Sofa cushion despair

[Twinsgranny]

have spent weeks looking for sofa and two chairs for our awkward shaped lounge. Have been looking at John Lewis at their Otley range but all their sofas now use Quallifil fibre which is very eco friendly but no one has a good word to say about it the reviews are awful. Has anyone bought from JL in last couple of years since they used this cushion fibre?? They have some nice fabrics that are treated with Aquaclean which is brilliant for families. One woman said it was her daily workout plumping the cushions and someone else said getting rid of their JL sofas after just a year as stuff just goes saggy and flat. So thought would ask some other mums. Most of the middle to upper range manufacturers seem to have moved to this filling now. If it’s so bad can’t see how they sell sofas, surely not everyone wants the very lived in look? Sadly can’t find anything that fits the room well in DFS and other cheaper retailers that still use foam. Rant over, opinions requested! Many many thanks.

Most Marks and Spencer sofas are offered with a choice of three seat cushion interiors, including Bounce Back foam.

Yes I know, but unfortunately I haven’t fallen in love with any of their fabrics as I have with a couple of the John Lewis ones. Maybe should have another look as I do like the bounce back idea. Do you have one of the Marks sofas?

Yes - we have the Abbey sofas. The newest of them has the Bounce Back seating (the others are older foam before bounce back was a thing!) - it's springy, comfortable and fairly supportive. It needs no reshaping when someone gets off!

I agree - their current selection of fabrics is a bit safe!

Thank you Rosegoldwatcher (what a lovely name by the way!).
If I buy from Marks we would have the Abbey.
It’s a nice shape.
The other thing that drives me potty is choosing a fabric unless you happen to see one you like on the shop floor.
Tiny little fabric samples are so useless especially if the fabric has any sheen to it and therefore looks different at diff angles!
Then there is choosing cushions, I am useless at all this stuff.
What gets me is I could spend a fortune then not like it all much!
Can I ask what fabric you have got?
Expect I will go grey and play safe.
Did look at a navy but the fabric sample when it came was amazingly dark so need to look at the real thing again.
Thanks again for all your help!
X

@Twinsgranny we've ordered M&S "Abbey" sofas with bounce back and aqua clean we were lucky as they were on 20% off a while back - they don't arrive til next month but I hope they are good!

Aquaclean is good, my daughter in law has a chair in it from sofa.com. and it cleans like a dream! What colour you having? I think in my M&S (15 miles away!) had just chairs in 3 or4 colours when I went there. In Rochester design. Did you manage to see the colour you are having? Am not sure if all the Marks that do furniture have the same models on display or not. X

We've gone for steel grey and no only saw a sample unfortunately! They had the abbey sofas in cream or leather in our local one so we just have to hope we like it!

Can I ask what fabric you have got?

@Twinsgranny - our 2008 Abbey sofas (large 3 seater and loveseat) are in dark brown leather with home-sewn velvet seat covers to replace the originals which were worn out. Every other surface and structure are still good.
The newer one (an Ebay bargain) is a two seater in a textured weave (Herez?) The colour is officially Heather, a dull purple. Not available now.

If I bought new from M&S I would probably go for a neater, more boxy shape in dark grey wool.

Yes, wool look getting popular as it’s a warm look. I like velvets too and think steel grey Aquaclean will be fine. When I was looking at Next, it was all the grey sofas they had available at short notice presumably because they keep them in stock so far as possible because they are the most popular. John Lewis do a lot of Aquaclean now which is so sensible and in many shades but use fibre filing which is daft. I don’t think I can stand the thought of forever turning cushions and smoothing out the fabric, I just don’t like the lived in look. It’s mostly just me and my husband, how anyone with kids would ever get the time to ‘dress’the cushions defeats me!

Have found a list of dedicated M&S furniture stores. I hope that one is near to you @Twinsgranny .
www.marksandspencer.com/c/furniture/furniture-store-guide

Maybe have a day out and sit on a whole range of shapes and fabrics?

That’s so sweet of you. We live nearest to Leicester but could always go to Milton Keynes as well. I might ring up the dedicated ordering furniture line and ask if they all have the same items in the ranges, they probably do in which case no good going to more than one store. I think the furniture changes a bit July time although I doubt it’s much of a refresh, more a few things change because colours get discontinued
Thanks again
x

OP, just to say, I took ages deliberating over a blue sofa this year and eventually bought one I thought was going to be almost too dark navy and it is almost too light!

