Before You Buy a Sofa in 2026: Read the Footnote Before the Fabric

The headline says lifetime.

The footnote says something else.

Joybird's warranty page reads: limited lifetime warranty applicable for up to ten years from original purchase.

That's the frame. Here's what the rest of it covers, from the seller's own warranty page:

And the costs around it:

• La-Z-Boy's owner pays service part shipping, in-home inspection fees and transport to the dealer.
• Joybird's warranty doesn't transfer to later owners.
• Joybird requires shipping damage to be reported within 14 days.
• La-Z-Boy's warranty voids for excessive soiling, improper cleaning or treatment, abuse, or abnormal use.

Lifetime is a headline. The footnote is the contract.

Before you pay, ask for the warranty by part. Frame. Springs. Cushions. Fabric. Ask who pays for labor, shipping and inspection.

A made-to-order sofa is the one purchase where you can pick the wrong color and not get out.

Joybird's terms for orders from May 12, 2025:

• Full cancellation within 24 hours
• A 15 percent fee after 24 hours but before shipment
• A 50 percent fee plus shipping after shipment
• No returns on made-to-order pieces, even if the sofa doesn't fit
• A 10 percent cancellation fee if you use Buy Now, Decide Later and don't choose a fabric in 90 days

Ethan Allen's terms:

• No cancellation of custom items after 72 hours
• No returns on custom-made or custom-finished items
• No returns on mattresses or foundations
• A 15 percent restocking fee once non-custom items reach a shipping terminal

And the ready-to-ship return rules at five sellers:

On La-Z-Boy, its page says you can't return or exchange after 3 days of receiving your merchandise. The same page lists a Florida store contact, so the rule may be store-specific. Ask.

Clearance is final sale at Joybird and Ethan Allen. IKEA's as-is products can't be returned.

There's one federal rule on your side. The FTC's Mail Order Rule says a seller must ship by the stated date, or within 30 days if none is stated. If it can't, it has to offer cancellation with a prompt refund. It covers online orders.

So if the order page shows no ship date, that's a worry.

Two states add rules, according to Ethan Allen's own terms. In New Jersey, late merchandise requires an offer of cancellation with a full refund. In Maryland, if no date is given or delivery is more than two weeks late, you can cancel for a full refund or credit equal to the deposit, except custom items the seller can't cancel with the factory. Those are the company's statements. We didn't read the statutes.

IKEA's sofa page on October 19, 2026 showed 18 of 224 items:

One item showed a documented cut: $1,299, was $1,699, valid from May 19, 2026 while supply lasts. That's 23.5 percent off, or $400.

For comparison, the two recalled models in this guide sold at $900 to $1,800 (Ashley power furniture) and $3,000 to $3,800 (Havertys power recliners).

Delivery changes the bill:

In five states (CT, MA, NJ, RI and NY), add $10 to $20 per tier.

Joybird charges a curbside fee set by ZIP code and an in-home fee that varies by location. It adds charges for more than two flights of stairs, a smaller truck, a transfer or an additional team. It shows no dollar amounts.

Two timing traps:

• Joybird says report damage within 3 days. Ethan Allen requires a signed delivery receipt with a damage notation.
• Joybird treats orders not scheduled within 30 days of outreach as abandoned, with possible storage or restocking fees.

Article lists Front Door, In-Room and White Glove delivery. White Glove excludes installing anti-tip hardware.

And measure. Doorways, hallways, stair turns and elevators, against the package size. Leave at least 2 inches of slack on every opening. That's our rule of thumb, not a tested standard.

On price direction, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows living-room, kitchen and dining-room furniture down 0.7 percent from September 2025. Furniture and bedding is down 2.4 percent. All items are up 3.7 percent.

It wasn't always that way. NPR reported in November 2025 that living-room and dining furniture was up 25 percent since February 2020, close to overall inflation of nearly 26 percent. It said Ashley raised prices on most products in June 2025 because of tariffs. One maker, HBF, added a 3.5 percent furniture surcharge instead of raising list prices.

Sofa copy is mostly adjectives. Ask for the numbers.

On fabric, the Association for Contract Textiles has an honest page about its own test. It says higher numbers don't necessarily mean a significant extension of service life. Doubling the cycles doesn't double the life. Its 2009 Wyzenbeek study found at least 60 percent variance on the same fabric. And it says surface abrasion isn't a leading cause of field failures. Improper cleaning, lack of maintenance, abuse and inappropriate use are. Its guidelines are for contract textiles, so how they apply to home sofas isn't stated.

