I am yet another person who has run across this forum in the course of figuring out what furniture to buy. After reading a bunch, I have questions.

The setup: we have a big (~20x20) living room with a small, ultra-terrible sofa in it. We've been wanting something different for years, but other priorities have gotten in the way. This is the year we're replacing it. We have many regrets about our current sofa, an Ikea model that has basically no positive qualities at all, so we don't want to jump in the wrong direction. Two of us, plus three small kids (1 year old, 3 year old, 6 year old), plus a big room pushes us very strongly towards a sectional. Around 11' x 8' seems ideal, given the layout of the room.

We've looked at and priced out all of the sorts of things that you can price out without hauling kids around to furniture stores: Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, a few online-only places (Joybird and Benchmade Modern), etc, and it seems to us like we can get something that at least seems like the sort of thing we want, in fabric, for roughly $4k-ish, give or take. That's not the absolute limit of our budget, but it's the general range we're comfortable with (an $8K sofa is not an option).

We're not unaware that we would be making some compromises. One of those is that all other things being equal, we would prefer leather. Another is that we know we're not going to be getting the absolute best-made furniture available.

I have seen a few indications on this forum that it might be possible to make fewer compromises, either on construction quality or on the upholstery, than we've been thinking. That is: that higher-end brands might not be quite as radically expensive as we've been assuming, and/or that reasonable-quality leather might be available at less than the double-the-price figures that we've been seeing.

The right answer for us might be to get a middling-quality sectional today, save our nickels, and then get something nicer later. But if a nicer option could be had today, well, that would be preferable.

Thoughts / opinions?

If it's relevant, our style preferences are on the simple/modern end: square arms, straight lines, no nailheads or anything. (I actually love looking at really detailed, traditional-styled furniture, and admiring the craft that goes into it, but I don't love it for myself.)