Inside Your Sofa: What You Need to Know about Couch Springs & More

 

When you come home after a long day at work and sit down in your favorite sofa, you’re probably not thinking about how the sofa is constructed.

 

You’re just happy to be home and in the warm embrace of a comfy couch. 

 

It’s not until something doesn’t work that people usually feel compelled to investigate.

 

But you’re a Wellington’s Fine Leather Furniture customer and we only sell the most reliable furniture, which means you might never learn what goes into making your favorite sofa.

 

So we went ahead and gathered some of the most interesting aspects of your sofa’s construction process, particularly in regard to springs.

 

Springs are in most furniture in order to give you support. 

 

There are several different kinds of springs which can go into a sofa. Here are some of the most notable. 

 

Perhaps, the most popular kind of furniture springs are sinuous springs. These springs have a zig-zag pattern and sit in rows. Along with clips and fasteners, the springs are attached to the sofa’s frame by metal tie rods, so they’re not going to budge. 

 

Sinuous springs aren’t as fancy as the other options, so they can usually be found in middle-tier furniture. However, according to Fox News’ Laura Oglethorpe, if your sinuous springs are 8-gauge, they should get the job done just fine. She also recommends making sure they have at least two silent tie wires clipped to each spring. 

 

On the other hand, there’s the eight-way hand-tied springs, which some consider to be the best springs available. Unlike the zig-zag pattern of the sinuous springs, these are shaped like coils and are tied together by twine. They’re tied every which way, including back to front, right to left, and even diagonally. 

 

Because of the hand-made nature and the extensive network of twine, these springs tend to accompany more expensive pieces of furniture. However, it might be worth it. Not only do these springs reportedly provide a comfortable sit, but they’re also said to prevent squeaking and to last much longer than other springs. 

 

Unlike the other sets of springs, drop-in springs exist as a separate unit from the sofa. For this reason, they’re seen as being less efficient than the other springs. 

 

This inefficiency is also due to the fact drop-in springs aren’t supported from the bottom. Without proper webbing which serves as a base, the springs will begin to weaken at a quicker pace than the others. 

 

For what drop-in springs lack in quality, they make up for in affordability. Therefore, these springs might not bother the college student who’s just looking for something which beats the floor. 

 

You may already be familiar with pocket coil springs, as they’re most commonly seen in mattresses. Only just recently have they made the leap to the sofa. Because they’re so new, their quality has yet to be properly determined. 

 

They’re a series of coils, which are individually wrapped in pockets of fabric, hence the name. By being individually wrapped, they’re able to depress individually, which means they have a more personalized contour when sat upon. 

 

While springs are essentially a part of the construction process, they aren’t the only part.

 

Here are some of the other aspects of the sofa-making process which you may find fascinating. 

 

In the world of high end leather furniture, a frame has a far more involved role than a picture frame. 

 

For a sofa, the frame is essentially the skeleton on which everything else is built around and supported by. Without the frame, your favorite sofa would be more like your favorite pile of leather and parts. 

 

Frames can be made from a variety of woods – but hardwood, softwood, and engineered wood are the among the most common. 

 

The wood is assembled with staples, bolts and perhaps furniture dowels depending on your selection.

 

This is one of the most important parts of the process, because if done incorrectly, the entire sofa could collapse at any moment. 

 

Leather upholstery requires a few more steps than fabric does. First, the leather needs to be inspected for defects, such as markings. Once those are removed, the leather must be cut into pieces and sewn back together in various shapes.

 

Then, the newly shaped leather pieces are stuffed with polyester fiber, which gives your sofa a cushy feeling. Without it, you might as well be sitting on a tree stump. 

 

Before the leather can be applied, foam must be put on the frame, to fill the sofa out, and to allow the upholstery to slip on with less resistance. 

 

The foam also adds an extra layer of softness, because – after all – this is what a sofa’s all about.  

 

Once the upholstery is on the sofa, it must be stapled and nailed into place. Otherwise, it would fall off and the sofa would be naked. 

 

We rarely think of a sofa as a complex series of parts. 

 

There’s the frame, the upholstery and, last but certainly not least, the springs. 

 

Whether they’re sinuous, eight-way hand-tied, drop-in or pocket coil, there’s more which goes into the inner workings of your sofa than you might have previously thought. 

 

Now that you have some sort of idea of how a sofa is made – you can make the most informed purchases going forward on buying the best leather furniture. 

 

And when you do, we’ll be waiting.