A tale of two sofas

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 27, 2006 | by Elizabeth Jardina, STAFF WRITER

If you're not a savvy sofa shopper, don't be concerned.

You're not supposed to be.

According to furniture industry statistics, the last time you bought a sofa was at least seven years ago. Probably more like a decade. You wouldn't be out of the ordinary if it was even longer than that.

Of course you're not on top of the ins and outs of it.

(Who can remember what happened way back in the mid-'90s?)

So we've done the research to help you out. Nudge you to look for the right things in your new couch. And most of all, to solve the mystery of why some sofas cost $600, some cost $2,000 and some cost even more.

Compare and contrast

Jennifer Litwin is a furniture expert based in Chicago who reviews furniture for the magazine Consumers Digest and is the author of the recent immodestly titled book ``Best Furniture Buying Tips Ever!'' (Random House, $14.95).

She says that buying furniture from a ``lifestyle'' store, such as Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel, means you'll pay about 15 percent more than you would at a straight-up furniture store.

``You can shop from soup to nuts there _ vases, flowers, linens _ and they know that,'' she says.

Buying a sofa with a designer name, such as Barbara Barry, or at a design center can bump you up into the $5,000 to $6,000 range.

So what construction factors should you look for when you want to buy a sofa?

The best sofas have a kiln-dried, solid hardwood frame.

``You also want to make sure that the legs and the fabric have also been applied with hot glue as opposed to staples or glue,'' Litwin says. ``Screws tend to weaken the frame over time. Everything has to attach to the frame and in the most solid way possible.''

Paw around a couch you may potentially buy. Litwin encourages pulling up the cushions, peering under the slipcover and checking out the undercarriage.

``The biggest flaws in any couch are always underneath,'' she says.

Look for corner blocks reinforcing the joints of the frame. And flee at the first sign of staples, she says.

``Most importantly, you want to find a cushion that's really comfortable,'' Litwin says. ``There's no right or wrong for a cushion filler because there's so many different materials.''

Sit in

Now that I had a crash course in basic sofa vocabulary, it was time to actually head out to the big scary world of the store. For the purposes of our decidedly unscientific comparison, we've chosen two relatively similar sofas, the Ikea Ektorp and the Pottery Barn Grand Basic.

They're both casually styled, three-cushioned and slipcovered. They're available in a variety of fabrics, but the default choice for both is cotton or a cotton-polyester twill. They're both the top- selling sofas at their respective stores. The Ektorp sofa, with slipcover, costs $399 to $599.

The Pottery Barn Grand Basic, with slipcover, is $1,799 to $2,499.

Is the Pottery Barn sofa really three or four times better?

First, stop, IKEA.

Unlike much IKEA furniture, the Ektorp sofa does not have to be assembled from a flat pack _ lucky for those of us who are not upholsterers.

At the East Palo Alto location, the three-cushion Ektorp is near the beginning of the hypnotic, soul-draining maze that is an IKEA store. (Full disclosure: I own lots of IKEA furniture, almost all of which I really like.)

Finally sitting on it, my first impression was that it's cushy. You definitely sink in. The padded arms are soft, but you can feel the frame a little too distinctly if you push down on them.

The slipcover on the floor model was a soft ivory corduroy _ and it was wearing badly. The fabric on one of the other Ektorp sofas on the floor _ a 75 percent cotton/25 percent polyester blend _ felt rough. But, because it's a slipcover that can be replaced for $69 to $269, depending on the fabric, you're not tied to upholstery you're not crazy about.

Heeding Litwin's advice, I did run my hand under the sofa and felt staples (a no-no, according to her). Likewise, the frame isn't hardwood; it's particle board.

IKEA USA design spokesperson Janice Simonson makes no apologies for the construction. ``Particle board is stronger in a lot of ways than hardwood,'' she says. ``Because the fibers go in different directions, it's stronger in a lot of ways than wood that goes in one grain. And it's a lot more economical that way.''

While the sofa generally felt solid, there was a little wiggle when I shook it.

Then I headed to Pottery Barn on Burlingame Avenue in Burlingame.

The Grand Basic sofa seems voluminous. It's a full 10 inches longer than the Ektorp. The first seated impression is: Cushy, soft. Maybe it's naptime. A salesperson on the floor, seeing me relaxing, asked if I needed help. When I said, ``No, I'm just sitting,'' she actually offered me a book to read.

The fabric is obviously higher quality, even to a furniture- buying novice.

Likewise, the construction seems rock-solid; there's no wiggle here. And the slipcover fits much more closely on the Pottery Barn model than on the Ikea sofa.

In short, it feels like a nicer sofa.

But also dramatically more expensive.