Lighter weight than expected, comfortable puckered stitching!

It's difficult to buy a sofa sight-unseen, but I took a look at a lot of different designs. Ashley furniture seems to have a decent reputation, and their retail presence suggests to me that they still stand behind their products, to an extent at least. I wanted a long, traditionally puffy and comfortable plush sofa, so I ended up going with this one. The sofa comes well-packaged, but perhaps not well enough to endure mishandling by shippers - luckily there was none in this case. I was surprised initially by how light it is. It's huge, but lighter than its bulk would suggest. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. I will certainly update my review with any added observations on long-term durability. On another durability note, I was not overly pleased with the feet that come with the sofa, and must be installed without predrilled holes. The feet are somewhat light and flimsy plastic, so I am not sure they will hold up over a long time. I'm sure they can be replaced easily, so I'm not overly worried, but I wish they had included better-made and more solid feet. The screws were also extremely hard to drive into the wood base (not joking, I had to put together a lot of pieces with no predrilled holes as part of a recent move, but these four screws were definitely the most difficult to drive!). They have very shallow Phillips heads which easily come loose without applying an absolutely insane amount of pressure. Not a pleasant experience. Now that the moving and setup is over, however, the sofa is a very pleasant piece of the living room! It's the right height, and sufficiently large for plenty of comfortable room for several people. The back and armrests are extremely comfortable. Surprisingly, the cushions are a little less so, as the foam is very, very firm, at least initially. This is probably a good thing, and speaks to better long-term comfort, but you may find them slightly uncomfortable at first. Overall, you get what you pay for, especially with living room furniture. I do believe this is a good choice for the money, and a good value overall. It is a large and comfortable plush sofa that should hold up well over time, and will probably grow more comfortable as the seat cushions break in. My only concerns are with the durability of construction, given the lighter than expected weight, and the flimsiness of the feet. But I expect the worry is unfounded. Time will tell!

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