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What are the different sofa backrests?

Hi there, I'm Chris and I'm here to give you some tips on finding the perfect piece of furniture for your home.

Alright, let's talk about backrests. There are basically three different types of backrests that you can get on a piece of furniture. Here they are.

The most common, one you probably have in your home is the pillow back. It's pretty straightforward. There's a frame of the sofa and then there's a pillow resting on that firm frame. They're comfy, they're straightforward, and when made well, they're gonna look great for a long time. Now, there is gonna be some variation in the types of fill, the stuffing, that goes inside the pillow on the sofa. Most sofas on the market that you've probably interacted with are made with lower end fill called polyfill that goes into those pillows. This is that stuff that degrades pretty quickly. It gets kinda lumped up, it gets flat, and it never really recovers its shape but it's super cheap, so a lot of furniture companies will use it. We don't use that stuff because it's just kinda junk.

Instead in most of our pillow backed furniture, we use a blend of down and feathers. This is gonna do a much better job of holding its shape over the long haul. It feels heavier, it has more substance to it, and it's more comfortable. Now, in some circumstances, we don't use that down and feather option. We have a down alternative that is great for folks who are vegan or who have a down allergy. It's gonna retain pretty much the same characteristics of a down. It's actually superior in a few ways. So, it's really one of those things where you kinda get the best of both worlds. Either way, your pillows are gonna hold their shape and last a lot longer, and they're gonna be super cozy.

Now, one quick caveat. On some of our more tailored profiles, like our mid-century modern looks, we use a foam fill in that back pillow, in addition to a down wrap. It gives it a little bit more structure and holds its shape just a little bit differently for those thinner pillows.

Now, a lot of people don't want a pillow back sofa. Some folks are looking for a firmer back support. Some like the style of a more tailored looking piece and some are sick of their kids pulling the pillows off their sofas to build forts, which I can understand. What's the solution to that? A tight back sofa. This is a sofa that has the cushion built into the frame so there's no loose pillows to deal with. Now yes, these are little bit firmer than a pillow back but they also offer great lumbar support. They're never gonna need fussing with the pillows to keep them looking tidy and they tend to last even longer than a high quality pillow back sofa would. Now, there's a lot of furniture out there that you'll see that's tight back. What we have found is that there are specialists that build tight back sofas that's actually comfortable and we're thankfully one of those specialists. You know, if you have the experience building those tight back sofas on a regular basis, you can really perfect that mix of structure, style, and comfort, and I feel like we've done that.

Know if you've been to our website at all, we do a lot of tufted back sofas. Like we're kinda famous for our chesterfield sofas, our tuxedo style sofas, that's what I'm talking about when I talk about tufting. These are tight back sofas that are then hand-tufted in a variety of ways. Things like diamond tufting, or square tufting, or channel tufting, and we'll probably come up with a new type of tufting before too long, here. The important part is that a tufted sofa, when done well, is gonna perform and feel a lot like a regular tight back sofa. It's just gonna have a more dramatic look to it.

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