Daveyap

Ok if you are going that route but there are many others who would like to see their furniture last for 10 years and beyond.

Sofa beds are seldom truly comfortable for their intended purpose as they are meant to be a compromise in dual roles. My teak day bed in my living room is so comfortable that I can fall asleep almost right away. I cannot imagine that a good quality ordinary foam on my teak bed can surpass my Omazz Fairmont 5 layers Talalay Latex mattress in terms of comfort and sleep-ability but yet my body cannot be lying to my brain. I have since wondered if I made the right choice to buy this $5800 mattress from Lotus Beddings in 2007

Cannot imagine you people are recommending Ikea furniture in here. I have a lot of serious issues with their furniture How come people are so forgiving about the quality and standard of Ikea furniture and yet so highly critical and demanding of other furniture retailers

Early this year, I decided to buy a leather high back director chair for my home use. I went to Focus TNL Office Concept and tried out a couple of chairs. I found one that was very comfortable but the friendly and helpful sales staff told me that it was made from PU leather so I had to give it a miss. She explained to me that they have only one model that is made from genuine leather and I bought it at $888 after the sales staff confirmed with their head office over the phone that it was made from genuine leather. The chair was delivered to my home and I used it for a few days. But I cannot help but noticed that my thighs felt sweaty after sitting on it for short while and it didn't pass the "finger nail test" which I should have done at the showroom when I first visited them. What is the finger nail test? If you press the edge of your finger nail into the real leather, it will leave a temporary finger nail mark until you massage it out. If it is not real leather, it will not leave a mark as soon as you lift up your finger nail. I called Focus TNL Office Concept and spoke with their production supervisor (Susan) who then told me that it is actually Bonded leather. Their sales staff's English was not good and she had misunderstood my requirement so it is not really their fault. The production supervisor told me that they will take back the chair and give me another one that is made from genuine leather at no extra cost even though they are not obliged to do so. About 5 days later, they delivered the new chair to me and took back the first one. You can smell the leather when it arrived I called the production supervisor to thank her and she replied they value their customers greatly and will go the extra mile to keep their customers happy and satisfied. They hardly made any profit from selling me this office chair as it is now a Full genuine leather chair because they had to source for the leather locally and it is a big high back leather chair so a lot of leather was used. I also found out from doing my own research that there are very few genuine leather office chairs and even if they are made from genuine leather, it is only the seating portion that is made from genuine leather. The back, non seating and low contact areas are usually made with PU/Bonded/Synthetic leather or so I am very fortunate indeed that Focus TNL was so focused on providing superb after sales service in customizing the leather office chair for me which is a rarity nowadays This is not the end of the story by the way. About a month later, the knee tilt mechanism started to give out an irritating clicking sound each time I shift my bum or lean backwards. I called them up and they came the next day to replace the mechanism. Another month later, the problem came back and I called them and they came back to replace it again without any hesitation and complaints. Recently the problem came back yet again but by now I too paiseh to call them again so I went to the hardware shop to get a can of WD40 and spray all the contact points in the mechanism. The problem was resolved immediately so it seems that it is not a major issue all along. I called them up to inform them about it and they said they are aware of this issue and that it can be easily solved with WD40. I then asked them why they were willing to change the knee tilt mechanism when they were aware of the simple solution and they replied that they were worried that I may not be satisfied with the solution so they wanted to play it safe and replace the knee tilt mechanism even though it is costly to do so as they did damaged the knee tilt mechanism while removing it so they cannot recycle it. I could hardly believe my ears as I never come across such fantastic after sales customer service in my life BUT, I suspect some of their staff are secretly working for their competitors. When I send out a letter of commendation/compliment to their Management via their main email and also telling them that I will be recommending my friends/clients to them, I received an email promoting Yoke office furniture days later. Have been receiving this email regularly ever since......Now backside itchy again and want to upgrade my chair but got to start saving up in order to purchase this ultimate leather office chair http://www.kingsgate.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_11_32&products_id=131

Not all genuine leather sofas will have a very strong leather smell. That is because only vegetable tanned leathers will have the strong leather smell. Chromium tanned leathers hardly have any "leather smell" as the leather smell is usually from the leather creams and conditioners that have been used on it prior to sale/delivery. I prefer vegetable tanned leathers and they usually cost more even though the quality of both leathers are the same.

Teak wood prices have gone up by quite a fair bit during the last 5 years. What is daylight robbery to you may seem reasonable to others but personally, I wouldn't want to pay $10K for a teak table too.

I bought all my custom made teak furniture from Echoes of the East along East Coast Road since 2003. Almost 90% of my furniture are teak as I am into the Balinese style but I love leather furniture too except it is not easy to find the perfect leather furniture at the right price.

Not trying to be mean or talk you down. I have an unhealthy obsession with leather furniture and stuffs until my wife wants to kill me so I do know a thing or 2 about leather furniture, hehehe. I have been trying to re-holster some of my custom made furniture and cushions to leather and went round checking on prices for nearly 2 years now, I very very very patient guy ;p I even went online to merchants websites like Alibaba to get in touch with furniture companies as I run my own trading company and have dealings with many other merchants. You said you bought a 3 seater plus a 2 seater. The average size of a single piece of cowhide is about 45 sq ft. As I get to physically inspect the leather before deciding whether I want to use it on my existing custom made furniture, I have to agree with Sam the Man that you better inspect your furniture very carefully when it arrives because the best wholesale leather cowhide price that I managed to obtain to re-holster my existing 3 seater is $1300 inclusive of labor! You are saying you are getting a 3 seater plus 2 seater in FULL Leather for just $1618!!!!

It is not enough to write Full Leather. You need to write Full Cow Leather because Full leather can mean Full Synthetic leather, Full Bonded Leather etc etc etc.

I have an unhealthy obsession with leather furniture and leather stuffs since young so that makes me quite an expert on leather, hehehe. You need to be a bit more specific here, is it merely scratches or is it peeling off? If it is peeling, then it is definitely PU or Bi-Cast leather. Anyway, like what Sam the Man said, based on your sofa design, there are no cows that are large enough to give you their skins for this particular sofa design ;p Whenever I buy any leather furniture, I will insist they write down "Top Grain Cow Leather" on the Invoice and Delivery Order. Although you can add words like 100%, Real, Full, Genuine leather and yet it don't offer any more protection simply because it can also be taken to mean 100% Full Synthetic/PU/Bi-Cast Leather, get the point? The word Genuine Leather is very misleading because in the leather trade, it can be taken to include Bonded leather as well. Avoid Bonded(Reconstituted) leather as it is made using leather scraps and bonded together with adhesives so it is not durable. Also, I always buy FULL Leather furniture and not Half Leather because over time, there will be a very noticeable difference between the real leather and non leather parts. Frankly, it is not easy to tell Real leather from the Fakes. The smell test is not reliable as Chromium Tanned Leathers don't have the "Leather Smell" unlike the Vegetable Tanned Leathers. A quick and easy test is to use the edge of your finger nails to press into the leather, if it is real, it will leave a temporary finger nail mark for several seconds or until you massage it away.If the mark disappears as soon as you lift your finger nail off the furniture, then it is not real leather.