I have a question about sofas like that that don't have seat cushions. I really like the look of them, but my husband thinks that under daily wear and tear it will start to look lumpy and misshapen and there won't be any way to re stuff it to make it look right again (the way you'd be able to in a sofa with seat cushions). Does anyone have any long term living experience with something like that who can give me some feedback about it?

Has anyone ever gotten furniture (dining chairs/sofas specifically). Are they durable and a good bang for the buck or are they flimsy?

I was at CB2 yesterday but I didn't sit in the Chet Sofa so I can't be much help. I am going back today or tomorrow so I'll let you know.

RE: bluestar question... We have two such sofas, one from the 50's/60's and the stuffing has just started deteriorating. We are looking at a re-upholstery job. The other was about $600, is about 3 years old and it is a little lumpy. The stuffing can be repositioned with a good beating. My friends have the CB2 Zoom sofa in their business and after 3 years it still looks great.

Hm...thanks for the tips boomer and nicole. I have to say that I hadn't thought about it until my husband brought it up, but I am almost persuaded by the argument :) The other issue we're having is that I insist that if we buy a sofa (it'll be the first one we buy together, the ones we have now are hand me downs and will not fit up the stairs in our new place) we spend money on a good, quality sofa. I'm not saying we should just go out and plunk down money on the most expensive couch out there, just that I want to be sure we don't spend $600 now and live to regret it six years from now you know? But he cringes at the thought of spending more than $500 on a couch. *sigh* It's going to be a looooong debate this summer :)

that is the ugliest sofa I have ever seen

Ditto gina. They'll hate it in...oh...maybe 36 months?

Thanks boomer! I *could* be tempted into a leather couch, but it would probably take me a while to find one I liked enough to shell out the money for it. And again, my husband would probably die at seeing the price tags on some of the nicer leather sofas out there. I'm not sure where we'll end up in the great debate, but hopefully I'll win :) At any rate, thank you very much for all the info, it's extremely helpful as we start our research!

I don't like the legs on the sofa, they don't go!

No seat cushions--> can't flip them over if stained.

Bluestar --
Just to offer a different perspective, my husband and I have been living with a couch from Room & Board (similar to the Parker one they are currently offering) for the past three years. We basically live on the couch: I work on the couch during the day, we lounge on the couch in the evenings, and we frequently snack and sometimes dine on the thing. (Yeah, it gets more use than any other piece of furniture in the house!)

I'm happy to report the seat and back cushions are still firm and non-lumpy. I did insist on getting the thing in microsuede, so that stains come off easily, and the vaccuum gets the crumbs off just fine. That said, it's still about twice your stated budget, and here I would agree with boomer that it's well worth convincing the husband to shell out a bit more up front for something that (a) will be used an awful lot and (b) will have some staying power.

Hm. You're all giving me some serious food for thought here...boomer, the couches you linked to are nice, but not quite my taste, plus part of the reason we've become more serious about buying one is that we're potentially moving into an apartment that it will be veeeery tricky to get a couch into. 99 inches is WAY out of the question :)

My very favorite sofa is this one from restoration hardware: http://tinyurl.com/2yc74x

It's way out of our price range and way too big for our new place, but you know, in a perfect world.

Also, RH has the only leather sofa that I've ever actively lusted after, which is this one (I like it in the Sable): http://tinyurl.com/2ap7nn

Okay, at this point I've devolved into linking to my fantasy sofas. A more realistic option, and one that got a begrudging head nod from my husband was this: http://tinyurl.com/2ggted

I also like a lot of the options at Room and Board but there isn't one near us and it's a deal breaker for him not to be able to go into a store and test it out.

Hey thanks again boomer, I actually really like that and I bet he will too. They have three dealers near us (we're in Boston) too! Excellent :) My theory is, if I can build up a pretty large number of sofas that I like and that are within a varied price range then he can just pick whichever he likes best and I'll be happy with the decision. That *seems* like compromise, right? ;)

I agree with LaDonna Nichole. While I like the idea of justaposing traditional with modern, the legs are really out of proportion with the body of the sofa. It is a little like a pumpkin on 4 toothpicks.

Bluestar,

F.Y.I. Many of the sofas sold at Restoration Hardware are made by Mitchell Gold out of North Carolina, who also make sofas sold through other retailers like Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, ABC Carpet & Home, L.L. Bean, Neiman Marcus, and Chambers. I consider them quality and they do not use hand tied springs, instead they use steel serpentine springs for their sofas.

Keep looking out there for "the one" but I wouldn't necessarily avoid items at the stores above just because there sofas are affordable. Cost really is not a good way to judge quality. Sometimes it just means you are willing to pay more than the other guy.

Yes, I see the typos now. Oops!

We had a cushionless CB2 sofa in the $600-800 range for about 3 years- it was just like their current armless Cinema sofa but with curved metal platform legs instead. It had a cotton/linen fabric. The cushioning held up fairly well, except for the area where my 6'2", 190lb husband liked to sit every night and there you could see some sagging. More significantly, the fabric thinned and then ripped after about a year and a half of use in the same spot. It probably could have lasted longer if we had it reupholstered, but that might have cost as much as the sofa.

This was a good, affordable, temporary solution for us but I wouldn't expect something in this price range to last more than a few years unless it gets little use.

It might be useful to note that the seat depth of our cushionless CB2 sofa was somewhat narrow which did not work well for my tall husband. Not sure if they are all like that, but our new Crate & Barrel Petrie sofa is much more comfortable in that aspect (and the quality difference is apparent as well).

Very interesting chococat, my husband is actually 6'5 and about 280, so the depth of the sofa and it's ability to hold up to him sitting in the same spot day after day would definitely be a factor.