On the frame, we found no standard test. A seller who won't say what the load-bearing frame is made of has told you something.

On composite wood, imported finished goods with particleboard, MDF or hardwood plywood must be certified TSCA Title VI compliant and labeled. The formaldehyde limits are 0.05 parts per million for hardwood plywood, 0.09 for particleboard, 0.11 for MDF and 0.13 for thin MDF. Ask for the statement. Wikipedia notes MDF can swell when wet and edge screws can split the board.

On leather, the FTC's guide says an unqualified leather claim is deceptive unless the product is leather in all substantial parts. A reconstituted or bonded material shouldn't be called leather. If it looks like leather, the maker has to disclose the leather-fiber and non-leather percentages. A European standard uses a 50 percent dry-leather-by-weight floor for the term, and lower-quality bonded leather may flake within years, according to Wikipedia.

Ask for the density. Ask for the species. Ask for the percent.

Mainstream makers have recalled power furniture for fire and mechanical problems:

So search the brand and model at the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall page before you pay.

Furniture is often paid for months before it arrives.

Art Van Furniture announced all company stores would close on March 5, 2020. It filed Chapter 11 around March 9, and the case converted to Chapter 7 by April. At its peak it had 141 company stores.

Conn's filed Chapter 11 on July 23, 2024. It closed all Conn's and Badcock stores by October 31, 2024.

We couldn't find what happened to customer deposits in the pages we read.

So pay by credit card. It gives you somewhere to go besides the bankruptcy court.

A 25 percent Section 232 duty has applied to certain imported upholstered wooden seating since October 14, 2025. A clause raised it to 30 percent on January 1, 2026. A December 31, 2025 proclamation delayed that to January 1, 2027.

The duty applies to goods entered for consumption on or after the date. So it follows the import date, not your order date.

Partner caps: the UK 10 percent, Japan 15 percent, EU member states 15 percent.

Other moves in 2026:

• On February 20, the Supreme Court held that the emergency-tariff law doesn't authorize tariffs.
• A 10 percent Section 122 tariff ran February 24 to July 24.
• Section 301 tariffs of 10 or 12.5 percent on 60 economies started on July 24.

The sources don't say whether a sofa that pays the Section 232 duty also pays Section 301. So we won't guess.

Ethan Allen's annual report for the year ended June 30, 2026 estimates its annual tariff exposure at about $15.0 million and says it may raise prices. It says it makes about 75 percent of its furniture in North America and sources the rest, mostly from Asia.

We found no dated source for holiday sale calendars or made-to-order lead times by season. The proclamation lets the Commerce Department add wood products later, so more duties are possible.

If you need an imported sofa, a written price lock helps. It isn't guaranteed. The duty tracks the import date.

Three things to watch.

Sale prices. Under the FTC's pricing guide, a former price has to be an actual, bona fide price. In December 2016, the Los Angeles City Attorney sued four retailers: JCPenney, Sears, Macy's and Kohl's. It alleged that original, list and regular prices were never charged. NBC's report didn't give an outcome. It wasn't about furniture, but the practice is the one in question.

Reviews. The FTC's reviews rule has been in effect since October 21, 2024. Another section bars a business from claiming a site it controls provides independent reviews. We found no furniture-specific enforcement.

Made in USA. The FTC's standard is all or virtually all made in the United States. It's not a quality claim.

We also read no sofa review-site disclosure for this guide, so we can't tell you who earns commissions on best-sofa lists.

Six rules. Each one comes from the numbers above.

We read the sellers' own policy pages, federal rules, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recalls and trade-group standards. We checked them on October 19, 2026.

The pages we used:

• Joybird's returns, warranty and delivery pages
• Ethan Allen's terms and conditions
• La-Z-Boy's return policy and warranty
• IKEA's sofa category, delivery and returns
• Article's returns
• The Polyurethane Foam Association on seating foam
• The Association for Contract Textiles on abrasion
• The FTC's leather guide, 16 CFR 24.2
• The FTC's Mail Order Rule, 16 CFR 435.2
• The EPA on formaldehyde in composite wood
• The White House proclamation on timber and derivative products
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI table

What we couldn't confirm:

• An independent study of how long sofas last
• A standard that defines kiln-dried hardwood, eight-way hand-tied or performance fabric
• Made-to-order lead times in weeks
• What happened to customer deposits at Art Van and Conn's
• Whether California's three-month former-price rule applies as law firms describe it. We didn't read the statute.

This guide is one of 25 in our series on what people research before they buy. If you're buying a bed too, read the mattress guide.