About 12 years ago, my husband and I found a couch in the clearance section at IKEA for $300, including the covers. That couch moved with us and served us well, but eventually, I theorized that a lot of my hip, back, knee, and sciatica pain was from our saggy old couch.

We spent many hours looking for a new one that we liked and would work for us and our space. We stopped at furniture stores, including Lovesac. Nothing was to our satisfaction. We liked Lovesac in the store, but it was so expensive and reviews were mixed. So we somehow ended up with literally the exact same couch from IKEA, assuming that our old couch’s age was what made it so uncomfortable.

We were wrong.

But it took us about 2 years to admit that the couch was legit uncomfortable. We didn’t want to replace our couch after such a short time, so we tried everything we could think of to make it more comfortable. We rotated the cushions more often, removed some back cushions to make space, sat in different positions. Nothing worked.

So finally, we decided to buy a Lovesac Sactional bundle from Costco, which is much more economical than buying directly from the manufacturer. If you want more details about whether or not Lovesac is worth it, that topic is worth its own post: Is Lovesac Worth the Money? You can also check out My Thoughts on the Lovesac Sactional: 2 months later.

Before I get into it, I want to say up front that I don’t like the name Lovesac.

Ok, here we go.

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Delivery

I ordered the Lovesac on a Monday, and the order was delivered that same Friday. I work from home, I am only 5’1″, and the day of the delivery, I was just starting to feel better from being sick. The FedEx driver knocked on my door and said, “Hi. You’re going to help me with your sectional delivery.” He didn’t ask if I was busy or physically able to help, and he said this in a chipper voice as if speaking to a child. I said, “Oh, I…” and looked around a little confused. He said, “Yeah, so go get your shoes on” and he walked away. 

I didn’t want to refuse lest he tell me to pick it up from the warehouse (which our car is too small for) and drive away. Not knowing what else to do, I put my away message up for my job and went downstairs to help him. I thought this would be a joint effort, but he unloaded the truck and left everything at the bottom of my stairs. I nearly tripped on the stairs several times hauling these big, heavy boxes. When he finished unloading the truck, rather than helping me bring the rest of my boxes up the stairs, he proceeded with the rest of his deliveries in my complex! I know this because I saw him deliver a package to one of my neighbors. Then he got in his truck and drove away without a single word to me. 

I brought all the boxes upstairs by myself. By the time I was done, I was wheezing from my asthma, and I was coughing for maybe an hour afterwards. Later that day, my neighbor knocked on my door and let me know I had boxes downstairs. The driver must have found additional boxes in the truck, and once again, rather than delivering them to my door, he dropped them at the bottom of the stairs.

The next day, I woke up with back pain and a sore body, as you might imagine. This was not the delivery experience I would expect from what is supposed to be a high-end product. Maybe it would have been different if we didn’t live up a bunch of stairs, but the last time I spent this amount of money on a piece of furniture, it was delivered with 3 people, they brought it to the room we wanted, and set it up for us. I understand Sactionals need to be set up by the buyer, but I would expect the boxes to at least be brought to my door. 

Unpacking

I was already tired from hauling all the boxes up the stairs by myself, so unpacking and putting all of this together by myself was no fun. I could have waited for my husband to get home, but I didn’t want to finish putting the couch together late at night because of the neighbors. Also, I’m impatient.

So after work, I dug in.

Unpacking alone takes a bit of patience and planning. Our space was a bit tight, especially since we still had our sectional, but I made it work.

Tips for unpacking your Lovesac Sactional

• Unpack all the boxes first (instead of unpacking a box, putting on the covers, unpacking another box, etc.) if you can. I recommend this Canary Modoruba box cutter, which made quick work of safely opening the boxes.
• Keep one or two of the square-ish boxes (that the accessories shipped in) intact to recycle the smaller cardboard pieces.
• Flatten the rest of the boxes as you go along.
• Use a plastic cover from one of the seats as a garbage bag.
• Keep all the parts with like parts: Seat bases together, back cushions together, seat cushions together, connector boxes together.
• Open the covers and separate each piece: Put the seat covers with the seats, the seat cushion covers with the seat cushions, and the back cushions with the back cushions. This way, you won’t have a huge pile of random fabric that you have to sort through again.

Assembly

When we researched Lovesac, we found a lot of complaints about the assembly. And with good reason. As I mentioned, the last time we spent this amount of money on a piece of furniture, it was hand-delivered and plug-and-play.

I put the Sactional together by myself in 3 hours for the 6 sides, 6 seats, 6 seat cushions, and 3 back cushions. Maybe I’m showing my age, but by the end of the 3 hours:

• My fingers were painful and swollen from tugging on the covers.
• My wrists hurt from screwing on the legs and pushing in the clamps.
• My arms hurt from lifting the pieces for the covers and putting them in place.
• My back hurt from crouching to put the covers on the seats and sides.
• My legs hurt from all the squatting and lifting.

Basically, everything hurt. Certainly, I would not have been in so much pain if I had help, and maybe I would have had an easier time if I hadn’t also had to bring the boxes upstairs earlier that day. Or if I were super duper fit. But the strain on my joints and hands was just awful. And fluffing the back cushions was difficult with my swollen, fatigued fingers.

Lining everything up was not as easy as in the videos either. It took a fair amount of lifting and feeling around (be careful of your fingers!) to get the legs in the connector base. The clamps take a lot of strength to jam in too. If you have trouble, make sure the cover isn’t blocking the hole, push the pieces together, or try a different clamp.

I would say the assembly could be an important factor in your decision if you’re considering buying this couch. If you have any kind of joint or arthritis pain at all, I would not recommend this couch unless you have someone else assemble it for you. From getting the cushions out from the bases to folding them in half to get them in the covers, this is not for people without some physical strength and dexterity. Putting together this beast takes a lot of strength, and my body took several days to recover.

