Blu Dot's Bonnie & Clyde: Beautiful Yet Imperfect

We recently received a question about Blu Dot's Bonnie & Clyde sofa, which we just happen to own. A reader had seen the sofas in store and was inquiring about a depression in the center of Bonnie's long bench cushion. As you can see in this photo from our living room (excuse Mr. I need to be in the sunshine), we instantly knew what he was referring to. It pains us a bit to write this post because, after owning these delightfully simple sectionals for almost a year, our instant love affair with them has slowly cooled to a less than perfect relationship...

We would imagine that this imperfection plagues many long single-cushion sofas but it is easily "fixed." The picture above shows our Bonnie sofa after approximately a week of active sitting by two adults and a 22-pound Bacon. The reason for these wrinkles is because the encasing of the cushion (imagine a really big pillow case) slowly rotates from back to front as we sit down and get up, over and over during the week.

The single cushion is velcro-ed to the frame by a long strip that runs the length of the couch. Simply un-velcro the cushion from the frame and place it on its front-facing edge. On the back edge there is a zipper that runs the length, as well. It's a lot like re-situating a duvet inside of its cover or a pillow inside of its case — simply pull the cover back into place, zip it up and tuck it back into the frame, snugly.

This is what it will look like...almost as good as new:

Obviously, the downside to this quick fix is that it is not permanent. There's the rub. We've seen a house tour here on AT with the Animal Sofa by Blu Dot and noticed the same wrinkles. We still love our couches — the clean lines, the simple sectional, the nubby textured fabric and the firm bounce — but we do have to "fix" the cushion about once a week. We believe these couches have a very good price to quality ratio and are solid and well built, almost in a class by themself if your looking for their particular type of aesthetic. We imagine the little things like this must be the difference between B&B Italia prices and Blu Dot prices when you want furniture with striking modern profile lines.

Is any relationship (with upholstered furniture) ever perfect? Does anyone else with a Blu Dot sofa or other single-cushion sofa experience this problem?

Comments (40)

the bantam sofa from dwr has the same unicushion and the same problem.

bacon! wah! he's so cute!

Back when I sold furniture, I actually had one client try to return a sofa because of a similar issue, saying that his sofa was "Defective". In response, I asked him if the shirt and pants he was wearing was defective because it was wrinkled from him wearing it and sitting in his car to drive over...

This is not a price/quality issue - some fabrics are simply more prone to wrinkling and travel that others such as lighter-weight fabrics, fabrics with high cotton/linen content and those with looser weaves. You sit on a piece of upholstery, you'll eventually see some sort of wear in one way or another.

my eames sofa compact has the same issue...but is not as easily fixed!

I have a sofa that is 8 years old and from the get go the cushion has the same issue. It goes with the territory of a one long cushion made of foam. I do flip mine twice a week and to smooth it out. They will stay in better shape if you flip them often. Even very high end sofa cushions will do this.

If it really bothers you take one of the cushions to an upholster and see if they can replace the foam with a more rigid foam.

adorable pup!

Any sofa with a "bench" cushion will have this problem.

I have a single cushion daybed that does the same thing.
Now, in the grand scheme of things, does it REALLY bother you guys that much that wrinkles appear on your cushions? Enough to classify it as a 'problem'?

I mean, to be honest, if I spent even a moment worrying about such a thing, I'd drive myself insane everytime someone sat down and, god forbid, caused any wrinkling in the sofa's cushion. It's like buying a linen suit and having it steam pressed every week because it wrinkled after it was worn. Live with the fact that it's not smooth. It's part of the character of the piece!

PS: Bacon is looking delicious. As always.

I had a similar problem with a custom made sofa: the cover was too small for the cushion.

When a cushion doesn't have any room to move inside the cover, it gets stuck and "rolls".

If the cushion is foam, you can CAREFULLY trim it to make it SLIGHTLY smaller. If not, you may want to send it back. And if that's not an option, an upholsterer can probably fix it.

Good luck.

I'm glad to see people are even more nuerotic than I am. It's a couch. To sit on. At some point we have to accept that we interact with all the home items we drool at in the catalogs and magazines.

