Introduction and a question about sofas

Hello there! I am a new member.

I developed a respect for quality furniture after a few bad experiences with big box stores- a leather sofa dipping in the middle after just a few months and terrible off-gassing bookcases that made me ill while pregnant.

After thise bad experiences, we decided not to go cheap when buying our bedroom set. We spent a great deal on a solid wood, hand crafted Canadian made set and we have absolutely no regrets 2 years later.

I swore up and down that I would never go cheap again, but....

We had our first baby last year and after a 1 year mat leave, money is a little tighter than it used to be! We need to furnish our second living room. I wish I could buy a top brand leather sofa or sectional, but it might not be in the budget. Also, our family is growing and there will be dogs and kiddos around awhile, so maybe it makes sense to go with something moderate for now and upgrade later when the kids areolder and less hard on things? I don't know.

Any suggestions for brands? We have about $5000 saved to spend and would like something somewhat decent, but not so nice that we will worry about the kids on it. Thinking either a medium sized sectional or a sofa/ loveseat. Also, I am worried about offgassing! Nothing too toxic as I have a precious little one at home.

We have been considering Lazyboy, but now I read bad things about them too!

Any advice/ guidance is appreciated. :D

You are going to get off-gassing on any brand of upholstery, as one of the primary build components is foam, which is a petrol-chemical product. I don't think there is any way to avoid that. All leather is chemically-processed as well (so are the vast majority of fabrics as well). I think that is just something you will have to live with, though higher quality product tends to do it less in my opinion. Most upholstered furniture today is made of plywood, which has formaldehyde and glues in the bonding. To get beyond that, you would have to go with solid wood construction such as Hancock and Moore, and that will break through your budget, I'm afraid. Only the premium makers are still using solid maple frames, and that also puts you in the premium price category. If you can plus your budget another 25% of so, sofa and loveseat in the better brands would be do-able.