Sofas hug our tired bodies every day. They offer us space to work, destress, and socialize, but how do these comforting pieces of furniture come to life? Turns out, a single sofa can take between 300 to 600 hours of skilled labor to produce. It takes five important stages to manufacture a good sofa, each stage completed to perfection before moving on to the next:
1. Framing: the frame of the sofa is constructed from wood devoid of any imperfections. The thickness of the wood is taken into consideration as it needs to be strong enough to withstand the tension of the next stage.
2. Webbing & Springs: webbing is fixed tightly to set the springs in place without letting them dislocate or entangle and are the foundation for the stage that comes next.
3. Padding: each part of the sofa, from body to arms, is separately padded with layers of chosen material. The padding is placed in a burlap envelope, arranged on the seat, pinned into place, and stitched down.
4. Fabric: the parts of the sofa that will be covered by fabric are measured and recorded in a list, before fabric is cut and prepared for those sections.
5. Finishing: once the sofa is flipped and covered at the base, the finishing touches are then applied taking into account the details of the piece, like skirts, cushions, zippers, etc.
The next time you are out shopping for a sofa, consider the skill, time of labor, and detail that had to go into the pieces you consider before making a selection.