You are into the most crowded segment of the upholstered furniture industry. There are hundreds of companies that make upholstered furniture that retails at the price range you are looking at. Don't expect to find 8 way hand tied coils at your budget. But you should be able to get a sofa and love seat with kiln-dried hardwood frames, high-density foam cushions and sinuous coils for $1500. There are so many companies out there that can fit your requirements that I don't know where to start recommending. I will warn you, however, of a few things to avoid. Stay away from Ashley Furniture, probably the largest single manufacturer and retailer of upholstered furniture, unless you really want one of their $399 sofas. Their more expensive offerings are still junk underneath. The other warning I have is to stay away from leather at that price range. Leather offerings at that price come in 2 different categories: first are the sofas that are made with "bycast" leather that is basically little pieces of scrap leather that has been chopped up and glued back together. The mill cost is for bycast is about the same as a medium-low grade of fabric. The second category of leather to stay away from is genuine leather sofas. For a manufacturer to afford to put real leather on a sofa at that price means that they have to cheat on the insides. You will be getting a $399 quality sofa with a nice piece of leather on the outside. I am not terribly impressed with IKEA's upholstered furniture offerings. I think their case goods are a much better value. Microfibers can be great. Just remember that there are different grades. See if your salesperson will let you feel a swatch of the fabric. Some microfibers are very thin while others have some weight to them. It can be very difficult to tell the difference when the fabric is made up on a sofa, until you have had it in your home for a year or two and start noticing the thinner fabric wearing out.

I know from experience that a love seat and two chairs will work fine. But I don't tend to sleep on the loveseat. I do a lot of reading there, sitting sideways with my feet up on the loveseat cushion. This works well for me. You need to think about how you use your furniture and what would work well for you. There are many variations in size for sofas and loveseats. I'm currently shopping for a new loveseat and I've found that some small couches are narrower than some wide loveseats. So a lot has to do with how the manufacturer is marketing the furniture. Get your measurements and forget the labels "sofa" and "loveseat." Go out there and find something that fits that works for your family. If there's enough seating in the room for the family on a daily basis, that's good enough in a small room. You can always bring in chairs from other rooms or even get some comfortable folding chairs to handle guests when you entertain. Furnish the room for how your family uses it the majority of the time, and be flexible with how you handle the overflow when you have guests.

KAT, I think you nailed it!! DH even commented tonight, when I was going through a circular from another store I stopped in (after seeing this couch set). he says to me, you like everything. And I tell you, I do, I mean really the only thing that I dont like is anything too big and poofy. I guess I'm just style impaired, not really knowing what is considered formal etc. I just see something and if it appeals to me, I like it. I told him, I guess I'm just not hard to please :) And yes, we do have pets, a big 75 lb pitbull dog who has made him sleeping area the patterned couch!! A teacup chihuhua (who doesnt get on the furniture unless she is put there and 5 cats, who dont lay around too much on the couches, except at night, I have throws EVERYWHERE. I did just get an experimental packet of "soft claws" they are pretty cool, not sure that I'll have any willing participants, but I'll have to figure out the worst scratchers and attempt to apply them. and yes, I do have scratching posts all over so why they feel the need to stretch on my couch, I have no idea. one gets frisky on the rug but JUST underneath the coffee table, so I dont always see her. UGH. So I guess the consensus is to pass on this one and I will. I'll get DH to go out again next week and see if we cant find something at the other store. OR we may go back to the store in Macon and get there with more than 30 minutes to look around!!!! As always, thanks for your input and advice.

Since blue denim can rub off, then really blue is the way to go with the sofa and loveseat. A patterned gold or camel rug with some blue would be a good upgrade if you have the budget to balance out so much blue. Also consider replacing the love seat with two upholstered camel leather arm chairs, up on legs--two of them might cost less than reupholstering the loveseat. Or two small proportioned leather recliners in camel for TV watching in your family room--something like this only in camel: If the sofas are better made and more comfortable than anything you could buy now, then get quotations on reupholstering. If you go that route, don't have skirts on the pieces. You'll get a more modern, airier look without the skirts and the upholstery job will cost less.