Ordering anything online is always a gamble. But furniture? What kind of crazy person orders a couch they've never sat on?

This crazy person.

I posted last week about our new Sven couches from Article. Today I'm going to share with you my full review of the process along with tips to help you with your next online furniture purchase.

(This post is not sponsored. I wasn't even considering blogging again at the time of purchase (January 2017)!

ORDERING

The actual ordering process was as easy as ordering toilet paper from Amazon. Add two sofas to cart. Check out. Boom. Confirmation e-mail sent.

Things we considered before purchasing were a little more time consuming than a toilet paper purchase. Here's some factors to consider:

Reviews: Although the price was right on these stylish sofas, what is the quality actually like? Are they less expensive for a reason? Yes, I understand that they cut out the middle man but is that actually just a cover up? I Googled "Sven sofa reviews" and that search is lacking. I turned to the lovely Instagram. I browsed Article's tagged photos and also searched #ourarticle. I found some Instagrammers (preferably ones that paid for them with their own dollars) that already owned the sofas to answer my quality questions. All had raving reviews.

Size: Will two giant couches fit in our living room? Should we go with the love seat size? To answer this, we mapped out the living room with painter's tape. The tape made it easy to see the footprint of the sofas. We also considered the height beings our floor plan is very open. We compared the listed height to the height of our previous sofas. (Each sofa fits 3 people comfortably!)

Fabric: We live in our living room. This isn't just a pretty place to look at. We drive toy cars here. The dog sleeps here. We eat ice cream while watching Netflix here. These couches will be loved. The Article website states dry clean only. Will that work for us? Fabric choice was my largest gamble in this whole decision. (More below in Maintenance!)

SHIPPING

Our estimated shipping date was 3-4 weeks. Ours took closer to 8 weeks. Article had a two week delay out of their warehouse. They e-mailed me about the delay and also provided a credit for future purchases. A week after the expected two week delay, I still hadn't heard anything. I contacted Article and they quickly discovered the sofas were sitting in the local contracted delivery company's warehouse. The contracted company had failed to contact us. Article handled the whole issue quickly and the couches were delivered a few days after that. The delay wasn't an issue for us. My brother was taking our old couches and he didn't need them for another month. I was honestly impressed at Article's customer service during the process. I assumed they would make me call the local company but they handled everything and were very apologetic. I would keep the possibility for delays in mind if you're needing your furniture right away. (Honestly this is something you'll more than likely have to deal with when ordering any furniture that doesn't come from the show room floor. I think every piece of furniture I've ever ordered had a delay in arrival. Maybe I just have bad shipping luck?)

DELIVERY/ASSEMBLY/RETURN POLICY

Our sofas were delivered in two giant boxes. (I wish I had a photo!) The sofas were well protected. The only assembly required was to screw in the feet. Extremely easy. (It took us longer to unwrap them.)

Article has a 30 day return policy. You have to keep the original packaging/boxes for returns. This could be a problem if you don't have a place to store two giant boxes. I'm talking take up part of the garage giant. It was a happy day when we took all of the packaging to the recycling center! We were instantly in love but definteily wanted to make sure they passed the 30 day test.

QUALITY/COMFORT

The category we were most concerned about!

We stinking love these couches. They are so comfortable. I feel like they mold to us but not in a saggy gross way. More in a loving hug way. They're super soft. Nate and I were both honestly surprised with the quality.

The frame is sturdy. The tufted seat bench is squishy but yet firm enough that it should age well. The back cushions fluff easily. The bolster pillows work well enough for us that we don't feel the need to have extra throw pillows (which always end up thrown on the floor...because toddler).

MAINTENANCE

The cleaning aspect was actually my biggest hold up with regards to buying these sofas. We live with a toddler and dog. The Article website/customer service could only recommend dry cleaning because that's all they have tested.

I would say they are high maintenance but in a way that forces me to clean them on a regular basis. I find that they need to be vacuumed once a week (which I should have probably been doing in the past anyways). We generally have Clark eat in the kitchen (even snacks) so I wasn't super concerned about food but we have had a few drink spills. I also hadn't considered toddler snot in the equation. (Why are toddlers so adorably gross?) After some Googling of maintenance of velvet upholstery, I found recommendations to use just the bubbles of dish soap to gently clean soiled areas and this has worked like a charm. It's actually kind of like magic!