Slipcover or Buy New?

[drcollie]

I'd not place too much stock in furniture warranties. By far, that vast majority of the time pieces simply don't perform well and fail rather because of cheap materials used in construction.They're not defective, just cheap.

I've handled thousands of pieces of upholstery through my store in the 30 years since its been around. I've never had a single piece of upholstery suffer a broken frame, from the cheapest to the most expensive. I've had maybe three pieces where the lower leg was snapped off (handling issues - not warranty), a few cushion cores that need replacing (warranty), and a one or two leather pieces that had bad hide sewed into the cover that I returned under warranty, but that's about it. And perhaps one or two pieces that needed returning for poor tailoring. Every other return to the factory has been someone misreading a purchase order and putting the wrong cover on it, fabric placed inside out, nail trim when none was ordered, etc. I'd say true warranty returns on upholstery run about 1/8 of 1% for the brands I handle.

Sherrill is good stuff. Much better than Rowe. I would not hesitate in the least to buy Sherrill.

[organic_smallhome]

Good to know, Duane. Thank you.

[ErinAS]

Both slipcovers and upholstery usually take a lot of yardage. Typically 15 to 20 for sofa @ $ 40 per yard so you can easily have $ 800 in material alone. Labor for slipcovers or upholstery is between $ 400 and $ 600, so you wind up with about $ 1,000 and up for a basic job that doesn't give you new cushions, springs or frame.

If you can find pre-owned furniture that hasn't been used up AND you like the cover that its in, then you can save some money. Again, you have the same costs (above) with re-upholstery work and same limitations.

Either way, I have found some fantastic upholstery remnants on Ebay. Most of the auctions feature smaller yardages - but there are larger pieces from time to time.

Erin