Sofas - how often do you buy new ones?

[Letsskidaddle]

Scrolling through FaceBook marketplace and I'm amazed by all the nearly new sofas that are for sale or free....

Some (most I've realised ) are in better condition than mine (cats have ruined mine from scratching), but mine were second-hand to start with.

Just got me thinking how often other people buy new ones. I'm admittedly a bit of a skinflint but they're not a cheap purchase and seem a huge, expensive luxury to me. Not sure I'd ever have the spare £££s to indulge, much as I'd love to.

Now feeling a bit fed up that so many people seem to have such beautiful homes...mine is very nice and kept well, but nothing is new or fancy and there's a lot we don't have - never had a dressing table or a chest of drawers for instance. For context I live alone now DC have moved out and before that struggled as a single parent, 'new' new was always just out of reach.

This is about more than sofas I guess, I've realised lately that the sum total of my life and possessions is very little and that makes me a bit sad.

But! On a lighter note, how often do you splash out? On sofas or other 'big' purchases.

This is a subject on my mind at the moment...
We initially had a sofa that had been mine when I lived on my own. When DH and I bought our first house together (bigger than mine) we kept it a couple of years, but it was a bit small for the room. I have form for only being able to justify getting new things if it’s a bargain/really good deal (and end up getting not quite what I really wanted).

We ended up buying an ex-display sofa and chair. It was Duresta (well known, traditional, very good quality brand). We paid about a third of what it would cost new. It was a bit big for the room, didn’t really match decoration wise (so we redecorated the room to match) but it was a bargain, so all was good.

It was the best sofa ever. It was SO comfortable and the quality was fantastic. When I was pg with DD1 and couldn’t sleep, I would go and lie on it and could always get to sleep.

We had it about 8 years and then moved to a much more modern house. Now the sofa really doesn’t go and I get into my head that we need a new one. DH was dead against it, but as usual, let me have what I wanted. We buy a very modern sofa and chair from a really reputable local furniture retailer. It cost us about the same as the Duresta had. We offer the Duresta to my DP’s as it seemed a shame to pass it on to anyone else and it went perfectly in their house. They give us £150 for it (they insisted, wanted to give us more but that was what I thought was fair). A couple of years later I look on ebay out of curiosity and discover that Duresta sofas go for £££ and we could probably have got back what we paid for it 10 years earlier!

So, I get my new, modern sofa. We’ve had it 10 years now and we both HATE it and always have done. The quality is awful. We got a scatterback and I would never have another. Just awful, awful, awful.

If I ever moan about it DH says “I think we had a really good sofa once, whatever happened to that? Oh yes, that’s right...” I also had to accept that while DC were young it was pointless changing it.

DC are older now, current —crap— sofa is looking, well, crap and I am determined to get a new one this year. Can’t really afford one just yet, but I am adamant we will have one before Christmas. I will buy very carefully this time!

Sorry that was so long. Like I said, this subject is on my mind at the moment...!

Ours is leather bought 5 years ago. It’s kept covered because of the cat so the Learher is immaculate. The seat my teenage son sits has completely sagged now though. I’m not sure if it’s repairable as there aren’t removable cushions. If it can be fixed it will def last a lot longer. Our previous sofa was from 1988.

I bought a 2 and 3 seater cream leather sofa for new house when ex and I split up. They were SO comfy in the shop but brand new were not nice! Got rid of the 3 seater when I moved into current house in 2019 as it was too big but the 2 seater is in the conservatory and is OK so long as you don't want to lounge on it. Currently have a 2 seater 'main' sofa which was a hand me down from parents who had it made bespoke 30 years ago - its too small to lounge on but I love the deep seats and high arms and straight and high back! I want to replace it for something more 'loungy' as the wooden legs are crumbling and it needs recovering and the frame is collapsing a bit but no idea what to replace it with. Can't wait until the shops are open again so I can go and test a few out.

We’ve been married 36 years and are on our 4th sofas. Current ones bought 2 years ago so I guess we have averaged about 10 years from each. Young kids and pets meant the earlier ones gradually got really scruffy. The last leather ones weren’t too bad but we were lucky enough to have an inheritance so decided to treat ourselves.

We got new ones this time last year. The ones before we had had for 18 years.

My friend's DD moved out and got her own place 8 years ago and has had 4 different (new) sofas.

We have four, custom built for us 30 years ago at £4k each. They're still going strong, all re-covered and new feather seat pads over the years and they still look like new.

Can't see us ever replacing them tbh, I bought one from Next for a guest room a couple of years ago but it isn't anywhere near as comfy

We have 'new' sofas (3 seater and 2 seater) which are around 7-8 years old. Still think of them as new and won't change them for a good few years. We also have another sofa in the dining room, which is now where the kids play. DH bought it when he got his first flat, in 2001. We're just now thinking it might be ok to replace it, we're not super frugal people but we do like to get our use out of things!

I’ve made a horrible sofa mistake.

In about 2002 ish I went to the ideal home show with my boyfriend and we sat on this amazing sofa and agreed if we were still together and ever had the money in the future we would but this sofa.

FF to 2018 and it was time to get a sofa. We went back to the this high end sofa place we’d been to in 2002 and we purchased a teal velvet chaise longue 4 seater for about 4K.

It’s never been comfortable. We knew fairly early on but didn’t verbalise to each other. We just ignored it and hoped it would improve. I convinced myself it was comfy if I sat a certain way. DH sits on a slant and now
has chronic back pain.

I’m ashamed to say I lost it September last year and it all came out. We paid £500 for new foam cushions but it hasn’t helped.

