The Art and Science of Living Room Sofa Construction

This month at 5^th Avenue Furniture we’re blogging on the quality construction that goes into one of our hottest-selling items, living room sofas and loveseats! You know they’re comfy. Your family and friends can’t get enough of these couch combos as you sink yourselves into them to enjoy what’s on the big screen, chat, and maybe drinks. And when it comes to sofa set style, our selection for ANY home decor is unbeatable. From Victorian romantic luxury to classic family-friendly designs in patterned fabric to deep, cushioned comfort clad in vinyl or even real leather, they’re ALL here for less at our Detroit showroom. Let’s have a look at the art and science that go into making them!

Sturdy Sofa and Loveseat Frames

Like your car, your living room couch or sectional has a chassis, a frame you can rely on to support your weight on the furniture and to withstand the odd drop or crash as excited kids and dogs pile on! Your new living room sofa’s frame is one of the paramount factors in both its long-term usefulness and its cost. While 5^th Avenue always keeps prices WAY down, you will pay a bit more for a better quality frame. Options for the manufacturer include kiln drying the hardwood for your frame, excellent as it prevents the wood from warping due to moisture. The ultimate material for sofa frames, which many of ours use, is solid hardwood, tougher and denser than other woods. Below that are softwoods, which can contain knots weakening the frame. The most inexpensive option for your living room sofa frame, which most of our pieces employ, is engineered or manmade wood: plywood. When shopping for living room furniture, ask for 11-13 layers rather than 5-7 layers in your engineered wood frame to be extra sure your new sofa or loveseat is secure.

The other thing about your living room sofa’s frame besides composition is reinforcement, namely in the joints. These are stress points in the frame, so every sofa we sell has these joints buttressed in just the right places so you can count on them! Methods our manufacturers use include interlocking joinery including mortise and tenon, and, especially widespread, dovetail joinery, locking the pieces of the frame securely in place. Wooden dowels in your sofa frame are fine when combined with other reinforcements. Most of our living room couches feature solid corner blocks for extra rugged construction; the best! Staples, screws, and glue, while not adequate in themselves, are serviceable reinforcements when they augment other methods.

Your Sofa’s Suspension: Coils and More

The gold standard in living room sofa suspensions is what’s called the 8-way hand-tied spring system. These couches and loveseats can be a bit pricier, because of the time that goes into making them, but are worth it for the last word in comfortable seating. A widespread and less costly means of building a sofa suspension is using high-gauge steel coils. If you’re concerned about heavy use taking its toll on your couch, ask us about better-gauge coils for your purchase. More contemporary sofa designs sometimes employ webbing under the seat to give the piece a thinner, sleeker profile.

Kinds of Foam Cushions for Your Sofa

Our assortment of living room sofas includes sag-proof high-resiliency foam in their deep cushions. High resiliency – bounce-back in layman’s terms – is defined by the industry at 2.8-3 pounds per cubic feet. Even if you and your friends all sit on the couch at the same time, not only will these cushions embrace and support you. Once you get up, they QUICKLY return to their original shape, no sags, like new! Expect high-resiliency foam to last 8-10 years. For a less expensive option, some sofas use lux foam, which lasts about 6 years. The most common cushion material is high-density foam, 1.9 pounds per cubic feet, lasting about 4 years.

Whatever your living room sofa and loveseat preference, you’ll find it for FAR less at our Detroit, MI furniture store. Take it home this week for as little as $5 down!