Kid friendly, long lasting sofa recommendations?

[HappyLittleHouse]

Our sofa is dying and will need to be replaced. It's saggy, stained, smelly, and the multitude of pillows along the back are a pain in the butt to keep looking decent. I'm looking for something sturdy, neutral, easy to clean, and in a classic shape that won't look dated in 10 years. I'd prefer just two back pillows and two seat pillows, or a set back that doesn't have pillows, since they just drive me nuts! And I would prefer not to spend a fortune!

Recommendations?

[annekevdbroek]

Well... I am going to recommend getting a not-cheap sofa. Wanting a good quality sofa and not spending much are goals that can often be at odds with each other. The construction of the frame, springs, and pillow content will make a big difference in how long the sofa lasts, and in the cost of the sofa. I'd choose a medium dark color that doesn't show dirt and stains easily, and that has a good wear rating (look for the rub test numbers on the fabric). You don't need to get a name brand, and defintely shop when furniture is on sale (the mark-up is like crazy on furniture - ), shop around, check the internet and comparison shop.

We have a Mitchell Gold sofa sectional. It was hugely expensive. I mean, obcenely expensive. 5000 maybe. Its been 10 years since we bought it. It still looks new. We have two kids and 2 cats (used to be 4 cats and no kids). Some day I'll have it recovered. I will never *need* a new sofa though.

You don't need to spend 5000 for a good sofa... but I'd guess that 2000 is probably what is needed to put you in the ballpark. The other option is looking for a very well made used sofa at a thrift store and getting it recovered. Though, upholstery costs can often exceed the cost of a new sofa anyhow. I did this for some dining room chairs and bought the fabric from ebay - it was commercial grade fabric (much sturdier than residential garde upholstery fabric) and then found a guy who usually upholstered automotive seats in his garage to do the sewing. The savings between his cost and using my fabric vs. a fabric/upholsterer store was over $250 per chair.

[Drummer's Wife]

I agree with higher quality, and personally, I much prefer leather. With small children, I would probably say skip built in recliners, b/c our sectional has this and the potential to break worries me. We bought the actual couch part with a hideaway bed, and it's nice to have but adds more to the cost. How many people do you want to seat? Our family size is 6, and we wanted the potential for at least one or two guests to sit down at the same time as well.

[greenmansions]

Another vote for not-too-cheap and getting leather in a darker color. Our old leather sofa lasted a long long time before it bit the dust - and is now used for jumping on in the basement. And the leather is very easy to keep clean. It can be wiped off easily. My son is a yogurt addict and I do not have to stress at all when he eats on the sofa. I can just go wipe it off. Worth every penny.

If you find one, take a few samples of the leathers - most places will give you some. You can then test it with a little water, yogurt, wine, whatever to see how it wipes up. The softer leathers are harder to clean than those that have a bit of a "finish" to them.

[cristeen]

I'm with the pps - plan to spend some money. But I disagree on the leather - I HATE leather furniture. And if you have pets, it's completely impractical. Depending on the age of your kids, it may be pretty impractical for that, too.

I love our Rowe sectional - and like a pp mentioned, it was pretty darned expensive, but we've had it going on 10 years now and we still LOVE it - we both prefer sleeping on it than on our 4 yo mattress, that's how comfy it is. But it's fully slip-covered (meaning each piece has a removable cover, not that the whole thing has one cover), and we chose a cotton upholstery fabric so I can pull the covers off and toss them in the wash (hang dry) if we get anything on them (planning ahead for LOs). There's also the bonus that if I need one, I can order a new cover set from the manufacturer to replace this one - if we want to change colors/styles or if this one gets destroyed.

[ChetMC]

Yeah Leather

I totally agree. Buy a well made, leather sofa in a fairly dark colour. It's so easy to wipe clean, and leather is a material that wears well. We have three kids and a ten year old leather sofa that looks nearly new.

[zinemama]

I don't know anything about leather, but here's another vote for spending a good chunk of change, if you can afford it.

Dh and I bought a nice sofa 10 years ago for $1,300. I couldn't believe I was spending that much - it was the first "nice" piece of furniture we bought together. It's a darkish brown with an intricate but not terribly noticeable paisley-ish pattern. That sofa has held up through all sorts of activity from breastfeeding to - ahem. Stains simply vanish into the pattern, as far as I can tell. It looks brand new.

Meanwhile, our other couch (the cheap one) looks like hell.

[karne]

Rowe is a nice mid-level brand, sold at some better furniture stores. Not cheap, but not ultra-chic-designer level either. We have a full sized sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman with standard fabrics (think cotton duck), that is wearing amazingly well. After 12 years we've retired the two larger pieces to a sitting room, where no one sits, everyone (kids) jumps instead, and they're still going strong. They make comfy spare beds as well for overnight guests. Totally worth the $$$.

[Alyantavid]

We have microfiber couches and I love them. They clean up so easily, we've gotten puke, pee, crayon, everything off of them. And they hold up really well.