What a neat dog.

i have this exact same problem with my single-cushion sofa from EQ3 (it's the byrd sofa in blue-grey microsuede http://eq3.com/cat-eq3/process/locale/en_US/currency/en_US/page/30058-01.html).

the problem with EQ3 furniture - which is at a slightly lower price point - is that you CAN'T remove the cushion to re-align the cover... so you just have to live with the wrinkles :-(

won't be buying EQ3 again...

BACON! so cute!

I have an eq3 byrd sofa with the same problem but we were warned of this problem when we purchased it that it would happen over time...I just tuck the fabric back to the sides- annoying but oh well.

thanks for the tip frozenemotion! funny we posted about the same sofa 1 minute apart. nobody warned me about the byrd, though!

Totally off topic, but what are those little clippy things that you used to mount the prints above the sofa?

I had a similar problem with the Camden sofa from Crate and Barrel.
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=931&f=31979

I like to think I'm not too neurotic, but the fact that it wrinkled a lot within the first week of using it, and it didn't appear that way in the store really bugged me. There was also no way to really fix it - couldn't flip the cushion or adjust the foam or anything. I ended up returning it.

Wow,

Glad to hear all the responses so quickly. It makes us feel better to hear that this is a universal problem with this type of sofa, and even better (for us) that it really only takes a few minutes to remedy.

Yes, maybe we are a little particular, it seems we live with it until one of us stands up and can't deal with looking at it anymore. The best remedy is probably to just sit on it so you can't see it!

One additional thing is that there is an additional zippered cover between the outer upholstery and the foam which is almost like a muslin and very slippery. Maybe if we removed this it would take longer for the effect to happen but it is probably protecting the foam like a pillow case liner.

it seems a natural thing, especially for a one-long-cushion sofa. i have a $$$ sofa, in velvet. it's two cushions, but naturally, it wrinkles in the center of each cushion. it puckers on the edge, which really bothered me at first because i'm neurotic about such things, but have come to accept the fact that that just happens normally. especially if there's welting on the edges.

even my 3 cushion Corona does this a bit too, i just slap them a bit and they straighten out though. Funny that so many people have a greater problem with the one cushion since I wish often that ours was a one cushion. The reason being the 3 cushions get out of alignment easily, like if you sit on one cushion then get up, it will be pushed in more at the edge of the next one creating an unlevel look. Don't know which option i would hate more.

What are those prints?

My B&B Italia sofa does that, too. As others have mentioned, it's pretty natural for a sofa with a long, bench-type of cushion. Especially down-filled cushions.

I just plump them (redistribute the down) - no big deal.

Have you considered sewing velcro inside the outside case, with the mate on the outside of the inside case along the same line as the zipper? (to hide the stitch line) That might decrease your creases, if the case rolls less.

It is not as much the actual wrinkling that can be smoothed out with the hand, it it the stitching that is at the top corner of the cushion that should give it a nice straight line that slowly rotates down in the center giving the the apperance that it is sagging visually but the foam is fine. That is what requires unzipping and finagling to repostion like getting the corners of a pillow case just right.

Basically we just fix it every time we vacuum the couch which is pretty often now that it's Bacons favorite place.

Same thing w/ the twilight sofa from DWR. The fabric might have something to do w/ it as well. I have the orange one which is cotton. The blue fabric has more acrylic and may be less prone to wrinkling.

I bought the Miramar sofa at Crate and Barrel and had the same issue with the wrinkles. It was annoying to look at so I finally sold it and bought a new sofa.

That Bacon is so darn cute!

The prints are old German advertising (they are the same just differnet colors). I think they were about $3 on Etsy. We haven't found anything else big enough to fill the wall.

The clips are S.S. display clips from The MUT
http://themut.com/zoomprod/product11/

on a different note...i presume that is a Flor rug? do you happen to know which colors you used or which package it is? thanks!

Being an upholsterer, I have seen this before.

Your cushion is displaying 2 separate problems:

-The cover is "rolling" a bit on the insert. It creates that sagging look where the weltchord or seam is. Removing the thin, slippery insert cover will help with this symptom, but you must do this carefully to avoid damaging the layer of poly which is likely covering the foam. I tell clients to flip the cushion occasionally.

-The wrinkling on the actual sitting part of the cushion is a common symptom of a long single cushion. You could cut down on the wrinkling by replacing with a firmer foam, but you will never get rid of the problem completely.

Do not cut the foam core down, as suggested by some. The insert appears to fit well.

