Couch Opinions (mrstjohnson)

Hmmm... I love the chocolate colour idea.  Hair can be removed whereas stains cannot.

With new furniture would it be possible to train Charlie (Happy Birthday!) not to go on them?  M&M are allowed on our basement (read old and tattered) furniture but not the new stuff upstairs.  This required some baby gates for quite a while, of course.

stay away from microfiber.

We reallly looked at these when we were couch shopping and when you go to the outlet places where the dinged and dented stuff is...you REALLY see how things wear.

The Microfiber had a real issue with vertical cuts/slashes, it's plain THIN...we have cats and dogs and kids and yeah...stuff happens. The fabric/tweedy stuff was MUCH harder wearing. It also had that weird "velvet" look when you can leave "tracks" with your hands which I personally cannot stand...remind me of those awful suits from the 70's!

IMO fabric/upholstered seemed the most hard wearing. That is what our current couch is and it's been thru HADES and made it with no outright rips...tho it has stains, of course...LOL!

VanMorrison

With new furniture would it be possible to train Charlie (Happy Birthday!) not to go on them? 

I actually don't want him to stay off the couches...Dh and I both love snuggling with him on the couch.  But I was thinking of training him to just go to one spot on the couch and that area would stay covered (i.e. his blanket would go there).

VanMorrison

Hmmm... I love the chocolate colour idea.  Hair can be removed whereas stains cannot.

That's what I think!

Lisa:

Go to one of those "unclaimed freight" places and pick up a couple of really cheap couches.  You can cover them with furniture throws to match your decor.  I wouldn't spend any more than necessary due to Riley's age.  There's going to be stains aplenty with a toddler/young child in the house.  Don't make yourself crazy.  I didn't buy nice stuff until my daughter was like 12 !!!! 

Oh - and the chocolate color ???  It turned out to be a disaster in my house - the dog hair was almost "neon" against it.  Mr. W wasn't happy when I had to cover my new den couch with sheets !!!

Deb W. 

This is the couch I am currently looking at (we would get the loveseat and matching chair/ottoman).  I am not sold on the scatterback pillows, but I definitely like the color.  It doesn't say microfiber, just upholstery...

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=2&item=391725

WOW

We have micro fiber for our dogs couch. It is about 3 years old now we love it. It is teflon so it resists stains AWESOMELY, just a damp cloth and they go bye bye. My only complaint is the black lab hair stick quite well. Ours is a dark tan color. We just put a blanket down and we don't have the hair issue. I have not seen any problems with cuts or defaults in the material. I vacuum it a lot as the dogs sleep on it all day. I have no complaints and it is comfortable.

I have heard it is hard to "clean" because it does resist water and solvent. I have not needed to clean it yet.

We have fabric couch upstairs. The dogs are not allowed on it. We love that one too, but it does need a cleaning. We have had it longer, about 5 years now.
 

It looks microfiber to me...you're gonna go sit on it before buying right? LOL.

rwbeagles

It looks microfiber to me...you're gonna go sit on it before buying right? LOL.

Yep - actually my test is to lay on it to see if I can fall asleep...huge selling point right there.  Plus I need to see how annoying those pillows are.  Our new family room is kind of fancy pants with cathedral ceilings so we wanted to get something "nicer" and have the comfy comfy stuff downstairs in the finished basement.  But these will be used everyday so we don't want to go too fancy.

All I know is what I saw at the outlet.

I know our couch has been stabbed with pens before (among other such fun and interesting happenings) and not even shown a hole because it's that tweedy fabric. We use our couches a TON...and I just didn't like what I saw...coupled with the fact that things are not built to last more than a few years anymore (i.e. co's expect you back to buy another one)...erm...

It's the in thing, microfiber...but I wasn't impressed by what I saw.

Also Lisa,...kiln dried frames are important...the sturdiest out there.

yes the loose pillow thing is not going to work here with kiddos bouncing on the couch. Ours are the loose long ones..there's only two and those are abused regularly LOL. I liked the semi attached pillow backs I saw. BUT downside is, you cannot take them off to wash the coverings. My old couch here, you can do so...pain in the rear but nice to be able to...that's something to look into, if that interests you...if you can wash the coverings on the pillows.

Oh and scale...don't get a 91+" if the room is small and vice versa. I didn't know they came in so many diff lengths but they do!

mrstjohnson

Plus I need to see how annoying those pillows are. 

I have a couch in my formal living room with the loose back pillows and I'd never buy another one. They just end up being too bulky and messy IMO. What I would look for is back and seat cushions that you can reverse so you can flip them over now and then. Not only does it give you options to hide a stain, if necessary, but I think it helps with the wear patterns and dents from being sat on. I'm neurotic about some stuff and altho I think the chocolate would hide most stains, I'd be constantly picking every bit of lint or hair off of it. I think maybe a darker tan would be more kid/dog friendly.

mrstjohnson

Plus I need to see how annoying those pillows are. 

We had a couch w/ those and I *HATED* them.  They would get pushed down behind the cushion and then the cushion would hang over the edge and fall off easier.