apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My boyfriend's sofa is from there and I love it. Great quality and good prices. :)

I would also recommend www.customsofadesign.com for great prices, quality, fabric selection and turn around time. They have almost all of the sought after models from Crate and Barrel, Room and Board etc. We bought a "Renata" which is a dead ringer for the Petrie sofa at C&B except 1) it was $799 instead of $1499 and 2) we got it in the color we wanted in two weeks instead of 4 months.

AAAA! I hate them! And I am really not a hateful person. They are really awful people there. I bought a sofa there. The staff had dressed up the $900 couch I wanted with these really cool pillows and lead me to believe that they came with it. Then when they delivered, there were no pillows. When I called them, the salespeople (who had been so sugary nice before) were totally rude, and even made fun of me for not knowing that the pillows weren't included. I told them I wanted to return it, and they said no way. Soooo ridiculous! It was still in the plastic, and they wouldn't let me return!!. Grrr. Anyhow, I just kept the couch and decided to not think about them anymore. PLEASE DON'T DO IT. go to HD buttercup in culver city and get one of their reeeeeallly cool old mod couches instead.

Am I the only one who has the side bar blur into the actual post?

Well littlechairdesign, is the sofa at least nice? I mean.. it's just pillows. You can easily get pillows.

The sofa is ok. BUT, it has high sides with no padding, thereby making it uncomfortable without pillows. Their quality isn't too bad, but they are swindlers. It's really the principle of being treated like crap when buying a $900 couch that bugged me. Not cool.

sorry to rain on this parade:
1-$900 dollars for a sofa is cheap. it is not a lot of money. Ikea has sofas that cost more.
2-Companies almost never throw in the throw pillows-especially on a relatively cheap $900 sofa
3-you can buy pillows anywhere----- heck you could get them from anywhere from 20 bucks a pop to a pair that would cost more than your sofa.

ps- i know nothing about this company---- just needed to throw in a bit of a reality check.

I went in when I was looking for a couch and I hated it. I think its deceiving because the base models start at around $600 but of course that includes the lowest grade fabric and all that. I wasn't impressed and all their pieces seemed very low-backed. Not much variety or style. I found a woman who custom made me a R&B sofa for half the price instead - and she had more fabric options!

No parade, or rain. I'm not debating the relative price of the couch. Fact is $900 is a large enough chunk of money to mean something. I am fully aware that pillows do not always come with couches. They TOLD ME THE PILLOWS CAME WITH THE COUCH. Then didn't give them to me. Then laughed at me when I told them I wanted them. Then would not let me return the couch. I even asked to exchange for a different couch, and they wouldn't. They had my money and wanted me to go away.

I also had a horrible experience there, I bought a sofa which we ended up customizing (which is why we went there, we could make it longer, deeper, whatever we wanted). We made our sofa deeper and added down filled cushions. The style we wanted was on the floor so we were able to sit on it but it had foam seat cushions and back cushions. I asked to sit on one that had the down filled and they took us to a different sofa. It was really comfortable. We ordered and paid around $1200.00 maybe even a little more with all the add ons and fabric upgrades. Once the sofa was delivered the back cushions were a good 5" lower than the back of the sofa, which it wasn't on the floor and the down filled seat cushion was basically just feathers so you sunk all the way down the the base and so it felt like there was not cushion at all. I called and the salesperson we worked with no longer worked there, I asked to talk to a manager and she said for me to take the measurements of the sofa and take a picture of it so she could see the problem with the back cushions. She wouldn't do anything about the seat cushions so I finally asked if we could make the 45 min trip back to the store and picked up firmer foam to sandwich in between the feather wrapping. She agreed, we drove down, drove home and added the new foam and they were now hard as a rock. I called again and she said nothing would be done with the seat cushions and the back cushions were fine, the dimensions were what they were supposed to be. I explained that the sofa on the floor didn't look this way and she said it is because with feather it compresses but it was brand new and I stretched them out to no avail. Basically after having the sofa for a year I now need a new one. Horrible customer service. I would not recommend them at all.
Regarding the pillows they do come with pillows. I chose not to but I know they do come with them.

I should add that my experience was with the i Culver City store not the Santa Monica location but either way, not cool

My ex and I bought a sofa from the Santa Monica Sofa Company 2 years ago. It was okay but not great; the foam cushions always felt too spongy and cheap and with a custom fabric (I couldn't stomach the standard velour), the cost wasn't so much cheaper than one of the small versions of a much nicer Room and Board sofa. If you like The Sofa Company's standard fabric, I guess it could be considered a good bargain, especially if you're getting one custom made for a small space. The extras add up quickly though.

It's tough finding a quality, "cheap" (under $1000) sofa. If you live in a small place, finding a good used one that is the right length can be tough... what other solutions have people found? Besides the always reliable IKEA?

So my experience with the Sofa Company in Santa Monica was positive, if with a certain "blah" factor.

A question for flavorpacket - I went to the customsofadesign website, and was excited to see the dead ringer for the Restoration Hardware sofa that I've been pining for (Aubrey $699 vs Delaney $2270). They even use the exact same photo as RH! Can it be the same manufacturer, or do you think it is just a knockoff? I am afraid to buy without actually SITTING on it, plus I need 2! Do you have any additional words of wisdom?

We bought a sectional from Jennifer Convertibles for about $799. It's not super-luxurious, but we like it!

Different company, and in the UK to boot, but I bought a custom sofa from Sofa Workshop and it was GREAT picking out the fabric and materials (it's slipcovered with down cushions) and dimensions. My sofa is 50" DEEP and splits in half like two chairs to get it through doorways. Expensive but worth it.

