The question about whether or not Lovesac is worth the premium price tag is a tricky one. In fact, whether or not anything is worth the cost depends on so many factors that only you can answer that question for yourself, but I wanted to talk about how we made our decision because we took 2 years to decide.

We were choosing between IKEA, Lovesac, and other furniture makers, both online and in person. If we wanted a Lovesac sofa, we also had to decide if we wanted to buy from the manufacturer and customize it or wait for the bundle from Costco.

Below, I talk about my thoughts and experience with the cost, quality, warranty, customer service, and questions that might help you decide, sometimes comparing Lovesac and IKEA or buying from Lovesac versus Costco.

Ultimately, we decided the cost and customer service at Costco were worth the trade-offs of not being able to fully customize the couch.

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For details about delivery, assembly, and information about my experience so far with the Lovesac Costco bundle, check out my First Impressions of the Lovesac Sactional Bundle from Costco.

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Cost

For us, whether or not any purchase is “worth it” isn’t just about numbers, but cost is a factor. In this case, I especially want to talk about the price of the Costco bundle versus the cost of purchasing directly from Lovesac.

Here’s what’s included in the Costco bundle we bought, and in parentheses is the total cost before tax and shipping (as of the date of this post) of purchasing from Lovesac:

*The exact throw pillows we got from Costco weren’t available on the Lovesac website, but I used the price of similar pillows.

Realistically, if we purchased from Lovesac, we would’ve only bought the couch and drink holders, which would have brought the total down to $7,210 for this configuration. I’m glad the blankets came with the bundle because we have all (cats included) been enjoying them, but I don’t think I would have paid $500 for the two of them.

We could further complicate this because, while we would have skipped most of the accessories, we would have bought 3 storage seats ($1,000 each vs $825 for a normal seat), only 7 sides instead of 8, and a more expensive fabric. That would have brought the total to $8,035 for our ideal configuration and 2 drink holders.

The bottom line: You get more for less when you buy from Costco.

But if you aren’t going to use any of the accessories, buying the Costco bundle may not be worth the hassle of finding new homes for all the extra stuff. We thought we might be able to sell our stuff to decrease the cost, but I researched that before we bought and found that, despite its high retail price, the Citysac’s resale value is quite low locally, maybe because our Craisglist is saturated with them (I assume because of this bundle).

Quality

When we were shopping for a new couch, we could definitely see and feel the difference between the couches in the showroom at IKEA and Lovesac. And in disassembling the IKEA EKTORP sectional and assembling the Lovesac, I could tell the difference even more.

When you take the cover off an IKEA sectional, the material on the base is cheap white stuff — I hesitate to even call it fabric. It’s not even muslin. You know those cheap tote bags companies give away as promo items? It’s kind of like that. You can also see exposed staples where the white stuff is connected to the structure. The metal springs and a lot of the wood is exposed in the underside, and you can see the plywood used in some parts. In fact, we’ve had foster kittens get lost inside this couch. They eventually found their way out and were fine, but it may be something to consider if you have kittens or other small critters.

A bare Lovesac seat base has nice black fabric cover, and it’s even lined on the underside. Unlike the IKEA couch, the Lovesac seats have no exposed staples or rivets, and the metal springs are covered as well. Since everything was wrapped up, I don’t know how much of it is solid wood or plywood, but it has a nice look and feels sturdy.

I don’t know that comparing an IKEA couch to a Lovesac is fair considering the huge difference in price, but IKEA is the only other couch we’ve owned, so I don’t have anything else to compare it to. Also, they’re technically in the same furniture category since they’re both assembled by the buyer.

Before tax and shipping, the IKEA EKTORP sectional was $999 and the Lovesac Costco bundle was $5,699 from Costco. Is the Lovesac worth nearly 6 times the cost of the IKEA couch?

