If you have the chance to buy one of their pieces, you should! I bought a sofa and loveseat at Macy's in 2002 made by Southern (for $1400 on clearance!!). It has lasted thru two little kids and all their friends as the primary family room set, two standard poodles, and two cats. Not only do we still have the set, the seat cushions are still completely puffy! We regularly remove the covers on the cushions and wash them (they are chenille) and they don't shrink, fade, and have just now developed a slight hole along a back seam. While the set looks somewhat dated and I'd like to replace them, I just can't get past having to pay $4000 for a comparable set that will probably only hold up for two or three years. Ours are still insanely comfortable and a quality I haven't seen in modern furniture stores (Lee, Rowe, Restoration Hardware, etc). Southern still makes the sofa set I have, only now it is upholstered in linen. My husband just said to buy from them again or have someone slipcover it in a heavy linen. I wish I could find a dealer by me in Florida! And trust me, I've tried.

Hmm. What I can remember (so take this with a grain of salt as it's been eight years) is that our simple set (table and chairs), inc. delivery and set-up (they assembled the table -- I tried to get out of that because I knew we could assemble it ourselves but they just said it's a provided service) and tax, was ~$800. From the local outdoor furniture / christmas showroom place a comparable Brown Jordan set, inc. all the above, was a little over $2,000. I still start to choke remembering it! That $800 felt like a stretch to us then, so can you imagine how the $2,000 felt? Yikes. I still love that set. Yes, it looks exactly the same, but what is still my favorite feature is how comfortable the chairs are. The edge of the seats, where it would hit the back of your thighs, is rounded down, so no edges (sharp or dull) ever catch you. I also like that I don't have to have cushions -- I do have some throw pillows I put on the chairs when I remember (which means the throw pillows are almost indoors). Obviously everyone's priorities are different, but for what our priorities were / remain, our RH set met every one. I'll be interested in hearing the price breakdown -- so far this year, RH has been v. loose with their promos -- are you planning on taking advantage of one? That can make a difference! There was someone on the Kitchens forum who used the $100 back for every $400 spent: she had something like $800 of purchases to make, so she split them into two purchases and was really excited about it. (I don't blame her.) Just a thought ....

Like said above CL, goodwill, moving sales ect... Today I scored a brand new black leather lined Bentley Prince Street Carpet Company 8x8 area rug for $60, the owner/ designer won it at a show. Last week I scored a like brand new NS design leather sofa with black piping for $150. I also found a chair in the exact lines of sofa in fabric by (Sheril sp?) at my local goodwill for $85 but think I can get it cheaper. I'm getting things for my son and want to do a sort of kinda Jonathon Adler look. I'm having a blast looking for things and can't wait to find some cool stuff with color and other things needed. I literally sit pushing the refresh button on CL while having my tea, you have to be fast. http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/b7267bed.jpg" target="_blank"> http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/4d8bbec8.jpg" target="_blank">

Thanks so much for all the replies so far... I knew the list was too long and somewhat messy since some of the listings with someone's name may be people/designers who have contracted with another manufacturer to produce a line with their "brand/name" stamped on it instead... but when I posted on the furniture forum I didn't get many responses when just asking for quality, so I thought it might help to have a list to jog some responses. Reviews mean a lot to me when making purchasing decisions, and I am coming at the upholstered world with very little knowledge. A few years ago after a lot of research back then, I purchased our first two pieces of upholstered furniture that were not "hand-me-downs" or cheap college purchases, and I went with Lee Industries. Unfortunately I think we only sat on that sofa and beautiful chair two times before we found out my husband's job required a major move, and since we had purchased them during a promotion, we were able to get most of our money out of them through Craigslist, which was better than paying mover's to transport our things and pay for storage since we'd be landing in a partially-furnished rental for the first year. Since then I have read a lot of conflicting Lee reviews, including on GW/nowHouzz, and so it feels like starting over, but I'm still leaning that way. I tend to like to spend money on experiences vs. things, so I really want to get as many decades out of our furniture purchases as possible, even if paying a little more on the front end for quality to make that happen. Though a poster above was spot on - they just don't make 'em today like they used to, do they... I wish they did! My favorite chair in our house is from my husband's 87-ish year-old-grandmother, and it was second-hand when she bought it many years ago, so I guess it's third-hand by now. There are a few stains, but it sits perfectly, and I would never recover the embroidered linen on it unless it wears through - I can't even imagine what that kind of fabric would cost today. Re: case goods... I know my standards on that front are only because my parents own a small mom-and-pop store in the Midwest that sells solid wood case goods, mostly Amish-made. While it isn't all my style, that is how we ended up with hand-me-downs, and so over the years my Dad has drilled into me to look for solid-built, solid wood quality. If not for the family discount on that front, my preferences might be different. To answer the question above about veneer - the reason why I excluded veneer is because they don't carry anything with particle board or veneer, but I also want to avoid veneer because in our current rental, two side tables that are not ours have nicks through the veneer that reveal the mdf or particle board underneath, and they just aren't wearing like the the 10+ year old coffee table we got from my parents, which still looks pretty perfect. Our pedestal breakfast table is the same one I sat at for dinner each night as a child, and other than the fact that it has been refinished once and that oak is currently off-trend, it looks pretty indestructible. I wouldn't pick the oak today, but the table has a nostalgia that will keep it with us. I hope to update the look a bit with upholstered chairs around it. If I could edit the thread list down after the fact, I would, but unfortunately it looks like the time window for changes has passed. Thanks again for all the reviews so far, it really helps to know what has worn well and what to look for... sounds like I may need to start looking at some estate sales and craiglist ads too...