Where to buy a sofa?

[stargirl04]

I wanted to buy a leather corner sofa at Laura Ashley, but when it came to ordering, the discounted price was £200 more than I was originally told it would be and this made me think twice.

I haven't written it off and am still considering it, but it's still nearly £2k after the discount.

In the meantime I went to DFS and saw loads of really cheap sofas in their sale for at least half and sometimes even a third of what I'd pay for the Laura Ashley sofa. There are two at DFS that I'm considering.

Has anyone bought sofas from either of these two retailers, and what are the sofas like in terms of quality? Will the DFS sofas fall apart after a year, and do Laura Ashley sofas merit the high cost?

I would, ideally, like to buy one from sofa.com but they cost a fortune and it doesn't look as though they have sales.

There's nothing I like at Harveys and Furniture Village, and Ikea sofas are really uncomfortable.

Thanks for reading.

[DoesntLeftoverTurkeySoupDragOn]

Laura Ashley seem to get bad reviews on Mumsnet, both for quality and after sales service. I have no personal experience though.

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

I've had DFS before and they were rubbish quality. They needed replacing within 5yrs.

[bayrans]

Have you tried Sofa workshop? We have a lovely,comfy and huge corner sofa from there. Great customer service, even helping out witha sofa that my husband bought from them over 10years ago.
My parents have had a hard time with DFS, faulty and damaged sofas and poor customer care. I'd avoid.

[NoArmaniNoPunani]

DFS are awful. Try Cargo

[MisForMumNotMaid]

Ebay every time for me. We're such a throw away change your mind society. If you're not in a rush and can get beyond second hand you could be looking at 20% of the shop price.

We brought our lounge sofa bed about two weeks after choosing the same to save up for in IKEA. It was £150 and pristine. In IKEA it would have been £850. The previous owners brought it to look nice selling their house and it didn't fit in the new one.

[MAM48]

I have a 6 year old Laura Ashley Sofa (not leather). Only DH and I use it and it is not the main sofa. Already it is knackered.

Our other sofa came from Wesley Barrel and was twice the price, it is 14years old and still looks and feels brand new.

Buy the very best quality you can afford, it is just as important as a bed purchase IMO.

[ArtyBat]

I have an 8ft in length DFS leather sofa I bought 12 years ago, and it is still as fabulous as the day it was bought.

Sadly I shall be selling it in the new year, and just know it will be a hard act to follow!

[WerewolfBarMitzvah]

We have a couple of sofas from M & S. Only now, after 9 years continous use would I say they aren't as comfy as they once were. But still absolutely fine. We got it in a 25% off sale so got a decent discount.

[creamhearts]

We have DFS leather sofas that we are very happy with, as do my PIL and BIL and theirs are all doing well. Have heard bad things about Laura Ashley sofas.

[BumWad]

My DFS fabroc one is 7.5 years old and still going strong

[mandy214]

Have never had one but SIL had a DFS sofa and it was dreadful. Really poor quality and as others have said, needed replacing very quickly.

We have M&S sofas but haven't been massively impressed with them - albeit not top of the range but they're 6 years old and need replacing if we could afford it.

Best sofa we ever had was from Next actually - very comfortable and surprisingly good quality.

[Stokes]

We got a sofa from DFS 8 years ago, it's been treated terribly (albeit only the two of us living there) and it's bullet proof. Still in pretty good nick, and just as comfy.

BIL & SIL have a beautiful leather corner sofa, I usually don't like leather sofas but it's gorgeous. They've three small DC and it gets jumped on and over constantly. It's like new. Asked MIL where they got it, thought it'd be some ridiculously expensive independent place but it's DFS.

No experience of Laura Ashley.

[nottheOP]

Very happy with our d f s sofa. Great customer service too.

La isn't great with their new owners

[Gozogozo]

I will add to the m&s not as good as it should have been...I have 2 sofas which are approx 5 years old and the seats have sagged terribly. We are also saving to replace with sofa.com, Wesley barrell or multi York, but I reckon it will be quite a while

[Chewbecca]

We have multiyork sofas, very very happy with them. 10 years old now, still look fab & super comfy. Worth the £££

[TerrifiedMothertobe]

Multiyork. Brilliant, and they have sales.

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

We have a dfs leather sofa which is 6 years old and still going strong despite the malteatment by the DC's! We opted for the thicker leathr0er. We also have just ordered a muktiyork chair big wing type so cant commemt on that yet!

[stargirl04]

Hadn't thought of Multiyork. Thanks!

Anyone bought a sofa from Homebase? The couple in their showroom I've tried, by Shreiber, are surprisingly comfy and reasonably priced.

[jenster1976]

We've got sofas from all 3! I love sofa.com, now they offer interest free credit to for a year, so might make it more doable? Our DFS corner sofa in the playroom is great though, totally comfortable and good service. Laura Ashley worst on every variable.

[BeHoHoHove]

I think DFS is like most big retailers - they have a range of different qualities on offer.

We found ours by searching t'internet then finding all the different places that sold it. It worked out cheaper to buy it from a big retailer in England and have it delivered to us than to buy it locally in Scotland!

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

We currently have John Lewis sofas (plus four antique ones of questionable, but interesting vintage!) and we are very happy with the quality. We recently sold a pair of Multiyorks that were around eight years old and they were very comfortable, although the removable covers never went back on the same after dry cleaning, otherwise pretty good though.

We had a DFS leather sofa for about six years and had no issues with it whatsoever. M&S we weren't so happy with......also had Tetrad sofas a few years back and only changed them as they didn't suit our new (old) house - they were probably them most comfy ones we've had!!

[CointreauVersial]

We bought our leather corner sofa from M&S. It was in the sale, about two years ago, and still looks as good as new.

[Fuckmath]

I have a Laura Ashley one in study I.e not main sofa and not so heavily used. Its not in the best condition now and it was only bought 3 or 4 years ago! It's a light fabric not leather but still.

[stargirl04]

So it seems to be a thumbs-down for Laura Ashley then.

All these comments are very helpful - thanks Mumsnetters!

The Laura Ashley sofa I am thinking of getting is this

These are the two currently under consideration at DFS: in brown

And colour undecided

What do you think?

[Fuckmath]

Despite my comments above about Laura Ashley dodgy quality of my sofa, I think the one you linked looks lovely. Looks comfier and more substantial than the DFS two.

I was looking at Sofas the other day in Dwell and they have some nice looking ones, especially some of the corna sofas which were really roomy. Worth a look. Cargo and Next's home section also had some decent looking ones - not sure of quality as I don't think I know anyone who has bought from there.