Pet/teen friendly furniture

[TCB in FLA]

We are in the market for an affordable yet decent looking living room set. There are two teen boys and an lazy bulldog in the house, all who love to sprawl out, eat, drool (okay, that’s mainly the dog) and watch TV during down time, so easy maintenance is a must. Our current couch/love seat combo is recycled leather which worked great for a few years, but is now peeling and looks terrible. Any ideas of what works but won’t break the bank?

 

[Karenj2]

I work for Calico (www.calicocorners.com) at their HQ in Pennsylvania. Our furniture isn't inexpensive, however it's very well built - it's an investment. (Our sofa is 7 years old and has been spilled on, thrown up on & muddy dog, and it's still looking pretty good - we got a faux suede fabric.) You can get fabric with a Crypton finish, which helps resist stains. If you want to play with our visualization program, you can take a look at what a potential sofa would look like. (It's pretty cool.) Even if you don't buy from us, check out our checklist of what to look for in good furniture.

 

[barkley]

are your boys tough on furniture? what I mean is do they just flop down hard onto it or is it just that they spend allot of time on it? if they are 'tough' then I think you have to decide what the reasonable timeline you will be dealing with this is and decide if you just want a living room set that will just make it until they are out of the house (or spending less time there due to jobs/school....) and plan to replace it again OR make an investment in something that will be more durable for long term use.

you can get something fairly inexpensive with good durable stain resistant fabric that will help with stains and such but if people flop down hard on it then the cushions and even the frame will take a beating. if they are just sitting and eating on it then focusing on the fabric might be your best bet.


we JUST ordered a new sectional set, lay z boy so NOT inexpensive but when we started thinking about the furniture we've owned over the years (sofas in particular) we realized that while we loved the leather it only lasted about 5-6 years before it started looking terrible, before that we had an inexpensive fabric one that (pre kids so not as much wear) made it for again about 5 years before it had issues. the longest lasting one we've had (still have-going on 13 years) is the one we put out the most money on and focused on quality construction and fabric-a lane sectional-it's only issue is that some of the sections that are most used have worn out fabric/flattened cushions and when we looked at the cost of having it redone it was close to the cost of new). so while we are spending much more than I would like to, I figure if that sectional we have lasted through 13 years of my kids, our cats, us....a new one absent the kid usage should last for the long haul (and i'm forking out extra to get a few yards of the fabric in case we need any repairs in years to come).

 

[TCB in FLA]

Lots to think about! My boys are 17 and 15, spending less time at home, so transitioning into our next phase.

 

[iivye]

We just bought the Ikea Kivik loveseat and ottoman to replace our leather looking sofa. The Ikea cushions are all zippered so they can be easily washed. The cloth on the frame can also be removed but not as easily. So far we love it but I have no idea how long it will last. I'm trying to keep the dog off as long as possible but I already know he's up there when we aren't home.

I know what you mean about downsizing. We previously had two couches in the living room but now my teen daughter is hardly in there so we opted to get rid of both couches and go with a chair and loveseat. Now my living room actually looks roomy.