We’re looking for a new sofa, nothing huge or expensive but everything we’ve seen so far is run of the mill boring. There must be a few small businesses making funky sofas for a half decent price?

eBay. Seriously, some incredible deals on there. Four grand’s worth of sofa and suite for £140, and it’s in perfect nick.

Previous sofa was Habitat, that was a little different. And yes there are small sofa makers still in the UK.. for some reason sofas are often still made to order locally.

Next, it’s shit, not DFS shit, but shit all the same. Looked worn out after 2 years.

DFS are the best of our local big shops – at least they’ve put some effort into designing some interesting stuff.

If you are anywhere near preston, tetrad make great sofas, and have a factory shop in the city that’s open Friday afternoons for some great bargains.

Another vote for eBay here.

I’d seen one I wanted on Indigo Furniture, just couldn’t really justify the many thousands it was going to cost.

By total fluke I got an almost brand new one on EBay for £470 rather than 4 grand

DFS are the best of our local big shop

I think they might have a sale on too… 😉

DFS are the best of our local big shop
I think they might have a sale on too…

You better be quick though as it must end this weekend!

http://Www.sofasofa.co.uk are good for mail order ones , had a few over the years for work lets and home, always been good value and comfy

Define funky?

I have a big soft leather one that was made for M&S, and branded as such, but I got it new from eBay direct from the manufacturer for a fraction of the price, I also have a leather recliner in the office that was made for furniture village but came form a company called sofaplus roughly a third of the price, described as ex display but with no wear or even a crease visible.

I think of funky as the sort of stuff DFS have on offer every week 😉

One from JL and one from M&S.

You really need to go and sit on them.

I use ebay as well, not for everyone tho if buying slight seconds, you have to spend quite some time looking and be really fussy and possibly drive some distance for exactly the right ‘nearly new’ sofa and be prepared to walk away even tho you drove a distance etc etc. Find the right sofa and you can get a virtually new, top end, exactly what you’re looking for one, for peanuts.

Ikea

Our old (10 years ago!) sofas were from Next and were awesome: solidly built, very tough fabric, deep and lasting foam: basically still in great condition after five years of abuse (including two years of me using the armchair as a 9-5 office chair). Sold them to get a giant corner sofa from Next which was terrible, replaced that a few years later with something from DFS which was terrible, and went back to basically try and buy the original sofa from Next. It’s not great. Now watching this thread…

Had a few from Dwell, seem to be good for the price.

Mine came from sofa workshop around 15 years ago. The only thing wrong with it is that the fabric covering has become a bit bleached by sunlight, the frame still feels solid though so if the fabric bothered me I could get it reupholstered.

Looked in DFS recently, all pretty awful. Harveys did have some nice stuff, nearly bought one, but indecision stopped me.

We’ve got 2 from Multiyork.

They’re 20 years old, done 3 house moves, been slumped on almost continuously by 2 (now) teenagers, they’re just about ready for a couple of new seat cushions on 1 of them and new set of covers on both.

Not cheap but excellent quality.

My parents have a 2 Multiyork ones that they bought in the (very) early 80s and they’re still going strong with a set of replacement covers about 7 years ago (the sofas, not my parents).

IME DFS ones are only just fit for firewood.

Debenhams.

Crap build quality, backed up by poor service and lies.
Never again will I buy furniture from them again.

Sterling warehouse. 6 years old and looks like new still. Was a months wages though….

Mine came from Next and they’re both about 4 years old and still looking good.

http://www.made.com

bought 3 in the last 7 months for different rooms

made.com – nice design, reasonably made. Reasonable value but not cheap. 14 week wait

debenhams sofa bed. Very comfy as a sofa for a sofabed, quite conventional/boring. Very good value in a sale. 6 weeks wait

6 month old leather monster from gum tree – £350 for a £2K sofa (have receipt) which is epic. Looks great(and I’m not really a fan of leather sofas) and super comfy. A lucky find and in our flat within 4hrs of starting the search.

Rolf Benz ordered it directly from manufacturer, I like it so much I’d like to be buried in it

Currently 2 from JL and 2 from ikea. All very comfy, best bit about the ikea ones is the replaceable/washable covers if you have kids

Recently got ours from MADE.
Only had it a fortnight, but comfy so far. First new sofa for us as usually get them from Gumtree or friends of friends when we had a van and they needed shifting.

Gumtree. With three cats, two kids and a dog, spending over 2 grand on a sofa is a no no. Paid £400 for a £3k suite in nigh on perfect condition.

Spent three months looking st sofas and finally bought from Sofa.com

We got a brown leather 2 seater and 3 seater from Furniture Village.

Not exactly funky but really comfy and still in excellent condition after 6 and a half years…

We got ours from a local warehouse that sells Made.com returns, looks good, we’ll made any was 1/3 the price despite being as new.
Had DFS which was actually OK. Sofasofa was the most uncomfortable ever and cheap looking.

Quality of our DFS one is fine btw. Very heavy, very solid and the materials are tough.

Did some work for some people in exchange for the 3 seater and armchair.
A good swop, handmade in Italy by calia.

The crazy thing is I perch on a dining chair, hardly used them.

Always had second hand freebies, with one exception. Two huge leather sofas with matching leather dining chairs and solid wood dining table, all still with delivery plastic on, £200. 😀

British Heart Foundation shop. £80 for a brown leather 3-seater. It’s really comfortable and long enough to sleep on.

Never been able to bring myself to buy new. I always keep an eye on ebay, last one was a real bargain, 4 seater in perfect condition for a hundred quid, had been in someones ‘2nd lounge’ since they impulse bought it with the matching one in the main lounge. Sold it when they realised they wanted their dining room back! (almost identical to a very expensive one my BiL went and bought a few weeks later…just a different colour in the range!)

Before that was a charity shop purchase, nothing special but when the back got shredded by a hungry house rabbita few days later, it was just a shrug of the shoulders rather than a meltdown.

P.S Sofa (and 8′ workbench) shopping on ebay…one of the reasons vans are better than cars 🙂

Freegle.

Sofa:Tetrad Eastwood Grande

Has been in the family for 8 years or so now. New cushion-covers made and fitted last year from some fancy-schmancy remnants. Local-ish sewing lady in the Marches sorted that. It (sofa) is a keeper.

P.S Sofa (and 8′ workbench) shopping on ebay…one of the reasons friends with vans are better than cars

FTFY

(Always was a fan of fewer vans on the roads. Want/need a van. Conundrum.)

We don’t like a lot of the modern desjgned sofas and we ran out of money to buy one anyway for our new house. We did find one we liked in ikea but couldn’t even afford that so I set an eBay search going for the same sofa. Within a few weeks I had got the same ikea sofa for £50 in almost brand new condition (I’m picky about that sort of stuff) for £50. Well chuffed!

If you want a traditionally styled leather sofa eBay has some amazing bargains. Just be patient and you can pay 10% of the price of a new one. Leather is good as long as it’s not ripped as it gets better with age if it was decent quality new and you can buy products which can revive the leather with some elbow grease.

I hired a box trailer to collect mine, cost £35 for the day.

You know when you go round someone’s house and sit on their sofa and not only is it covered in damn cushions, but it’s really bloody uncomfortable..?
Those are the people who buy sofas based on looks. eg. from Ikea 😀