Steer me into a great sofa please?

[Gabardine]

Greetings from Toronto everyone! First post!

I know quality upholstery is expensive, so I'm looking for a sofa I can LOVE. I have run out of energy searching the Internet and it's starting to affect my relationship

It's time for me to admit defeat and solicit help from you experts. I'm looking for a great TV room/napping solution that:

1. Accommodates this worst-case scenario: me laying down while my wife sits beside me with legs up on a bumper ottoman/chaise (96 inches of internal width needed)
2. Fits through a 27 inch tight squeeze on the staircase (straight, no sharp turns, last piece was 30.5 inches on smallest side)
3. Is made in North America, or at least not China.
4. Employs t-cushions and ideally have english arms.
5. Will last with luxurious comfort (spring down cushions? 8 way hand tied?)
6. Is around 40" of depth (feels right for my tall height)

From what I am understanding, I am limited to either a:

• very long sofa with a bumper ottoman
• LAF/RAF combinations with a bumper ottoman
• LAF loveseat and RAF chaise (L-sectional)

If I didn't have ethical issues with China, I would probably buy the English Roll Arm Upholstered Sofa with ottoman from Restoration Hardware which looks nice (though is a bit sloppy looking in person).

I tried out a nice Bridgewater style Drexel-Heritage sofa but the size isn't doable.

Any ideas? Much appreciated!

[hglaber]

Sounds like you're the perfect candidate for those design-your-own models. Several manufacturers have them. They're usually made in North American because the delivery time from Asia would be too long. Here's the one for Taylor King. I've seen at least two others that do these as well. I'm sure there are more. Perhaps ask your preferred dealer if they carry one of those lines.

Also, I assume you mean 40" total depth of the piece, but you would be better checking seat depth. Two pieces with equal depth could have different seat depths depending on back cushion thickness and frame construction.

[drcollie]

27" egress point in a staircase? Really? You're not going to find it - no one I know of makes a 96" long inside sofa that can squeeze through that small a space, you will have to get something that comes apart and can be assembled once up the staircase. One of our long-term forum members specializes in building exactly that furniture. Jeff from Simplicity Sofas can probably help you out as all his pieces are designed for just that scenario.

[Gabardine]

Thanks glaber and drcollie!

I will check out Taylor King and Simplicity.

I'm now realizing that I have a little more space than that because the last piece to go out was 33 inches. On the way up the legs were off and it was easy, but on the way down they were on (full 33) and I recall it being a tighter squeeze.

BTW, I see a crazy deal on a red leather ralph lauren sofa on ebay. I think these are usually made in the USA by top sofa makers, but I don't see proof of it there. Gorgeous piece.

[simplyjeff]

A 27" wide staircase is no difficulty for Simplicity Sofas. All sofas can fit down any staircase wider than 15 inches. The largest sofa, however, is only 89" long. If you need something longer you will have to go with one of our sectional groupings. Although most sectionals have a corner piece, we can build extra-long sofas by connecting single seat modules together. For example if we take the Lorelei style arm we can make a 4 pc. sofa/sectional consisting of a left arm unit, armless unit, armless unit and right arm unit. The 4 units together measure 105". (The longest one we've ever done for a customer was 17' (204 inches) long.)

Although you won't see any T-cushions on our website we do make them. I can send you photos if you wish. Also there is a new arm style which is not yet up on the website. This is a roll arm similar to the Ashton, but with a much smaller roll. This is our Megan style and is the same size as our Lorelei collection. Top quality spring-down cushions are available on our furniture as an option. The supplier we use for our spring-down cushions used to supply both H&M and Braddington Young with the identical cushion a few years ago.

You mention that you need a 40" seat to be comfortable. Our sectional units are specially engineered for smaller scale rooms and have a depth of only 30 1/2 inches. If a manufacturer of normal sized furniture (such as H&M or B&T) took one of their 40" deep sofas and cut it down to 30" you would have an extremely uncomfortable sofa.

Our furniture, however, is designed from scratch to be comfortable with less depth. The seat cushions are actually 27" deep which is fairly standard. For customers with long legs we sometimes increase the back pitch which makes the sofa feel deeper and more comfortable. We can make similar adjustments for unusually "short" customers.

