Sofas are big investments, and we absolutely want them to last. A lot of people end up at Pottery Barn because of their nice clean designs, plus lots of fabric choices and ways to customize your sofa. A major downside, though, is that there are no reviews for their furniture and products on Pottery Barn. I’m sure you’re like me and really value reviews. It gives me that extra bit of confidence when I’m scared about making a large purchase (hello, especially a non-refundable purchase). So I thought I better review my Chesterfield and fabric choice and help anyone out that’s undecided.
As you probably know reading others’ reviews, people either love or hate Pottery Barn sofas. I fall into the love category. So let’s get started reviewing the Chesterfield sofa!
I LOVE tufted furniture. I love it as much as subway tile, and that’s saying a lot! Our current furniture was great fit in our last house, but not this house. I really don’t have room for a loveseat, wish I did, but it won’t work with my living area. So, I was interested in one larger sofa, mixed with a few chairs. The Chesterfield sofa style has ALWAYS appealed to me. It’s just gorgeous! I would see the Chesterfield in the Pottery Barn catalogs and in stores and just drool. A big positive for me using Pottery Barn was that I could pick my sofa size and my fabric. I knew I wanted a light colored sofa, and I wanted it to be durable! First thing I did was request free fabric swatches online of everything that appealed to me. While waiting on these swatches to arrive I went up to the store and really examined the Chesterfield sofa closely. Now that this sofa was a possibility I had to really check out its comfort level.
Some Chesterfield sofas are uncomfortable. For this reason you want to avoid buttons on seat cushions! In the store the Chesterfield passed the comfort test. It really was comfortable, I wasn’t just blinded by love. It was also deep, so I could easily add pillows and have plenty of sitting room. About a week later the fabric swatches came in, and that’s when the real stress started. Picking fabric can be hard! I instantly eliminated many fabric choices, some looked a lot different online. The fabrics that appealed to me most were the Performance Everyday velvet, Performance Everyday suede, and the Performance tweed. I instantly nixed the tweed because of cost, it was quite a lot more. Here recently I’ve read some reviews of the tweed pilling. If your interested in the tweed please do lots of research! So, it was between the velvet and the suede. Torture was done on both samples. Ketchup, wine, and coffee. Nobody will be having ketchup on this sofa, but I always test ketchup on samples. Both the suede and the velvet samples cleaned up quite well.
In the end I decided to go with the velvet in buckwheat, and by luck it was actually the cheapest out of the tweed and suede. Velvet feels luxurious and is perfect for the Chesterfield. Remember the Seinfeld episode where George Constanza flips out over his new girlfriends velvet sofa? “I would drape myself in velvet if it was socially acceptable”, haha sometimes I think about that while sitting on my sofa.
Anyway, I committed to the Chesterfield Grand Sofa 96 inch length it was a great size and much wider than our old sofa. So I waited on a sale, for me waiting on a sale for Pottery Barn purchases are absolutely mandatory. During this waiting period I tried to find reviews on this sofa or the Performance Everyday velvet, but I didn’t have much luck. I read all the information I could find and watched the Pottery Barn videos about this fabric. It was stain resistant and great for kids and pets. Luckily soon I hit a 25 percent off sale so I placed the order. A week later they called to confirm my non refundable sofa and said it would be delivered in 8-10 weeks. After that I instantly felt nervous. Had I made the right choice? Did I really research every possibility? I actually had few panic attacks that I had made a horrible non refundable choice. I waited what felt like forever until it was finally delivered.
The first time I saw this sofa fully unwrapped and in my living room I loved it. Then I thought “we’re going to ruin this.” Well, let’s fast forward to 2 years later. We work this sofa hard. I don’t baby it much. It sees lots of activity. We try not to eat on it, but occasionally little snacks will happen. We drink beverages on it all the time. Little coffee dribbles easily clean up with a damp cloth and a drop of soap. One day after a Christmas party I found red lipstick on the cushion and I got it out with soap and water. A black shoe mark on the back was easily cleaned off. Then one night I spilled a full glass of red wine on the cushion. I instantly blotted it up and used my regular soap and water. With the dark evening light I thought I had gotten it. The next morning I saw pink splotches everywhere. In a panic I threw it in the washing machine, air dried it, and poof the red wine stain was all gone! You’ll be glad to know I’m much more careful with red wine now! Below you can see the perfectly clean cushion cover.
I like how this sofa has a much lower back then our old one.
Our sofa has so far been excellent, its comfortable, clearly stain resistant, and the style very much works for me.
It does have a few negatives. One minor negative is the fabric will go all different directions with activity. When the light hits these spots just right it can give a dirty appearance. This is easily fixable I just smooth my hand or a dry rag over the velvet and brush it smooth again. Another drawback, and this is with all Chesterfields really, the little buttons can fill with dust and will on occasion need to be vacuumed or wiped out. Any wrinkles on the cushion top are usually temporary and smooth away; however, I’ve also noticed little wrinkles forming along the edge of the cushion. These do not smooth out. They’re probably from the cushion wearing slightly, and luckily this doesn’t really bother me. Here below I’ve made a list of pros and cons for the Performance Everyday Velvet and Chesterfield sofa
Pottery Barn Chesterfield Sofa
Pros
Solid well-built construction
Polyester wrapped cushions keep their shape well
Gorgeous style that’s very comfortable
Many different sofa lengths available as well as sectionals
Easy to customize with fabrics to create your own look
Deep enough to hold large pillows and still have sitting room
Cons
No sofa bed option available
Dust collects in buttons and must be cleaned
Wrinkling along cushion edge
Special order takes 8-10 weeks
Non refundable
Performance Everyday Velvet in Buckwheat
Pros
One of the more affordable fabric choices
Very stain resistant, even light colors
Cushions can be unzipped and are machine washable
Tough fabric is great with kids and pets
Cons
Must occasionally smooth fabric to avoid a spotty looking appearance
Well, there you go. I hope this has helped you in either your Chesterfield sofa or Performance Everyday velvet selection. This has been a true honest review on my Chesterfield sofa. I plan on soon writing a review of our Pottery Barn outdoor sectional once I wash and test it out a bit more. As soon as I make a sofa decision for our upstairs loft I will let you know.
**UPDATE 5/13/19 I am still in love with our sofa and the Performance Velvet. The fabric is so durable and stain resistant that I just ordered the Raleigh Square Tall Storage bed in the same color. I’m known to drink coffee in bed and spill it everywhere but I’m not worried at all with this durable fabric.