When purchasing a bigger or more expensive item, I like to research to see if the product I am considering is durable. It’s difficult to find out how long a sofa will last if reviews are all related to recent purchases. I am now thinking about all of you, especially young families out there, considering buying a sofa, but don’t know whether it will last 6 months, or a decade of baby regurgitation, kids jumping up and down, crayon marks, grape juice (and wine) spills… yes, wine too, not just kids make messes.
Thirteen years ago, I got married (oh… I’m blushing, thank you… I know I look young). My hubby and I, fresh out of college, weren’t making huge salaries but we did get a bit of gift money from the wedding, enough to buy our living room furniture. We visited a few furniture stores and MAN! Did sofas ever seem expensive! We knew we wanted to start raising a family, so we wanted something that would last through kids, but not expensive. Good luck, we thought! We discovered Ikea furniture – reasonably priced and it seemed durable at the store. They did have a display of a sofa resisting being beaten by a big automatic metal arm. I just hoped they weren’t changing the sofa every night to trick us. :S We found a sofa and armchair set that we liked and purchased it that night (we also bought a coffee table, side table and a higher narrow matching table, plus bookshelves, in case you wanted to know). The downside? Delivery was actually out of our budget and, well, a three seater and an armchair unfortunately did not fit in our then Toyota Tercel. So we asked our friend with a pick-up truck for some help.
Here we are, thirteen years, 2 kids (9 and 10), countless regurgitations, and hundreds of glasses of grape juice and wine later, we still have the same sofa and armchair. They’re still super comfy, there is no wear or tears on the material, and stains come out like hair on a fifty year old stressed out man’s head. Did I mention the sofa is beige? We are just starting to feel the wood on the arm rests of the chair, but that’s because the kids keep sitting on them like they’re horses. I really should invest in horseback riding lessons.
I don’t remember exactly what design series our sofa was part of, but it is very similar to today’s “Ektorp” series.
If I had to buy another sofa, I would not hesitate one bit to buy it again from Ikea and I strongly recommend it to you, especially if you can’t afford new sofas every 3 years and you have or will shortly have kids. Don’t forget to bring a pick-up truck.
Final score: 4.5 out of 5
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