AFTER A HARD DAY'S work or a heavy night's drinking, most people make a beeline for the sofa. It is the second most-used piece of furniture in the home after the bed, so when it comes to buying a new one it shouldn't be done on the hop or the cheap.
Before shopping, decide on a budget, how the sofa will be used and check the dimensions of the room in which it will feature. Comfort and durability are the most common priorities but whether the sofa is going into a formal or a family room may affect colour (white isn't ideal for families with toddlers) and style (couch potatoes should go for low, soft arms and squashy cushions).
Although aesthetics are important, it's actually what's hidden away - the frame, springs and cushion filling - that counts. 'A kiln-dried hardwood such as oak, maple and birch is a must because it holds pegs and screws in place for a long time,' says Liu Sham-hoi, manager of Simply Sofas (Unit 1717, 17/F, Harbour Industrial Centre, Ap Lei Chau, tel: 2580 7436), which makes sofas to order.
The best-quality models are double or triple-dowelled (dowels are small wooden pegs fitted into holes to join pieces of wood), and then glued and screwed together for added strength.
There are two main types of spring systems: eight-way hand-tied (considered the best) and no-sag or sinuous. In the first, each three-dimensional coil is attached to the base of the sofa and hand-tied at the top to the eight adjacent springs with twine to make them sag-proof. If you can feel springs through the fabric on the underside of the sofa, you're touching an eight-way construction.
The other system comprises 'S'-shaped springs running from the front of the sofa to the back several centimetres apart. It offers a softer seat and is often used in pieces that sit lower to the ground. Cheaper to produce than the eight-way system, it is not necessarily the sign of an inferior product but sinuous springs generally don't provide the long-lasting firmness of coils. As a rule of thumb, the more springs there are and the closer together, the better the support you will receive.
Seat and back cushions come in a range of fillings including down, foam and polyester, and should be dense enough to mask the feel of springs and frame. Generally speaking, cushions that are 100 per cent foam will keep their perfect shape but not be particularly comfortable; down gives a loose, fluffy cushion but compacts with time so you eventually have to add more. According to Liu, the best filler is a combination of foam and down.