Build yourself a Home Reserve couch
Published July 24th, 2006 in Small Talk
I looked for couches for quite a while and was becoming a bit frustrated. I wanted to spend around $500, and I found quite a few couches that I liked, but the delivery fees were ridiculous (some around $200!). I have a sports car, so fitting a couch in the trunk is a bit tough. Most people are out of town for the summer, so it’s tough to find anyone around with a truck. Not only that, but I’m not generally a favor-asker.
Fortunately, I lucked out. My girlfriend found a site called Home Reserve. They create couches for you to put together, with the designs able to fit into boxes for fairly inexpensive shipping. I bought the classic model of the three cushion couch. It was very easy to put together, but I highly recommend using the included gloves (yes, they actually include some cheap cotton gloves!) as the wood tends to have some splinters at the edges. You only need a screwdriver to put together the entire couch, as all the pieces are precisely cut.
I had no trouble at all putting the frame together, even though it was 37 pieces (IIRC). The fabric was slightly trickier, but, all-in-all, the couch came together very well. The first two pictures above show the couch prior to any padding or fabric. The third picture shows one of the storage compartments (one under each cushion). The fourth and fifth pictures show the completed couch.
My fabric choice was “Fairview Buff faux suede.” Supposedly you can wash the fabric, but I haven’t tried yet. It’s made of microfibers and very soft. The cushions were stiff at first, but they break in after some use and are expected to last a long time. I ordered it on the fourth of this month and it shipped on the sixth. The total cost including shipping was $446. This isn’t some extremely fancy couch, but it is comparable to anything in the price range and often better. If you don’t mind some work, it’s a good buy. If you don’t mind some more work, you can disassemble the couch when you have to move, but hopefully by then you find a truck.
Now that it’s been about six months, I thought I’d add a little. The couch has held up well. Occasionally one of the cushions will become pretty flat (probably because I keep my laptop on the coffee table and end up sitting on the very end of a cushion much of the time), but you can swap it with one of the others. So far, the cushion stiffness has not appeared to have any permanent wear. If I sit on one a lot and then switch it with another, the one I had been sitting on becomes stiff again.
Comfort level? Don’t expect something that you sink/melt into and never want to get out of (unless you weigh a lot!), but they aren’t bad. I’d say you couldn’t get a couch delivered to you for less and have it be better, but you might be able to pick up a couch from a store (like Ikea) for less that would be comparable or slightly better quality.
I haven’t spilled anything on the couch, so I still haven’t needed to wash the fabric, but somehow some carbon or coal substance got into it. Fortunately, one of those Tide markers cleaned it up without a problem.
My opinion so far is that the Home Reserve couch is good, but it’s a budget couch. If you need a couch for a few years or are just moving into a place and money is tight, this is a good option. If you’re buying a couch you plan on keeping for 10+ years, you may just want to pay the extra money and buy something really nice to begin with.
hello,
thank you for the post,
i was thinking of buying a sectional, i am still not too sure, =)
jean
Just a note (in 2008!) to thank you for this post and the follow-up. It’s hard to get reliable third-party info about any online sales company, so it’s most welcome. There are quite a few end-user raves about this company (mostly after people just got the furniture) but yours, while positive overall, also noted a few things that aren’t perfect about their stuff. Also yours was the most analytical thing I found about homereserve.com ’s stuff.
Even noting a few downsides, that you still like the product means quite a bit. Taking your comments with the pretty effusive raves from others I’m sold on them. Also, I didn’t find even one negative post about them, even though people are far quicker to complain than to praise products, and all manufactured goods have some individual items that aren’t quit up to snuff.
Thanks for this piece. I think I’ll buy a sofa from homereserve.com very soon.
Thank you for the kind reply. I have moved since the last time I posted an update and the couch came with. I did not disassemble it (used a moving truck), but it survived the move without incident. The cushions are still doing well, though I switch them around every so often as I tend to sit in one particular spot. Overall, I’m still quite pleased with the couch.
I’m thinking about buying a Home Reserve couch/sectional. My husband is 6′4″ and weighs about 220 lbs. I was concerned that the seating area may be too shallow and that he will feel as though he is being pushed forward. Have you or anyone you know felt that the seating is not deep enough? Also, how long are you sitting on the cushions before it starts to feel flat? And does it feel so flat that you can feel the hard wood underneath the cushion? From your post it sounds like the cushions do not permanently stay flat, but return to their original shape.
The cushions are roughly 23″ deep, so that may be too shallow for him. I’m about 5′9″ and I haven’t had a problem with the depth (either for me or someone else). When I first got the cushions, they were too stiff. It takes a while, but they do wear in and become more comfortable. Now that I have had the couch for almost two years, the cushions are much softer than they were, but I’ve never felt the wood underneath them. When the cushions are very warn in, I’d say they’re more like sitting on an egg crate mattress on a stiff bed. It should be noted that I’m a lightweight though. The cushions do spring back to their shape, but they become less resistant over time. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, so I’m not on my couch too much, but someone who is might find that they become soft fairly fast.