Furniture manufacturers are in business to make money, just like everyone else. Your local furniture store buys from the manufacturer through the manufacturers sales representative. This representative also earns a percentage of all sales in their territory. So it should be common knowledge if you can purchase directly from the manufacturer you can avoid the retail store markup and also the representative take from each sale. I suggest that to partial38, the features your looking for may not get you the best deal, or fall with in your budget. A high quality frame? What this is, is not a pine plywood frame stapled together. Solid hardwood 4/4, 5/4 is better or hardwood wood plywood thats same thickness, minimum of 12 plys. This frame should be double-doweled and glued. Now the seat springs is where most everyone makes the mistake that it has to be coil springs that are 8-way hand tied. And thats simply not true. A no-sag sinuous wire spring; 8 gauge spring securely fastened to a hardwood frame using the clips that are required by the spring manufacturer, and that are engineered to the correct length and stretched accordingly to the spring manufacturers requirement will result in a seat suspension that will last a lifetime and have the same ride/push-back as the best 8-way handtied coil springs. The only time that a 8-way handtied coil springs suspension is better is when it is a spring edge with the correct rail heights all the way around the frame. At this time I dont know of very few manufacturers building their 8-way handtied coil springs this way, if so the costs for a leather sofa will be upwards of 5000.00 Its just too labor intensive and takes highly skilled worker to build. Truly the only type of seat cushion core that will last for 20 years+ is a 100% natural latex. A true 2.0+ pound density high-resilent foam core will normally last 5+ years. But all will loose some shape because of the wrap around the cushion core is of a softer material: polyester fiber or down blend or a thin foam wrap of same density foam which last better that the first 2 , and all manufacturers dont consider this softening of the softer wrap a defect in any way, but just normal wear. Back cushions are usually of a the same: polyester fiber or down blend and will not last or hold its shape after considerable use. But usually thats a fix the owner or upholstery shop can do to replace this filling to be like new again with minimal costs. If anyone does a search of my name in this forums will realize I have been preaching this for many years. My 38+ years of managing upholstery product design and development for 20+ manufacturers and many years working in re-upholsery. I have always said that your local re-upholstery shop that has been in business for 20+ years with the same owner is the best resource for understanding what it takes to makes a quality sofa. Because they have to repair or junk the ones that arent worth re-upholstering.

Awww on that photo. Lynn, I'm ready for spring, so I can only imaging how all of you in NE feel. Incredible amounts of snow! We thought Punxsutawney Phil must not know anything about Texas weather since we were in the 70s, may have even hit 80, back in early Feb, but it's been colder ever since. I have one peach tree and some calla lilies in bloom and everything else wondering what to do -- grass is still brown and it's been too cold and/or too wet to do much work outdoors. Well I can't help you with a store, but since I'm looking at their website this morning, I'll add the link and you can see a bunch of style choices. I'm double checking my thoughts about a sofa we saw yesterday (DH did a switch on me -- I thought we were going to do a velvet in the LR, but he loves this leather) -- the leather is really nice and down in the cushions. All the cushions can be opened up and refilled if the inserts loose their plump -- addressing one of the worst things about aging leather upholstery. And the woman there is one of the nicest salespeople I've dealt with in a long time. Anyway, I need to make sure the style DH wants works with two chairs I already have, so I'm flipping between photos. And getting side-tracked here. I'd better get back to it and go get those paint samples. Good luck with your shopping.

We have a wood couch and love seat with leather on the seating part, and I think the patina of lived-in leather is nice, but my husband prefers a more pristine look. When it starts to look dry or show marks, he used to polish the leather with a leather polish (I think it came with the furniture), but recently used shoe polish and it looks even more like new. Our cats don't scratch the leather on purpose, but will occasionally leave an accidental claw mark. The shoe polish made those marks blend in and pretty much disappear as well. We've had the furniture for almost 10 years and the leather has held up infinitely better than our previous, upholstered couch and love seat. It's so much easier to clean and I love that it doesn't collect pet hair (we've had a dog and 3 cats all at once). Maybe your leather is smoother so shows more marks.... I think textured leather tends to camouflage more. Hopefully you can find something to get rid of the patina if you're not into that look. Good luck!

I can tell you that I love my Flexsteel. It has a lifetime warranty and is very easy to move for cleaning because the steel frame is so much lighter than wood. It's ten years old and the foam has held up incredibly well. I just had a slipcover made for it because I had 3 kids and now have 2 dogs and a cat and the upholstery wasn't great anymore. Part of that was the upholstery I chose at the time but there are many more options now. Mine has a tight back, which I love because I never have to worry about fluffing up saggy cushions. When I need to buy a new sofa, I'll go right back to Flexsteel.