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jockewing

Opinion on specs for potential couch purchase

jockewing
14 years ago

I am considering buying a sofa that is manufactured by Younger furniture in North Carolina and is retailed at Halpern's furniture in New Orleans. Halpern's told me that Younger manufactures all the upholstered pieces they sell. It is an independent store that has been around for several decades and has a good reputation. Here are the specs from the manufacturer's site:

Frame - Kiln dried oak (or ash or maple) frame, corners blocked, double doweled and glued. Joint breakers added.

Seat cushions - 5.5" High Resiliency foam with minimum 2.0 density, wrapped in denier polyester fiber encased in non-woven ticking

Back cushions - silicone impregnated polyester fiber, inner casing is channeled, encased in non-woven cover

Springs - Sinuous s curve

I was told the fabric is a polyester cotton blend and it is a velvet. It has a very luxe and rich look, and the color is a gorgeous blue/gray/green that the salesman called "Silver Sage" (and indeed it looks very much like a slightly darker version of Rest. Hardware's Silver Sage). I was given a sample of the fabric to bring home. It is not a very thick fabric, but it seems to be very tightly woven. I have tried to pull on it to see if I could tear it, but it doesn't seem like that's possible. I have tried scratching it with my nails and the back of a pen, but the scratches came out by brushing the nap with my hand or a comb. I tried staining it with some ketchup but some warm water on a wash rag lifted the stain out. It is not exceedingly plush, but I am wondering if that will help prevent it from eventually becoming matted. I really have no idea if velvet is a good upholstery fabric, but I do know it looks quite lovely.

I tried pushing on the arms to see if they would flex, but they did not budge. The seams all look tight and there do not appear to be any sagging spots on the cover. I lifted up the couch from the bottom and it seemed quite solid.

So, does this sound like a decent couch? The best part is that it usually retails for $900, but this was a floor sample clearance and it is only $499. I am almost leery since it's so inexpensive.

Another concern is that the back cushions can be removed. My last "Ashley" couch had those type of back cushions and it was a disaster. However, I looked inside the Ashley cushions and see they are only filled with that loose white sutff that looks like torn cotton balls. There is absolutely no structure to it at all. It always looks like someone has just slept on it. This back cushions on the new couch felt much more substanital. The fill material was encased in some type of pillowcase and there was channel stitching. Also, there were 2 seams with piping along the edges with a gusset(?) in between that looked like it would help maintain the shape of the cushion.

So does this sound like a good couch?

Although I love blue/gray/green and it definitely goes with my color scheme, I never considered a couch of this color. Kind of worried about how it will look.

Here is a link to a picture of the same style sofa with a different fabric from the Younger website:

http://www.youngerfurniture.com/475%20copy.jpg

Sorry for the novel, but I really want to make a good choice and spend my money wisely after the last couch debacle from Ashley!