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jimhopping

Advice on sofa purchase please

jimhopping
11 years ago

There's a sectional I'm very interested in purchasing from a store here in Austin, TX. Below is some info I was able to gather. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

"So the Brooklyn and Dyllon are actually our own line of furniture, made for us in North Carolina. We use a certified sustainable solid hardwood kiln-dried frame (Rock Hard Maple is the specific wood species) with mortise and tenon joinery. Each piece is bench-made, from building the frames to upholstering each piece, they are made in house only after ordering, to ensure strength and stability. One artisan works on the frame until it is finished (according to the size and quantity of sectional pieces, this can take several days), unlike some assembly line manufacturers. The piece is then taken to the artisan who will singularly work on upholstering your piece to completion, to ensure his "vision" is completed, knowing each day where he started/stopped. It is corner blocked, triple dowled, glued, and screwed for maximum support and longevity. It is indeed a sinuous spring system, but unlike other spring systems, ours is actually stapled and glued into a drilled pocket in the middle of the frame, instead of stapled to the inside of the frame. This is done to make sure as you use your piece, those staples don't come out and your spring system become compromised. The pieces you are looking at have what's called a "marshall unit" cushion system, which consists of a muslin wrapped spring system core, which is wrapped in dense soy-based foam for "memory", and then wrapped in a soft down blend wrap for durability and comfort. The down is channel stitched to ensure they keep their form, and the whole cushion is sewn into a surgical grade muslin to ensure no feathers poke through. These cushions offer superior support, comfort, and little to no "fluffing", because the springs keep the cushion looking full and well stuffed.

All Loft Home products are warranted for normal use in the home environment with a lifetime warranty on the frame, springs, and cushion cores."

Comments (6)

  • PRO
    iCustomSofa
    11 years ago

    um hum, I wonder who wrote this for Loft Home? Some indiscretions here to say the least. For one you either have mortise and tenon joinery or doweled joinery, not both in the same joint. So I think you can throw out the hard maple frames with mortise and tenon joinery as not being current, as this doesnt belong to any NC manufacture of fully upholstered sections. Maybe some imported exposed wood frames, as some Asian manufactures are still using mortise and tenon on exposed wood frames. Theodore Alexander as one example. But the joinery itself poorly fitted, nothing like what you would expect of a real craftsman.
    Sinuous wire springs their using is the drive in type, cant be glued (well it would be a waste of time) just stapled and also its not well engineered as the spring action from a single attachment point does not allow for rotation of the spring when it flexes. Everything else is pretty much standard in high end upholstery. But dont pay extra for bit of miss- advertising. IMHO

  • freethinker99
    11 years ago

    I see what Rmanbike is saying about the joinery being mortise and tennon and then corner blocked, triple dowled, glued, and screwed. Perhaps they are using a bit of both depending on the area of the frame. You might want to ask the store for clarification and then let us all know as this sounds kind of interesting.

    Regarding the spring some manufacturers put another rail in the front of the front rail of the frame and then this rail is dropped down about an inch. This is usually used with a plywood frame. Then they use a clip called an RJS clip. This clip is shot on with a gun. Some frame shops if they use the rail have a machine that puts the clip on the frame. I haven't heard of any company still using this system. Southern furniture used to do this but I am not sure if they still do this. They do this so you can arch the spring and give you a softer seat. Some manufactuers also then drive the spring into the frame with a hammer. But I don't know of anyone that still does this. I can't see how you could glue in this type of spring. In my opinion the spring action from a single attachement point would be the same as far as durabilty.

    Here again I think I would ask for clarification on this point as what they are saying is confusing.

  • jimhopping
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the feedback. I found out that the manufacturer is McCreary Modern. Do you know anything about them? I heard that they also make furniture for Room and Board and Crate and Barrel. Thanks again!

  • freethinker99
    11 years ago

    McCreary Modern is a department store line.

    They build a pretty good product. They generally use plywood frame, maybe some hardwood, no sag spring and stretch webbing and Felxolator. I don't think they do any 8 way hand tied. They have a good blend down cushions and blend down back. I think they use Interstate cushions. The company is still owned by Bob McCreary, who I think is semi retired and as such a family owned company is a plus. Wouldn't be a bad choice in their price range.

  • PRO
    iCustomSofa
    11 years ago

    Steel has a very interesting characteristic, that its strength is greater when pulled or stretched, compared to when being compressed. And because of the leverage applied in the turn of the wire and the twist associated to just one center point this drive-in type of sinuous wire spring, doesnt make a good choice. As the twists on this point fatigues the wire. More so because all sinuous springs are tempered. Also the pre-drilled (some dont even predrill the hole) hole in the rail becomes deformed over time and I have seen them pop out.
    But it can be about 50% faster to spring-up this type of sofa compared to the end of the loop placed into a clip thats attached to the frame. Which I recommend as the best way to spring-up a nosag sofa.

  • freethinker99
    11 years ago

    Very interesting