A higher rating means a better quality material that’s denser.
- Coil Springs are added to the center of the cushion, individually wrapped and encased in foam. Coils add resiliency and a springy feel.
- Feather/Down Wrap adds a plush and soft feel. Feathers wrapped around the cushion core enhance softness, then encased in down ticking to prevent feathers from puncturing the cushion fabric.
Still undecided about picking the perfect sofa? Call 888-610-2449 to schedule a sofa consultation or talk to a product specialist today, and we’ll have you lounging in no time.