Build quality on Lovesac is definitely better than IKEA, but I’m not sure that it’s 6 times better. Then again, these things don’t tend to be that linear. Plus, IKEA uses a furniture delivery service, which I would say is a benefit; it takes a little longer to arrive, but they brought all the boxes into my apartment, which you’d think would be a given, but apparently not (based on my experience with Lovesac delivery).

Warranty

We’ve only had our Lovesac for about a week, so I can’t yet speak to longevity, but Lovesac brags about their lifetime warranty for manufacturer defects. That lifetime warranty is just for the bases, though, which none of the sales associates told us when we were in the store. The cushions and covers are under warranty for only 3 years.

Interestingly, IKEA offers a 10-year warranty on certain furniture series for parts of their sofas.

Although having a warranty on products is great, the real test is how they’re honored. I didn’t file any warranty claims with IKEA, and hopefully I won’t have to file any with Lovesac. Before we purchased, I tried to find information on whether or not Lovesac honors their warranty but wasn’t able to find anything other than complaints about their customer service.

Customer service

Costco’s customer service is legendary.

I don’t think anyone can really contest that. I reached out to Costco about the horrible delivery experience, and they immediately offered to make amends.

Though I don’t expect any reparations from Lovesac since Costco already took care of me, I did want to provide feedback about the delivery service with FedEx so know they more about their customer’s experience (which any respectable company would want to know). I emailed Lovesac and received a pretty standard “we’ll look into it” response over a week later.

In our research with this couch, we saw many complaints about Lovesac’s customer service, especially regarding returns. Actually, one of the main reasons we decided to buy from Costco was because we knew if we wanted to return it, Costco would make the process painless.

Other factors

We had a lot of other factors to consider when we were shopping for a new sofa. Here are 3 questions to ask yourself if you’re debating on a Lovesac or other expensive furniture.

Will it work for your space?

We must have measured our space about 20 times over several weeks before placing the order. It is such a big couch and didn’t seem like it should fit in our apartment.

Not only that, but we had to rearrange the living room and get rid of some furniture to make the pit couch fit. In the photo above, you can kind of see that we had cube storage along the left side of the couch. I had to figure out where to put the stuff we were storing in it — this was an excellent opportunity to declutter — and find a new home for the furniture itself (gave it to a lovely woman who was going to use it as a play place for her cats). I actually like the living room better this way because the room opened up considerably, creating a better flow, but we had to plan and budget for reorganizing.

I also wanted a new side table. The one we had was too short for the taller Lovesac, so that was another added cost to consider.

How much time do you spend on the couch?

A major reason we decided to spend more on a nicer couch is that we spend a lot of time on it. For many of our days, we spend about 1/3 of our time on the couch, sometimes more.

Basically our weekdays generally look like this: bed → office chair → couch → bed

We do go out, get up and move, etc. but if we’re home, we’re probably on the couch. So we wanted to make sure we’re comfortable and not causing ourselves any body pain from unsupportive furniture. I definitely wouldn’t spend this much on a couch I wouldn’t use much.

How long do you plan on keeping it?

We live in an apartment right now, but someday in the (hopefully) near future, we want to buy a home. We don’t know when that will be, but when it happens, we don’t want to find a new couch that would work in the space and try to recoup the cost on this one.

One of the benefits of the Lovesac is that it is modular and can be arranged in several different configurations. Wherever we move, we should theoretically be able to fit some version of it in the space — though I don’t want any configuration other than the pit couch. It’s the best.

In closing

I don’t think we would have bought this couch directly from Lovesac. Over $8,000 is a lot of money, no matter what you’re spending it on.

Again, we’ve only had it for a week, so I can’t attest to long-term use yet, but I can say that buying from Costco was the best choice for us. We got the configuration we wanted and some fun bonus accessories, plus the guarantee of Costco’s excellent customer support, just in case it didn’t work out.

We adore this couch. It is so fun and luxurious as a pit couch, and we’re definitely satisfied with the comfort and quality so far. I’ll be sure to post an update in the future to talk about maintenance and how the cushions hold up over time.