Cushions and comfort

Costco has the Lovesoft fill and the standard foam available for this bundle.

We have a Lovesac store near us, so we were able to try the cushions for ourselves before buying and knew what to expect. The Lovesoft fill felt cushy, but it didn’t seem supportive enough. We were also worried the softer fill wouldn’t age well, so we went with the standard foam.

So far we really like it. I was worried the standard foam would feel too hard to be comfortable, but actually we like how supportive it feels.

Some people also complain about the back of the couch being too low and upright. Like I mentioned before, I’m on the shorter side and also sit with a smaller lumbar cushion in front of the main couch cushion, so I don’t have a problem with the back being low. My husband is 6’1″ and doesn’t seem to have a problem with the back, but he also doesn’t sit completely upright when he sits on the couch.

We arranged our Lovesac Sactional like a pit couch, and it is so luxurious. After less than a week, it definitely passes the comfort test, but I will post again after we’ve had it for a few months.

Accessories

In addition to the 6 seats and 8 sides for the Sactional, the Costco bundle comes with:

• 1 table in walnut
• 2 drink holders in walnut
• 2 Footsac blankets
• 2 throw pillows with covers, 18″ square
• 2 throw pillows with covers, 24″ square
• 1 Citysac and Squattoman set with covers

We gave the Citysac and Squattoman to my youngest nephew. My sister mentioned it is super comfy, but the cheapest cover is over $200, so keep that in mind if you don’t like the fabric in the bundle.

The drink holders are kind of like cupholders in a car; they prevent the cup from being easily knocked over and also protect the couch from condensation. The drink holders are big enough to hold our glasses, which are wide-mouth canning jars, but they cannot accommodate a mug handle. Glasses can still tip to the side while inside the drink holder, so if the glass is very full, it can still be spilled (ask me how I know), but so far we haven’t managed to knock anything over.

The throw pillows arrived with the couch, but the covers didn’t arrive until 4 business days after the couch was delivered. The covers are machine washable but line dry only.

I wasn’t expecting much from the blankets, especially since I’m not a huge fan of faux fur, but the foot pocket at the bottom is actually pretty great for winter. I like the blankets a lot (so do the cats), but they are small throw blankets, not meant for sharing. I’m glad 2 are included in the bundle so we each get one. These are also machine washable but hang dry only.

The table is designed to sit perfectly over a seat cushion, effectively converting one of the seats into a table. It could be nice to use between us when we have popcorn or other sharing snacks on movie night. I wouldn’t leave drinks unattended because of the cats, but it works if you’re next to it.

I have also used the table as a laptop table while I was studying, and it actually works pretty well. It’s big enough to keep a drink and a book or other study materials with my small laptop. It’s a little too high for me to be ergonomic, so I wouldn’t want to spend an 8-hour day using it, but for a few hours, it’s fine.

Covers

One of the drawbacks of ordering a Lovesac from Costco is that you only get 3 color options in the corded velvet fabric. If you have a Lovesac store nearby, they have a big book of fabric swatches you can see and feel.

We bought the gray, and it’s much nicer than I imagined. It is thick fabric and feels a bit like corduroy, not at all how I imagined it when I saw “velvet” in the name.

The night before the couch was delivered, we watched this official video about Putting on the Sactional Covers. It’s got some great tips, but it’s a little misleading in how easy they make it look.

The covers are really snug, even before being washed. They fit perfectly on all the pieces, which gives them a great tailored look, but it’s also the reason my fingers hurt so much after assembling the Lovesac.

I was concerned the fabric would be a fur magnet, but so far, cat fur doesn’t seem to stick to it that much. I’ll update when the weather is warmer and the cats are shedding more, though.

Lovesac brags about their machine washable covers, but the instructions say the covers can’t go in the dryer. Hang dry might be fine for a nice California summer day, but if we want to wash covers in the winter, we’ll have to wait at least overnight for them to dry. Hang dry also means you need to have somewhere to hang them. We have a laundry rack similar to this collapsible laundry drying rack (for when I wash in our mini washing machine by Magic Chef), but if you don’t have a drying rack, you might need to get a little create about how to dry them.

Am I satisfied with the Costco bundle?

The Costco bundle was the right choice for us, but the reasons we considered buying Lovesac directly from the manufacturer were if we wanted:

• A smaller set and no accessories
• Custom fabric
• Storage ottoman(s)
• Deep seating

The reasons we ultimately purchased from Costco were:

• Less expensive
• Accessories were included
• Excellent return policy
• Excellent customer service

In our research, we saw many reviews mentioning Lovesac’s subpar customer service; if we wanted to return it, we didn’t want that process to be a hassle.

For us, it was totally worth the trade-offs, especially since we were planning to buy the drink holders and table anyway. Plus, I am cold all the time so we’ll always use extra blankets (also because cats). If you won’t use a lot of the accessories, keep in mind that you’ll have a lot of stuff to re-home if you buy from Costco.

Also, we only used 7 sides (only 6 in the picture) but the set came with 8 sides, so now we have an extra in the closet. That’s something else to consider if you don’t have a lot of storage space available.

Another option we considered was buying from Costco, then purchasing separate pieces from Lovesac later. If we change the configuration of our couch, we may do that.

In closing

So are we satisfied? Would we buy this again?

It’s too early to draw any real conclusions right now. But I can tell you that I never want to be anywhere else in my apartment except this couch, and my body doesn’t hurt the way it did on the old couch.

Despite the terrible delivery experience, we’re really satisfied with the couch and so far, we have no regrets.

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