So I agree with you those tiny little square samples don't really give you any idea. Also it is sofa.com and wasn't cheap and not that comfortable (seat cushions too firm, back cushions not stuffed enough) so I'm a bit annoyed about that and wouldn't recommend them.

User237845 thank you for posting. I would be interested to know what colour/material your sofa is, please? I have got quite a lot of samples from sofa.com. They do a sofa and chair called Bluebell that is a lovely shape and good dimensions. Luckily we can get to London quite easily and have a look so I would know about comfort etc but you still don’t get to see many of the fabrics made up as they pick the ones that look the best and bright colours and may not be practical sofas for the average purchaser. I liked a navy chenille in Marks which I saw last year when had a brief look around and when the sample came I couldn’t believe it was the same thing.
i am sorry your sofa cushions are a bit firm, I think they are foam wrapped in fibre which is best because the alternative is Qualifill fibre which more firms are now using. That gives amazing bounce but you have to be forever plumping which is a terrible pain and in between plumping the material can look a bit saggy….
there are lots of firms on the web that redo cushions, maybe you could get some more stuffing put in back cushions? It’s horrible to be disappointed.

Anyway, would love to know what fabric you have!

we are going on holiday next week, when I get back have got to get down to this sofa business, our old one is a total disgrace and def can’t see another Christmas!
Am lucky to have had many useful replies to my post

If I pop in I can see what they got and report back 😂

That's interesting about the Quallifil fibre ... we've just started looking for new sofas/chairs, DH had checked out the JL website and said there were a lot of poor reviews. Looking round some of the big sofa stores we were surprised how many seemed to have a sort of slight lumpy, messy look, maybe it's this fill?

For some reason we'd forgotten M&S does furniture, that abbey looks quite nice in the photos. I can't see anywhere online that says what the frame is made of though.

ErrollTheDragon- at JL many of the sofas are Quallifil now, the ones that are not are the streamlined Scandinavian styles. So need to see what styles you like on JL website and then look at the details
with regard to Marks sofas there is a furniture order line and if you ring them they will be able to answer questions about the frames. I rang them because I wanted to know the rub count of a fabric (ie how long it will last) they won’t tell u just say it’s to British Standards requirements. That’s 20,000 which is v low. I am not saying that many of their fabrics don’t have a higher count but v annoying not knowing

Rub count, that's not a term I'd heard but makes sense. A lot of the fabrics I've seen in the last couple of days don't look like it would very high. Whereas our current stuff which is quite a fine but dense weave is in remarkably good nick given it was a wedding present in 1986.

Our nearest furniture M&S is about an hour away so maybe we'll go this weekend. We're currently rather taken by a Parker Knoll we saw in furniture village this morning, not the most stylish but very comfortable- actually designed for people to sit in. Trouble is we can't quite see how it would fit through perfectly normal doors.
Also interested in a bespoke firm, James&Rose

Humph, comfy sofa probably too large to fit through our standard sized doors.

Hi OP, just quickly, it's Admiral smart cotton. Can we pm pictures? I am happy to though a bit shy of having my sitting room on the open board!

I think my friend has the bluebell sofa. We went more angular with the Izzy - not sure if that was a mistake. Useful info about the stuffing, thanks. I am thinking of asking sofa.com first if they can put more stuffing in the back ones?!

Best of luck with it - it's an expensive decision!

Oops forgotten I'd name changed for another thread. I'm User etc!

LatinForTelly
thank you for replying, I do have a sample of Admiral smart cotton, it’s very nice colourbut am not so sure about cotton to be honest I have always thought it didn’t wear that well and produced a sort of lived in, casual look which am not so keen on but hopefully I am wrong! Sofa.com do give rub count for their fabrics but you have to ring and ask, maybe I will do that.Think a good idea to ask sofa.com about the back cushions I suppose it would work to put more stuffing in as long as that didn’t put strain on the fabric, it shouldn’t do it’s probably just got a certain amount of stuffing in order to give it a certain ‘look’. I think Sofa.com back filling is the same as most suppliers it’s the different seat fillings that take some thinking about. It would be better if Sofa.com did it rather than a different upholsterer.
Let us know how you get on. Don’t worry about posting a photo although that’s a nice thought.

ErrollTheDragon most furniture shops have details on website of how you measure for getting sofas in the house. I can’t imagine that the Parker Knoll would be a problem there are some gigantic sofas around these days. Some now break into two parts or have removable arms…