by After your home and car, your furniture and electronics are the most crucial things that complete your home. Once you have decided to stay independently, you will need to spend on fixed assets like a good-quality leather couch that you can rest on after a hard day at work. In this post, we’ll discuss what to and what not to do before you zero in on a sofa for your living room.
Options available to you
Don’t jump into the first leather couch you see with the ‘for sale-hardly used’ tag on Craigslist. After all, the couch will stay with you, even if you move out. Fortunately, there are many options available at your disposal- considering the seating arrangement, usage type, color, design, durability, usage life, etc. Depending on your requirement, you can choose to-
#1-Buy a brand-new leather couch- If you are looking to rent out the place for the long term, it makes sense to invest in a brand new couch that’ll last you a decade or so. Hunting for a leather couch that matches the contours of your room can be a challenge, considering the various options you have to place one in the room. After all, depending on the size of the apartment, you got to furnish it with tables, chairs, a TV set, and other items. If you have someone with relevant professional experience to help you out, great. Otherwise, you’ll have to do tons of research to choose the right leather couch and other furnishings that seamlessly fit the contours of the room, besides making it look great.
#2-Buy a used one- If you are on a tight budget, this is a natural choice. However, do not trust any Craigslist listing completely, you should examine the couch yourself before you make the payment. Do not choose a listing too far from your home, just as you spent your weekend house hunting, contact couch sellers and spend a Sunday examining potential options.
#3-Rent one – An increasingly popular choice amongst millennials, this depends on how long you intend to use it. Go through the rental website’s terms thoroughly, look at their various options and choose one that suits the contours of your home.
How to choose the right leather couch?
Just as you wouldn’t buy a car just by looking at it from afar, a leather couch needs a careful inspection to check for potential problems. First and foremost, check its comfort, make, sturdiness and weight. Do not hesitate to tilt it over and check its bottom, make sure it looks the way you would expect. Inquire about its make, if you’re buying a used one, ask for its invoice. Check the leather upholstery, does it look faded or cracked? If it does, how bad is it? If you don’t feel good about the sofa’s condition, do not hesitate to cancel the deal.
There are far too many vendors selling sofas these days across various price points. We wouldn’t suggest you buy online unless you are sure of the vendor’s credentials. Before you go to the showroom, click pictures of your room, especially the place you want to keep your couch. Take all measurements possible, it would be a pain if you’d had to return or replace the couch. Lastly, buy a new couch only from a reputed place after close inspection. After all, you wouldn’t like to spend unnecessarily on avoidable expenses like repairing a fairly new sofa.
How to make sure you’re buying a genuine leather couch
Though most leather sofas look the same to untrained eyes, it isn’t rocket science to tell whether a sofa is genuine or not. You could start by feeling the material, if it feels uneven with ‘fat wrinkles’ under the surface, you’re looking at a genuine sofa. If you are buying a brand new one, a genuine sofa would have somewhat a rough feel, hide markings, and a typical rich smell.
On the other hand, a fake leather sofa may feel smooth like plastic, and sometimes feel quite cool. If you have a doubt, check the label. Many salesmen use sneaky ways to get you to buy fake leather sofas while giving you the impression that they’re genuine. They take advantage of your naivety and assume you’ll not check the label, which many a time says ‘synthetic leather’ or ‘polyester’ and may not be as sturdy and long-lasting as a genuine leather sofa.
When NOT to buy a leather couch
- As we said, there are many options available to you. Though a leather couch would last long, it has a high initial cost. If you’re on a tighter budget, an upholstered fabric sofa would also be ideal.
- If you have pets and kids who’d love to bounce on the sofa, an upholstered one would be better suited for you. A leather sofa could give way earlier when ‘bounced’ upon by kids and pets.
- There are many kinds of leather sofas. Not all leather sofas have the same quality. Most of us do not have an unbiased expert who’d guide us with the right type of leather sofa. If you value comfort and value for money over materials, you could choose other options.