It makes us both feel sick but it has to change. The moment DFS opens we are down there.

In 30 years I’ve had two second hand ones and two brand new ones. My current one is six years old and perfectly fine. The one before that was one of those very cheap small IKEA sofas as I couldn’t fit a standard sized sofa in my living room at my old house - that lasted about 12 years! And I only got rid of it because I moved into a house where I could fit a suite in!

Just got new sofas, our old ones were 12 years old and had seen a lot of use!

I’ve never bought a sofa. I’ve lived in furnished flats and then when we moved to our current house my parents gave me their old sofa.

We're on our second sofa I hate it, and will be changing it this year.

Our first sofa and arm chair wasn't cheap, but the fabric was terrible and within 3 years looked like it had been through disaster after disaster.

DH persuaded me to get our current sofa. It is bloody uncomfortable and I can't wait to see the back of it.

My parents have a sofa which is 33 years old. It is the most comfortable sofa ever, and if I could pinch it off them I would.

Ours are 20 years old - bought from MFI (remember them ), fairly cheap as we thought we'd need to replace them after the toddler years - our DS is now 20 , but they are absolutely fine ..washable covers. One of my siblings replaces their sofas every 5 years ... then complains they are skint .

I buy as little as possible as they are
So expensive and seem to all now be made for sindy sized houses now. Which is too small for my house.
I was so peed off why not finding what I wanted that I did consider getting the
Old comfy one recovered.
I expect that there are a lot on FB because they are badly made to start with and very high fashion that dates very quickly

Silver crushed velvet anyone ??

DH got one at a substantial discount when he bought his first house (cancelled order) it was comfortable, but very light coloured, and at about 13 years old it became unredeemably grubby on the arms.

We got a new suite from DFS. During the life of that one, I had SPD in pregnancy and had to give up using it and settled for a consideranly more supportive IKEA poang chair. That suite was about 5-6 years old and still looking good when we sold it on, it just wasn't supportive enough for our backs.

Splashed out on some fancy reclining ones a few years ago. Not trendy, not beautiful, but our backs love them and they should last a long time.

We replaced our 25 year old sofa and chairs a couple of years ago. They were still in good condition - just dated. We've gone for something much lighter in colour this time so I don't expect they'll last as long plus I doubt they're as well made now as the older one was.

If there's one thing I've noticed from all the Zoom interviews on tv, it's that not everyone lives in a house that looks like something straight from the pages of Homes and Gardens magazine. I love seeing peoples' ordinary furniture and decor and books lying the wrong way across the top of other books on their book shelves.

I too have noticed people advertising lots of quite new stuff on Facebook with the narrative 'change of colour scheme' as reason for getting rid. I was definitely brought up by the make do and mend generation so although I don't go quite that far, I would never get rid of perfectly good/ new furniture just because I fancied a change.

Ours is 25 years old. A few years ago we replaced the seat and back cushion covers. It's very saggy, but still comfy! Dh wants to replace but I feel there's no point till kids are older!

We bought one in Harrods sale in about 1986 it lasted through numerous moves and two small children for about 12 years alongside a hand me down ( 1950s ) . It's frame gave up and we replaced with one from multi York which is still going strong; when we had a second sitting room 15 years ago we bought 2 more ( one from multiyork and another from a company that makes to measure( awkward room) ). They are both absolutely fine in terms of comfort and build . They do look a little old fashioned now but I wouldn't consider replacing unless as a pp said they didn't fit into a potential new home.
We have a weeken house with. Couple of sofa workshop sofas in , 20 yo or so; they are uncomfortable and we will probably replace them with some inherited sofas ( 1960s) which need new loose covers but remain very sturdy and comfortable .

We have just bought a new sofa, the first brand new one in our 16 years together! Our old one at least 12. My DM bought it and handed it down almost new due to a house move.

Its was black and cream and we've raised two DCs on it. Unfortunately, it has taken a further battering during lockdown and is now unsalvageble.
I do have other sofas and chairs, all of which are second hand and have been re-upholstered.

I do think a lot of the nearly new sofas on market place etc. are due to house sales. We also have a local seller who buys sofas from show homes ex display and re sells them.

Ours are 9 years old, were bought as a cheap quick solution. They look so bad, all of it sagged (cats haven't done damage to them though). The next one I'd like cost about £2K each and I'm worried cats will damage those.... (I love wool covered sofas) so w're sticking with these for a while.

I bought a huge Tetrad sofa 17 years ago. It cost around £1500 which was a huge amount of money for me at the time but I saw it as an investment.
I got it professionally reupholstered and re-covered about 5 years ago which cost me about £800 and it's still looking great, is incredibly comfy and takes pride of place in my living room. I still love it !

About 25 years old, still going strong and no intention of replacing it.

We bought our sofas just after we bought our first home. That was 14 years ago. We've now got them in our new home and they've still got plenty of of life left in them. We'll consider changing them once our youngest (she's 3) is much older. I quite fancy a corner sofa now we've got more room.

Sofas 1 and 2 are 16 years old.

Sofa 3 is 11 years old.
Sofa 4 is about 7 years old.

I am intending to replace sofa 1 soon, it’s had a hard life in our kitchen with 2 small kids (and it’s white! bought pre dc). The rest will stay for many more years.

The sad thing is that it’s so expensive to get sofas recovered, as it’s often the cover that goes long before the frame.

Mine is 6 years old. Very comfortable and still looks great.

It's dark grey. I think I will be sick of how dark it is after another 2 or 3 years.
So I am guessing I'll replace after 10 years use.

It was £1,300 and it is very well used by the whole household, especially this year. It's been more than worth the cost.