If you want a custom sofa, check out Expressions Custom Furniture, if there is one near you. I used to sell it and the quality is decent.

I bought a sofa from them recently and had a great experience.

Yes, they charge you for all the upgrades and things add up quickly, but I looked at a number of companies who would work with my very specific custom requirements and this was the easiest route.

I bought the "Dexter" model, had it made into a sectional, changed the width and length to custom dimensions, added new legs and down throw pillows... It has the minimal elegance of the DWR "Neo" sofa at half the price. And it's *very* comfortable. Seriously, I could not be happier.

I think the secret is making sure you know exactly what you want and asking a million questions.

Also, and slightly tangential, re: Custom Sofa Design - I found them via Craigslist (after I had already ordered my sofa) and had them make me a custom upholstered bed (similar to the Tate from C&B but in a full size and custom fabric. Don was so easy to work with. End result? Bed looks amazing and 2 week delivery from date of order.

Same thing as the Sofa Company though - this is not a high end retailer, it's a custom, wholesale experience, so you need to know exactly what you want and make sure to ask a lot of questions.

@ Bellgirl

I would call Don at customsofadesign and talk to him. He's a great guy and very easy to work with and will answer all your questions. Basically, their "showroom" is a big storage locker with a huge fabric selection and half a dozen sofas to check out. You might ask him if you could have a look at an Aubrey the next time he makes one for a customer. He doesn't expect payment until delivery and is a very upstanding businessman. I'm starting to sound like a shill for them.

We bought a sofa from the SM TSofa Company location and we love it. Totally customized the length etc to fit our space perfectly. We had a great experience. Our sofa looks like a $4000 couch but we paid like $1400!

I love the Sofa Company!
Several of my friends have couches from there and they all look and feel great!
I dont have a couch from there yet, but i do have a ton of misc accent pieces from the Santa Monica store.

I had a bad experience with the sofa company located in Santa Monica. A year ago, I ordered a custom sofa (obviously) and was told that the sofa would be ready in 3-4 weeks. Well, after 3 weeks, they called me to tell me that the fabric that I wanted is on backorder. Do the math and this pushes the order further back. I asked them why it took them 3 weeks just to tell me that the fabric isnt available and they blamed it on their vendor for taking so long. I asked them why they didn't stay on top of the vendor about this order, since they (the sofa co) also has paying customers (myself), but they didn't appreciate my calling them out on their lackadaisical business practice.

I chose another fabric and that TOO was on backorder. That miraculously took only one day to tell me.

At this point I chose yet ANOTHER fabric which they did have.

3 MORE weeks pass, with no call from them at all to follow up. I decide to call them and I was told that my sofa wouldn't be ready for another 2 weeks. So that is 8 weeks after I initially ordered the sofa. A that point I was so fuming MAD with them I told them to cancel the order and they refused.
So after calling and arguing with a 'manager', on the same day that I was told that the sofa will be ready in 2 more weeks, this 'manager' tells me that it happens to be ready and they can schedule delivery. That made me lose all confidence in this company since now, it looked like they are throwing the sofa together to get rid of an upset client. I called him out on that and he had no explanation. He also couldn't explain why I was told an additional 2 weeks by the person who's name I was able to provide.

Nevertheless, after much arguing, he begrudgingly discounted me about $200 off of a $2000 sofa. Which, after a year, the frame creeks like a pirate ship and I am now dreading to have to deal with them about this (since the frame is supposedly lifetime warranty).

Sorry, I have nothing nice to say about the people at this company. Although I am satisfied with my sofa, love the design, the ability to customize, etc (minus the creeking sound), these people think they have you by the b@lls after you pay your deposit and treat you like a jerk once they get you to pay and sign the contract.

I went to The Sofa Co based on a coworker's recommendation.....I placed an order with them on 4/10 and was told it would be completed in 2-3 weeks. I got a call yesterday (exactly 3 weeks from when I ordered -- yay!) saying it was ready and they could deliver it tomorrow (which is now today, Friday) from 6 to 9 am. Awesome, right?

Too bad whoever I spoke with put Saturday in their system even though they told me Friday. I took the morning off of work, waited in my apartment, and when no one showed up in the time I was told over the phone, I left 2 messages asking where the delivery was, assuming it was running late. On my third call, I finally got a hold of someone who told me it is in their system for tomorrow. When I asked them what they could do for my inconvenience (the person I spoke with not only said TOMORROW yesterday but also said FRIDAY, both of which are TODAY) and my taking time off of work and rearranging my schedule, I was told they cannot do anything -- their system has the correct information. And the earliest a supervisor could get back to me is Monday (in 3 days!). Wow, they appreciate my business, don't they? Unfortunately, my handwritten note in my planner doesn't count and my recollection of our conversation. I now know to tape record my conversations with them in the future. Uhhh....what future? No matter how great a product they may have (I don't even know if it is good since I haven't gotten it yet), if you offer bad customer service, there is no way I am returning or recommending you to anyone. Good luck to anyone who decides to order with them -- ask them to send you a screen shot of their system when confirming delivery so you have "back up".

I'm late to this discussion but I bought a sectional from the Sofa Company a few years ago. It was slated for delivery in September (ordered in late August), after delay and delay I finally threatened to cancel the order and received it on Nov. 21. We had to return all of the cushions to have the buttons re-attached (six months later) and were told they weren't done in their usual fashion because of the "rush" they were in to get us our couch (yeah, after I threatened to cancel the order). Now the buttons are off all of the seat cushions but we are out of warranty. The idea is good, their execution is fair but the experience is disappointing.

It is a DREAM sofa, when I see it, I start to feel sleepy. I wish all sofa stores let me relax on any sofa, I choose for just 5 Min.