Dwell vs John Lewis sofas

[mosaica]

We need two new sofas for our dining room. I've seen some beautiful ones in John Lewis, the Barbican range, which I love - but they are not cheap. I know it's makes sense to go for expensive sofas if they last for years and years, but the problem is, we've got three children under 5 and they are the messiest little monkeys! No sofa is likely to survive them - or is it?

This morning I've been to Dwell and seen a sofa I really like (Paris range), at a considerable cheaper price. The quality seems good enough but I have no experience of buying from Dwell, what do you think? My husband thinks it makes no sense to spend a fortune on sofas that will be wrecked by the kids in no time particularly when the Dwell sofas look very good as well.

What would you do?? If we had no kids -or older kids- we would probably invest in the John Lewis, but is it worth it when you know the kids will have it crayoned over before we have time to sit down on it?

[newbiefrugalgal]

Dwell = nightmare. Ordered four dressers from them few years ago now.
Kept extending delivery date -waited over two months.
Too long if you were not expecting it.
Wouldn't refund either

[BabyRuSh]

No experience of dwell but we or out jl sofas from their outlet store at 40% off. Wouldn't spend full price on them. Also chose to get leather ones as I think they're easier to keep clean with dc. The ones we got (Groucho range) are great quality.

[georgedawes]

I've had good experience buying from dwell, but I wasn't hugely impressed with the comfort of their sofas when I looked at them. We ended up getting our sofas from bhs of all places, and they were great.

www.bhsfurniture.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/bhsstore/250725/1

In your position if you're happy with the cheaper sofas at dwell, I'd get them.

[Barbabeau]

We looked Dwell sofas but didn't find them very comfortable. They are much cheaper though.

I was in love with the Barbican sofas but DH wasn't as keen. We wound up getting JL Bailey sofas. They're very comfy.

[Cosmosim]

I've had mine since 2007, had it professionally cleaned once and its still holding up despite two hairy cats and sticky toddler fingers. My parents were so impressed with it, they ended up buying one too last year and love it. Never any delivery issues.

[mosaica]

Thanks! Some good feedback here. Georgedawes, I never thought of Bhs, but I've just checked their website and they have a really nice looking sofa, I might try and go to their showroom this week. Is their quality good?

I need to make up my mind by Thurday, arggghhhhh!!!

[georgedawes]

Yeah we thought they were really good quality, and good value. I was surprised! Delivery was good too, they unwrapped it all for us and took all the packaging away.

[noddyholder]

John Lewis are better quality in my limited experience I think Dwell is cheaper made

[NorbertDentressangle]

We went to Dwell recently when sofa shopping and TBH I wasn't impressed at the quality at all.

It probably didn't help that whilst there we looked at the upstairs bit where they sell off damaged stock and you could really see how badly made and easily damaged some of the furniture is.

[ginmakesitallok]

If you like the barbican you might like this? We have 2 kids, who have already biroed our sofa twice, but leather is dead easy to clean. We got that sofa from a local independent shop - comes in different colours too, though we went for the green

[nocake]

I bought a small dining room table from Dwell and it was rubbish. Really poor quality. We tolerated it for a couple of years before dumping it.

[sleepdodger]

Er john Lewis has an outlet store??!! What where share the love??!!

[BabyRuSh]

:) sorry for the late response. It's in Swindon. They usually have a decent selection of sofas up to 40% off.

[staverton]

Try made.com. Much cheaper and lovely!
Can email you a recommendation to get extra £15 off

[mosaica]

But i heard made.com were really poor quality? I do love the design me their curvy sofa, but haven't been tempted because of the negative feedback. Have you bought one from them?

[su75]

I wouldn't recommend dwell to anyone.
I bought dining table and 5 chairs and paid over £2000 . The chairs have been hardly used (I bought 4 chairs) and they started breaking and I contacted dwell and was told ,they've changed ownership and they don't take responsibility for any sales made by the previous owners.
So you are happy to keep the name and all the old dwell's customer , but when it comes to take responsibility , then you come up with your stories. Disgusting and feel deceived.

[Backingvocals]

There are loads of Barbican sofas on eBay from one seller. About half price. New. I've been looking for weeks and there are new ones every day but they don't have the size / fabric combination I want but you should def have a look. Not sure if they are excess stock or what the score is but worth looking.

[mathers73]

Barbabeau how is your Bailey sofa faring? I;ve had mine for just shy of a year and I am pretty underwhelmed. Thanks