Inspect the sofa’s frame and cushions

When you approach the piece ask yourself if it will fit your home. Is it comfortable? “The more expensive the sofa, the better built it better be,” Bartkowski says. He says there are four components to sofas: the frame, the spring system, the cushions and the tailoring.

If the frame is hardwood, ask if it’s kiln-dried, which takes the moisture content out of the board. Bartkowski says kiln-dried boards last longer because changes in humidity don’t cause them to warp, weaken and crack.

He says if you’re paying more than $1,000, the sofa should have a five-legged frame. There should be a fifth leg under the center of the piece. He adds that legs built into the frame are sturdier than legs screwed into the frame. To check the quality of the frame, he recommends feeling the thickness of the board on the side of the sofa at the bottom. It should be 1¼-inches thick, anything less and it could squeak when people move around on the couch.

Pick up the seat cushion. “There is a correlation between weight and the quality. The heavier the seat cushion, the higher the quality,” Bartkowski says. When it comes to the sofa’s spring system, he says sinuous wire, or S-type springs, are the standard and should run from front to back. You should feel the springs when you push down on the sofa.

“The salesperson should be able to explain the springing system. That’s the first question you should ask,” he says.

Eye the tailoring

Also look at how well the sofa’s fabric is tailored. To do this, he says check to see if the seams are even and if the piping (the tube-shaped edging) lines up.

For printed sofas that cost no more than $600, the pattern should match from one piece to another well enough on the sides and the front. But if your sofa costs more, expect more. An $800 sofa should come with fabric that matches in the back, on both sides and the front.

When you’ve found the ultimate in quality, the fabric pattern flows. Like wallpaper, it should wrap over the entire piece, including the back skirt. The pattern should start on one segment and continue on to the next, and there will be a seam in the center of the sofa’s back. This piece of furniture will cost more than $800.

Ask if it’s top-grain leather

When buying leather, it’s important to listen to the sales person. If he presents it as a leather match or says it is leather-like, then it’s not leather. The only way you can tell the difference is by looking at the base of the sofa to see if it’s dyed all the way through, Bartkowski says. If you see white gauze backing, it’s vinyl. He says leather-match sofas should cost no more than $800.

“There are unscrupulous retailers who will try to sell it for more and will get away with it,” he warns.

Next, find out if the leather is top-grain. “Top grain is the absolute best level,” Bartkowski says. Top grain leather sofas start at $1,000. A non-top-grain leather piece could be splits, which means the hide is split and another part of the hide, such as fatty tissue, is compressed and used. He says splits don’t wear as well, and they need to be kept moisturized and out of the sun.

He also warns against leather furniture supported by lawn-chair strapping; they can sag over time. “You’re sitting on a lawn chair with leather on it,” he says.

Check the drawers and veneering

With bedroom sets, dining room sets, tables and the like, look at how all the pieces are proportioned in relation to each other. If you’re spending more than $400 for a table, Bartkowski recommends looking underneath to see the quality of the wood.

On pieces with drawers, notice how they are hung. “If they are tilted, that indicates the quality of the manufacturer very quickly,” he says.

Take out the top drawer and check to see if the inside feels rough. He says rough drawer interiors indicate a lower quality. And a better piece of furniture will have dust panels that stop you from looking through from one drawer to another.

Look at the corner of the drawer, and see how well the veneers match on the corners. Veneering is a synthetic process in which decorative woods are applied on top of solid cores of material such as, plywood, particle board or medium-density fiber board.

Bartkowski says most of the quality drawers are made with wood binders — cheaper drawers use rollers. Looking in the upper left-hand drawer where the name of the manufacturer is stamped may give you a feel for the furniture’s quality.

Even brand-name manufacturers sometimes use fiberboard or match board and cover it with paper printed with a photograph of a real wood finish. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can easily be fooled.

Find out who’s the backing the warranty

Manufacturer’s warranties on wood furniture typically cover splitting and cracking for one year. On upholstered furniture, the warranty covers the frame. He says better quality furniture will have warranties of up to five years on the spring system and cushions.

Bartkowski says consumers should look to see if they have a manufacturer’s warranty or a retailer’s warranty.  If it says, “Only to the original address” in very small print at the bottom of the sales contract, your warranty will be void if you move.

A furniture store is an integral part of our lifestyle as it converts our imaginations of a good home to actual. A beautiful home is made of a lot of other things, like home furniture, to double the happiness of owning one. Having good furniture around reflects a good lifestyle and leaves anyone who visits impressed.Online shopping started from small items until it branch out to bigger products like furniture. This has paved the way to a bigger patronage and has afforded consumers with a lot of advantages.

Positive Aspects of Furniture Online Shopping

Here are some of the good things why consumers prefer to shop furniture from online stores.

• It eliminates the stress involved from hopping from one store to another.
• It also permits the consumer to get a good look at the modern furniture together with his spouse or with the family.
• They offer a variety of options and do not merely concentrate on a few pieces.
• There is no pressure coming from the sales staff.

How to Get a Better Deal from Online Furniture Stores

To get a better deal from online furniture stores, follow these tips:

• Ensure that the website is reliable and honest. Checking the reliability and integrity of the online furniture store is vital since you are doling out a big amount of money. To do this task, you need to search consumer reviews for the specific website. These reviews will tell you if the store is not a scam. You would know that the store is not good if most of the reviews sent are complaints.

• Match up the furniture from various online stores. Do not jump quickly on ordering a piece of modern furniture and give out your credit card information. Take note of the price, dimension and features. Check another online store and match up these three elements. You may chance upon a furniture online store that sells the same item at a lower price. Compare at least five furniture online stores before finally deciding which of these are offering a good deal. This may take you a substantial amount of time but you will reap the success of doing this homework for you can end up saving more cash.

• Verify if there are coupons or vouchers for the modern furniture that you intend to buy. In order to do this, google the name of the online furniture store and type in the word ‘coupon’ or ‘voucher’ after the store’s name. Finding a coupon or voucher code will automatically afford you to take advantage of good discounts offered by the online store. You can also search the voucher codes from websites that serve as search engine for coupons by simply looking for the online furniture store. A coupon code entitles you to avail of markdown from the furniture’s total price.

• You can also check on classified ads. If the modern furniture that your are looking for is not available from any of the online furniture stores that you have visited, you can rely on some personal ads on general websites. You may chance upon second hand furniture that are up for sale and are still in good condition.

If you are in search of modern furniture pieces, go online and get to check what is available. Online furniture stores have allowed consumers to make shopping more enjoyable.

SerenityLivingStores.com, otherwise known simply as Serenity Living, is one of the internet’s fastest growing online furniture retailers and is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. They specialize in selling high quality home and office furnishings from some of the world’s most famous and best loved brands. They also offer a grand selection of electronics. Their standard of top-notch customer service, highest quality products, and affordable prices makes them stand out from other online furniture retailers throughout the United States and Canada.