5 OF THE BEST SOFA BRANDS
BEST SOFA
5 OF THE BEST SOFA BRANDS
One simple way to choose a new sofa is to start by picking a brand. You can then narrow things down by choosing a fabric and style that you like the look of.
We’ve picked out five of the best online sofa brands by looking at value for money, specifications and customer reviews. We’ve picked a range of prices, since not all of us can afford to spend thousands of pounds on a sofa.
5 OF THE BEST SOFA BRANDS
Long-established British sofa companies like Parker Knoll, Errol and G-Plan are certainly worth considering, but we’ve gone for John Lewis & Partners’ own-brand of sofas and armchairs because of the size of the range. They do sell other brands but there are 400+ available under their own name, with a huge choice of sizes, styles and fabric colours which can easily be narrowed down on their website. They’re also not as expensive as you might expect, with a 3-seater starting from about £700 and some decent sofas occasionally popping up in the ‘reduced to clear’ section. Most John Lewis & Partners sofas tick the right boxes for me but it’s worth taking a bit of time to have a rummage into the descriptions and specifications, which are clearer and more transparent than any other retailer I’ve found.
Ideally, you want a sofa made with a hard wood frame (e.g. birch) and which is held together with screws, glue or dowels. It’s also a good sign if it’s made in the UK, though that’s not a deal-breaker. Also, take a look at the support – some sort of springs is a better option than ‘webbing’.
Reassuringly, you’ll find that many of their sofas come with frame guarantees of 15 years. John Lewis & Partners came second in a recent customer service award, although that was the whole store rather than just their sofas.
You’ll notice that some sofas are under a brand called ‘House by John Lewis’ rather John Lewis & Partners. From what I can tell, this is nothing to do with Hugh Laurie but is the cheaper range which are made using cheaper materials and techniques. Go for the stuff labelled John Lewis & Partners instead if you can afford it.
They offer funky modern designs and interesting colours, rather than fussy old floral patterns which your grandma likes. That mum on Instagram with the beautiful lounge probably has a Made.com sofa.
Sure, you have to compromise something if you’re spending £500 rather than £5000, but you may not be looking for a sofa to last for decades if you’ve got a house full of children and pets.
We looked at 3-seater sofas and found that the cheaper options (around £500) tended to use manmade fibres for the sofa cover and foam seats. Meanwhile, the more expensive 3 seater sofas (£1000ish) mostly used a mix of manmade and natural fibres for the cover and a mix of foam and feather for the cushions.
So what does that mean exactly?
Well, the general rule is that natural materials cost more than manmade materials on a sofa. However, if you’ve got allergies then you’ll probably want to steer clear of natural materials anyway.
On the downside, only some of the sofas on Made.com actually tell you what type of wood was used for the frame or the way it is held together. That may sound like a whole new level of boring detail, but top quality sofas use hardwood to stop them falling to pieces after a few years. The sofas which did list materials were mostly softer woods.
Most of the sofas we looked at used ‘webbing’ to support the cushions, whilst a few used springs alongside webbing. Again, this is excruciatingly boring (you did ask…) but most of the best sofas use springs rather than webbings.
These are hardly issues which will keep you awake at night, but it’s worth understanding what you are getting for your money.
The standard warranty is 12 months, so quite short compared to some brands which offer 10 or 15 year warranties (albeit on the springs and frame usually). Overall Trustpilot reviews for Made.com were 4.5/5 when I checked (that’s for the whole store, not just their sofas).