I don't have the same couch, but my couch has a similar problem that drives me batty. When I sit on the couch repeatedly, the cushions slide out slightly, exposing a tan fabric on the back of the cushions. Since the rest of the couch is black it is soooo obvious. Drives me insane.

Bacon is adorable!

thanks for the info on the prints.

Even though i could barely see them, somehow i knew it was those clips. Even after I saw this i went searching through my e-mail where i had saved the link for them

ohhh.... Bacon!

The Flor tiles are Toy Poodle in the same colors from the catalogue picture of the dining room table next to the wall of windows with the Blu Dot chairs. We thought it was perfect since we have Blu Dot couches...

http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop/tiles.html

I have the Andre sofa from Room and Board and I have the exact same problem. It makes me nuts! And sure, I'll own the title of Neurotic. I don't have a coffee table or accent chair right now, so the couch is pretty much the first and only thing guests see when they come over. Imperfections are hard to ignore!

My sofa has two cushions, but they're pretty long. I'm going to call the store and see if I can upgrade the foam (it's less than 6 months old). I feel like if the foam were a bit more firm, the issue wouldn't be as apparent.

For the time being, the problem is easily fixed when I flip the cushions...but it looks like you guys don't have that option! Sorry. I totally feel your pain.

Sometimes I'm really really glad I don't notice those things and they don't bother me.

And watch you back I want your dog

I was warned by an interior decorator I know to never purchase a sofa with one long cushion or even two long cushions rather than the typical 2-4.

She described the same problems above with most sofas of this kind, especially ones that are not made with down or down/blend cushions. Sadly, I think you are going to have to live with it if Blue Dot doesn't want to give a refund. That, or get it reupholstered with different cushion design.

Bummer

This is why I want a streamlined couch without detached cushions, like CB2's Booth sofa. So tired of adjust-after-sitting.

My only problem with the uni-cushion is that it eventually sags. Obviously, any cushion will eventually sag, but because the uni-cushion is one uninterrupted line, the sagging is way more apparent than with multiple cushions.

You just have to factor cushion replacement into the cost of the sofa. The price of simplicity.

This is a design issue. I have a forty year old french cane end sofa with a long single seat. The cushion is tight velvet with piping and through the seat buttons every 6 inches or so. The cover does not shift at all, the edges have not broken down. There is minimal surface "wrinkling" which can be smoothed down with a stroke or left to resolve itself with 15 minutes or so.

If you hate buttons you could, maybe, have the outside edges of the cushions mattress sewn together with the cover. This will leave a central wrinkling problem but would eliminate the shifting. It would be a softer less modern look though.

I have the same couch and the same problem, less with the wrinkling though and more with the rolling. Our couch is light grey, though, so I take off the cushion cover and wash it about once a month. Then I put it back on and roll the cover back a little to compensate, making sure I really get the velcro connection from the cushion cover to the front of the sofa on securely.

Your dog is incredibly cute! We like our grey sofa, our two grey cats blend into it nicely. But it really holds fur, so I have to vacuum a lot or avoid sitting on it in certain black items of clothing.

Well as someone who is in the market for a new sofa, I've been looking at the Bonnie for a while in addition to other modern sofas. I'm not a big fan of the multiple cushion design because I hate having to plump 50,000 cushions and pillows to make a sofa look nice. That's partly why I prefer the Bonnie. But the sad fact is, the only rep for Blu Dot in New Orleans doesn't have any floor models to try out and is less than helpful in answering any of my girlfriend's questions.

Needless to say, trying a DWR sofa might be close but it's not exactly the same nor is sitting on one of Ikea's nicer leather sofas and deciding you think the Bonnie is comfortable.

I don't mind the maintenance of smoothing the single cushion wrinkles. My bigger concern is durability and ease of keeping clean w/ two cats and a dog. We're thinking of going custom in either leather or microfibre but for the price I keep getting drawn back to the Bonnie.

The only thing holding me back is plunking down money to Blu Dot without having tried sitting on it. The idea of firm sofa that will last appeals to me but also having something that is comfortable to sit on from day one is crucial too.

Can anyone give some feedback on how it it sits? And has anyone had to deal with warranty issues yet? I haven't been able to confirm what the warranty is for the Blu Dot sofas. I know their other products are 1 year but I want to know if the sofas are warrantied longer.

Thanks and sorry for the long post.