[Owen'nZoe]

Another vote for a not-cheap sofa. Ours was about $1200 from a small shop here that had them custom-made. We've had it for about 10 years, and while the upholstery could use some help at this point (we have 2 kids, 2 dog and 1 cat, and we are very hard on our furniture), the 'bones' of the sofa look as good as they did when we first bought it. We've talked over replacing it or re-upholstering it, and even though reupholstery will be as much as a new sofa, we've decided to reupholster. (If you knew my DH, you'd understand this is HUGE, since he almost always prefers throwing things away and replacing them.)

ETA: Friends of mine have a FlexSteel - it really is amazing. They bought it 20 years ago, and haven't even needed it reupholstered. It looks new.

[BetsyS]

My couch is not a pricey one (it was $1300), but it has held up well. It was sturdy and well made, and it has a lovely floral (that I still love after 13 years) that hides stains well. The fabric is starting to fray just recently, and I'm debating between recovering and buying something new.

My grandparents have a Henredon they bought new in the late 60s that is still wonderfully comfortable. It didn't have kids and pets on it, but still... 40 years is an amazing life for a sofa. It's down filled, extra long, and covered in cordouroy (that hasn't ever gone out of style).

[annekevdbroek]

Just wanted to jump in about Henredon - my 95 year-old grandmother has one that is at least 50 years old. Its been recovered once of twice. It fabulous shape and worth every penny for this brand.

Flex Steel is also very good.

Microfiber rocks - I covered a ottoman in it and have scrubbed the heck out of it with brushes and such and it still looks great. I am not such a fan of leather. Once it gets scratched it looks pretty bad, imho.

[Peony]

Huge fan of leather here as well. My couches have had every type of body fluid on them, pens, markers, every food and liquid drink, and yet everything wipes off and they still look good.

[Ola_]

Another fan of leather here. We don't have kids though, just dogs and that's why we chose leather. We went for a light tan colour though because then any scratches you may get are not easily visible. Everything just wipes off - dog hair, any sticky stuff, etc. We oil the leather maybe once a year or so, just to keep it supple.

[velochic]

I didn't see it mentioned here (I just scanned the responses) so sorry if this is repeating someone, but more important than the fabric (we actually prefer leather - easy clean and care) is the quality of the frame. You can always recover a well-built sofa. We have Flexsteel and are very happy with the quality. It's 12 years old (black leather) and still looks new. The frame is in great shape as is the leather... this sofa will likely last us our entire lives. It is super comfortable, too. I sleep on it sometimes when I up and down with insomnia. My next door neighbor has one that is 35 years old and she has had it recovered a couple of times, but it still is structurally in great shape. We paid about $2500 - $3000 back when we bought it.

[Yooper]

We have an IKEA (so cheap) Ektorp couch. It is not terribly "well made" but we have had ours for 10 years with pets and one couch-jumping 6 yo and it has held up very well. We also used to throw some pretty big parties where things got spilled. In fact, it looks just like it did the day we brought it home. The nice thing is that the entire couch has removable slip covers that are machine washable. So every time it got puked on by a cat, peed on by dd, or wine spilled on it by me, I can just whip off the affected covers and toss them in the wash. We have also replaced all of the covers once when we moved to a house with a different color scheme. We found this to be a nice option as we did not have to buy all new furniture. All of the slip covers come in different "grades". You will pay more for the "heavy use" grade but it might be worth it. We had a "light use" grade first that held up fine and now have a "medium use" grade that has seen at least 10 washings with no ill effect. They offer this couch with a sofa bed and with different pillow configurations.

When we bought it, we intended for it to be temporary until we could afford better furniture but have decided to keep it as it has held up well and is very versatile with the slip covers.

[HappyLittleHouse]

Thanks for all the recommendations! I'll definitely consider leather.

We have no pets currently but DH wants a dog. I have allergies so it will be a low- to no-shed dog. Our kids are 4 and 1.

[wombatclay]

I guess I'm an anomaly, but we bought a leather/faux leather blend sofa (leather arms/front but faux on the sides/back) in a dark brown "classic library" style almost 6 years ago. It's survived two cats, a dog, and two children (with a third newly arrived) and a move to a new home. It still looks pretty good and is comfy. And we bought it at a discount store for 500 dollars (plus tax).

Is it going to last another 6 years? Probably not. And it's not a "fancy" looking sofa... it has classic lines but is clearly a "family sofa", not a "formal living room" style sofa. So it certainly wouldn't fit every home/lifestyle. But discount stores (and IKEAs) are something to consider if you don't have a lot of room in the budget. Just educate yourself on basic furniture construction and materials so you can judge relative quality.

[2cutiekitties]

I also rec leather. Ours looks good even with all the cat scratches in the back from them launching off it.

I just want to throw out there that I personally think that suede SUCKS, it is very uncomfortable, so be sure to test it before you buy it. I mean really get comfy on the couch. We always heard about how wonderful it is, but it it feels weird on the skin. Hard to slide around and stuff. Ugh. I hate it.

[Golden]

Another vote for leather!
We have this sofa is a deep, dark, almost black purple.

http://www.jordans.com/room_facts.as...size=&index=14
It's maybe 4 years old and still looks new. You wipe it down with leather cleaner about twice a year to buff out scratches or stains. Easy return to new status.