I've been shopping for furniture lately and can confirm, it all feels like cheap junk unless it's VERY expensive.
I wish I could find a mattress that lasts even more than a couch. I only sit on the couch a few times a week, so it doesn't matter as much as my bed!
Unaffiliated plug, but there is a sofa shop in the Castro in SF (I think they also have a location in the East Bay) where we bought our new couch a couple years ago. The brothers who own the business were very patient about explaining the different kinds of cushion materials and how we could expect them to wear, let us take home several books of fabric swatches to compare within our own home (for days!), and told us if we didn't like the feet once it got to our place they would switch them out for free. Needless to say, that buying experience is completely different from a corporate store.
It only wound up costing 10-20% more than the similar couches we were evaluating at retail shops and has been so much more comfortable and so much more durable than the furniture we ever bought from those places. They've got an outstanding warranty, so we know if we ever did experience unexpected wear and tear they would replace it immediately, and that if 5 or 10 years from now we want to refresh the cushion they can help us with that too.
Just like that small software startup is beating the big guys at the same game...You may have a local furniture shop within your local area that can offer you a much better quality to price ratio and bring your money right back into the local economy instead of sending it to a distant conglomerate.
> Buck at Rochester Institute of Technology says consumers could be better off spending a few thousand dollars to reupholster a thrift-store find or hand-me-down. “Most often the construction of vintage sofas will be superior to what’s made now,” Buck says.
This was my conclusion as well, but we still bought a cheap one. We just bought it from some guy who was selling his whole living room for a grand, so I don't mind too much if they fall apart in a few years. Build quality is not there for the wooden parts (I did my handyman thing there), but the leather at least is claimed to be top grain.
The family room, which gets a lot more use, was from a local furniture store. It was double the price and probably 3-4x as "good". I expect it will last for 20 years.
OMF still offers 'real coil spring' mattresses where the coils are thicker and connected with wire to help distribute the load. The mattresses are also able to be flipped vertically.
The best part is, the mattresses are typically hundreds or thousands cheaper than you'll pay for a 'name brand' mattress. What I like to do is buy a firm mattress and top with a separate pillow topper from amazon.
That said, one of the biggest gamechangers I've noticed for sleep regardless of mattress type is actually the box spring. Box springs suck, the bed frames that use arched wooden slats for support instead of a box spring feel way more comfortable and supportive, even with the same mattress.
I had a mattress with polyester pillow top. Lasted 20 years. New mattresses all seem to be foam, and turn junky super fast. Sucks.
Worth noting, prior to my 40s, I really didn't care. Now that I'm deep into my 40s, every second of quality sleep counts and bad sleep means achey neck and back and stuff.
Thankfully our favorite mattress was the cheapest one in the store (~$700 for a cal king)
I do this too, I think it's the only reasonable way to pick something that you're going to spend 1/3 of your days laying on
Ours is a little on the firmer side, but that can be remedied with a topper.