I think there is something very wrong in today's world. People's asses have gone to sleep. It can be an epidemic of gargantuan proportions.... people I am talking about uncomfortable sofas. MOST sofas I sit in are god awful uncomfortable. Granted I am a celebrated foam engineer and spend much of my time engineering comfort for the tush but come on people... Think about this... the average person spends more money on a TV than a sofa. Shocking, I know! People are forever bragging to me about how little they spent on their sofa... ? Don't brag to people about how uncomfortable your sofa is! here are some facts for you....
-Most people spend more on their data plan in one year than they do on their sofas.
-The majority of people spend more money on coffee in eighteen months than they do on a sofa.
-If you tabulate the average household's dining out budget for six months... it's more than what they spent on a sofa.
- When asked... most people have no clue what makes a sofa comfortable or not, or which fabrics are best suited but the same people will be able to program your iphone to control your TV.
-Most new sofas can never be re-upholstered, making them landfill once they are worn out.
- In today's (puke) green economy the average sofa purchase is every 5 years. Soon that will be every three years, then two then one then you will be renting a sofa monthly.
- Humans have been building seating for as long as they have had bums... come on people how can it be that hard to build a decent sofa!?
- It is a proven fact that having a fantastic sofa improves not only your skin but also increases your sex appeal and libido simultaneously. Think of the benefits...
I am not saying that you should go and spend your life savings on a sofa, that would be silly but please consider that what you are buying should offer you value for your money, and comfort.
I love sofas, well made sofas. I have a sofa fetish. I started building furniture because I love sitting in comfort. I have two sofas in my house, one I made, and one I bought for eighty dollars. The sofa I made is indestructible. Literally. It is over engineered to provide incredible comfort for years to come, and to be comfortable right now. It cost 16 times what I pay for my phone bill for one year. No kidding. It also cost way more than my TV as I don't actually own one. It is a sectional and was the first and very expensive prototype of our Series 1 super sofas. These were designed to withstand incredible abuse, to be configurable in many variations (mine is arrangeable in 26 different ways) and should be soft enough for the kids to fall on, and comfy enough for any of my drunken guests to fall asleep on. My other sofa was built locally by a company in the eighties. The company was Small and Boyes and the sofa is a tank! Although I have slipcovered it, the sofa is totally awesome and is in use daily. In all honesty it probably needs some new fabric and maybe re-upholstery wouldn't hurt but it's doing ok. That is remarkable. By comparison, most of my friends who own sofas that were purchased in the last 10 years have already replaced them. Assuming that the original sofa was $1500 and the next sofa was $2500 that is four thousand dollars! There is another factor. People throw things away, they get tired, they watch HGTV and start to think their stuff isn't good enough so they'll just throw it away and get new stuff. But because the commitment is so low and they also freely admit that they'll be buying a new sofa soon as they anticipate getting tired of the sofa they haven't even bought yet their emotional investment is also very low. That is the real reason why people keep replacing things... they buy crap in the first place then they chuck it out because it is crap and then they replace it with crap. These people lecture to me about recycling, saving the planet, etc. I find it all a little ridiculous.
I am currently designing a new system of upholstery. The system is based on using high density foam and engineering pre-determined collapse zones to provide increased comfort the deeper one sits into the chair. Kind of like quicksand, the deeper you get in the more it sucks you in...hey that sounds pretty good.
We'll see how it turns out... I'll keep you posted... in the meantime buy a good sofa and if you can afford it... have one made by a reputable sofamaker. You won't regret it.
:)
