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Not far off from how much you pay for any tough sofa that has even a hope of surviving... ah, large friends or relatives. The steel frames on these make them se

by ashark 9y ago

Not far off from how much you pay for any tough sofa that has even a hope of surviving... ah, large friends or relatives. The steel frames on these make them seem like they'd possibly last for a useful amount of time under those circumstances. Cheap furniture goes to hell fast if anyone over ~250lb is sitting on it regularly. Or sometimes for no discernible reason at all. Our experience has been that unless you're buying furniture that puts its high durability right there in the marketing, you may as well buy Ikea, which despite its reputation for being fragile will last at least as long as other cheap (but still more expensive, and often less tasteful) furniture.

nsxwolf 9y ago
We bought a couch that seemed pretty good and wasn't cheap. It was really comfortable for about a week, then the whole structure just started to sag. The kids like to stand on the arm rests and jump off. We very quickly learned that the entire structure of each arm rest was just a cardboard box, and they both promptly crushed, and now we have deformed, squishy arm rests.
- ashark 9y ago
  Yeah, when I went looking for advice on couches and chairs that'll hold up to serious (ab)use, everyone in the know recommended a couple of modern heavy-duty manufacturers or finding something from the mid 80s or earlier and refurbing, both due to survivorship bias and because even cheap furniture from that time was very "overbuilt" (or just "built" if you have normal standards and aren't a cost-shaving manufacturer) compared to modern stuff and legitimately is much stronger. There aren't really other options AFAIK, and we have both some heavy friends and three young kids so better to spend low 4-figures on a couch once than high-3-figures and have to replace it every year or two. If those steel frame Campaign Living couches actually hold up, they're a good deal at ~$1200. That ugly-ass bulky $800 Ashley Furniture couch with all the faux engraved wood and crap from the furniture store stands a real chance of breaking in short order under very ordinary and careful use, let alone anything extreme. They're garbage. One of several cases in which I think our standard of living gains the last couple decades are kind of fake, disguising lots of things actually getting much crappier as they get less expensive. Though some others, to be sure, have improved—cars, notably, and computers for the most part.

by ashark 9y ago

nsxwolf 9y ago

We bought a couch that seemed pretty good and wasn't cheap. It was really comfortable for about a week, then the whole structure just started to sag. The kids like to stand on the arm rests and jump off. We very quickly learned that the entire structure of each arm rest was just a cardboard box, and they both promptly crushed, and now we have deformed, squishy arm rests.

ashark 9y ago
Yeah, when I went looking for advice on couches and chairs that'll hold up to serious (ab)use, everyone in the know recommended a couple of modern heavy-duty manufacturers or finding something from the mid 80s or earlier and refurbing, both due to survivorship bias and because even cheap furniture from that time was very "overbuilt" (or just "built" if you have normal standards and aren't a cost-shaving manufacturer) compared to modern stuff and legitimately is much stronger. There aren't really other options AFAIK, and we have both some heavy friends and three young kids so better to spend low 4-figures on a couch once than high-3-figures and have to replace it every year or two. If those steel frame Campaign Living couches actually hold up, they're a good deal at ~$1200. That ugly-ass bulky $800 Ashley Furniture couch with all the faux engraved wood and crap from the furniture store stands a real chance of breaking in short order under very ordinary and careful use, let alone anything extreme. They're garbage. One of several cases in which I think our standard of living gains the last couple decades are kind of fake, disguising lots of things actually getting much crappier as they get less expensive. Though some others, to be sure, have improved—cars, notably, and computers for the most part.