Home Furnishing 

There are many different types of upholstered chairs and sofas, and they vary widely in quality. High-quality and low-quality upholstered sofa furniture can be found in all price ranges. Knowing whether a piece of upholstery is high quality or not is difficult to check because you cannot see inside furniture. There are, however, methods of determining quality. Upholstered sofa furniture can be checked by checking the frame, support foundation, padding, and cushioning materials. Upholstered sofa furniture frames are made of wood. Wood can be quite durable, depending on the type. A softwood frame will be low lower quality because of its lack of strength. In some of the better quality sofa furniture stores, you may see a cutaway of the furniture that you are interested in which should show whether the frame is hardwood or softwood. You can also ask the shop or the catalogue to see the type of wood used for the frame. 

Support The support foundation consists of steel made into springs, coils, or other types of support systems found inside the upholstered sofa. The steel used for the support foundation should be tempered to maintain resilience. To find this out, you have to ask the sales person or read the manufacturer’s catalogue. You can check how well the support foundation will perform by setting on the sofa and gently bouncing.  

Padding For quality, the house chair or sofa should have the right amount of padding. Try feeling the frame through the fabric with your hand. You should not feel hard frame edges, which would indicate lack of padding. Unpadded areas wear out quickly.

Cushioning Materials Cushioning materials may include urethane sheets, urethane fibre-fills, polyester battings, springs, feathers, and down. You may find a cushion consisting of one or more of these materials. 

Fabrics The durability of the fabric is determined by the type of fibres used in the constructionof the fabric. Each fibre has unique properties such as colour retention, lustre, sturdiness, cleanability, and touch qualities. Ask the sales-person if you can see the fabric sample of the sofa upholstery fabric you want to purchase. This fabric sample should be labelled with the fibre content. Fibres  most often used in sofa upholstery fabrics are acetates, cottons, linen, nylon, polyester, and rayon. Leather and vinyl are also included because of their popularity in home furniture, not because they are strictly fibres. Polished and glazed cottons, when new, give a nice texture, but after some use in the house, the finish wears off leaving dull-looking fabric. A sofa fabric with a print hides light soiling. Tightly woven fabrics wear better than loosely woven fabrics. Pile fabrics, like plush or velvets that have deep and close pile, will wear well. Pile fabrics, with uncut loops, mat less than those with cut loops. Latex applied to the back of the fabric stabilizes the fabric preventing ravelling and seam slippage. Knit fabrics tend to stretch out and snag. Sofa fabrics should have no wrinkles or puckering at the seams, unless they are part of the design. Cushions should fit tightly and evenly into the corners. Stripes, plaids, and other patterns should matched the rest of the sofa furniture, which includes the cushions matching the rest of the upholstery. The pattern design and size should be correct for the sofa furniture. The grain of the fabric should run parallel or horizontal to the furniture piece. Protective covers should be available for armrests.