There are all sorts of other "special" options and modifications we can do, so contact me if you have any questions.

Jeff Frank
Simplicity Sofas

[Gabardine]

Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply! I'm located in Toronto, and am a bit hesitant to order a sofa without being able to see and sit in it (or something close) first. Would love to see your roll arm regardless. Who is H&M? I only know H&M apparel from Sweden. As far as depth, I mean 40 inches total depth. I don't know cushion (internal) depth which is probably more relevant. I do know that both of my sofas are too shallow to read for me, but I'm over 6 feet tall.

[simplyjeff]

Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply! I'm located in Toronto, and am a bit hesitant to order a sofa without being able to see and sit in it (or something close) first. Would love to see your roll arm regardless. Who is H&M? I only know H&M apparel from Sweden. As far as depth, I mean 40 inches total depth. I don't know cushion (internal) depth which is probably more relevant. I do know that both of my sofas are too shallow to read for me, but I'm over 6 feet tall.

Gabardine,

Just about all of our customers are hesitant to buy our furniture without seeing or sitting on it. It is up to us to give them the confidence to go ahead. Here are some of the things we do:

1. Total Satisfaction Warranty -- If you are not happy with our furniture for any reason whatsoever you may return it to us for a full refund, including all shipping charges for a period of one year after purchase.

2. Research us carefully on the internet. Do a search on Google for "Simplicity Sofas reviews" and "Simplicity Sofas complaints." You will find dozens of extremely positive reviews by both customers and professional furniture reviewers. What is more impressive however, is that after 4+ years in business and nearly 2000 customers Simplicity Sofas has never received a negative review. In addition there are over a dozen articles written about our company in major publications and blogs, both about our unique products and our unique world-class customer service. I will be happy to send you links to some of those articles if you are interested.

3. When the company was first starting out, several of our customers were so thrilled with the product and the customer service they received that they volunteered to show off the Simplicity Sofas furniture in their homes to prospective new customers who lived nearby. This has now turned into a national network of over 100 volunteers. We have had several customers in the Toronto area. I would be happy to call around to see whether any of them would be willing to show you their furniture. The only caution is that if the furniture is more than 1 year old they might not have our premium grade 8" thick Ultracel foam or super-premium spring-down seat cushions. (Originally we used several different less expensive cushions as our standard and the Ultracel and Spring-down were optional upgrades.) Please let me know if you would like me to try to locate a volunteer.

One thing to be aware of is that Simplicity Sofas is not the same quality as H&M or even Bradington Young. Our sofas range from $999 to approx. $1599. Our 89" roll arm sofa is $1299 in a mid-grade fabric without additional options. (Shipping a sofa to Toronto was $350 the last time. Because of fuel prices it may be a bit higher now.) We use top of the line materials such as kiln-dried solid oak frames, spring-down cushions and high quality fabrics that range up to $60 per yard at a retail fabric store. The tailoring, however, will be noticeably different. Because our furniture is shipped disassembled there are noticeable joints where the parts meet. From the back of the sofa the assembly hardware is partially visible. For customers who plan on placing the sofa in an area where the back is exposed we provide optional slipcovers that completely hide the hardware.

Although all of this description may make you nervous, the normal reaction of our customers who have never seen the furniture before it shows up at their door is that it looks and feels much better than they thought it would. Remember our customers have the option to return the furniture for any reason whatsoever for one year after purchase. Our return rate currently is at 0.7% which is extremely low for any furniture company.

Jeff Frank
Simplicity Sofas

[Gabardine]

Hi Drcollie: This morning I re-measured and it's 28 inches. Based on your "Will it fit?" post, a 36" can fit through a 30" opening; therefore will a 34" fit through a 28" opening? I sure wish manufacturers included that info (and if rear loose cushion height or immovable back height is specified)

[Gabardine]

Wow, that's quite an accomplishment! I will take a look. I am not thrilled with my local custom options. I asked one maker about his support system of choice and he said "web" and when I asked for testimonials he said "I've been in business 20 years, that's testimonial enough."

[simplyjeff]

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