I Have Lived with a Joybird Sofa for 5 Years

Five years ago we welcomed a Joybird sectional sofa into a house we had rented while we built our dream home. This is the story of how that Joybird couch started as a temporary solution and was a big part of the final destination we now call home. This article is part Joybird review and part Joybird sofa story.

Let me tell you how this Joybird sectional sofa ended up in our living room in the first place…

Joybird Sectional Sofa

We had just downsized from a very large home on acreage to a small rental row home while waiting for our dream townhouse to be built. It was a move that cut our square footage by 2/3rds and nearly all of our large-scale furniture didn’t fit in the new smaller home.

I got an email from the Joybird furniture company wondering if I would be interested in receiving a Joybird sofa in exchange for writing about the experience with the furniture retailers here on Kids Activities Blog. The timing couldn’t be more perfect since I needed some furniture ASAP that fit in the rental house.

My thought was that I would use the Joybird sectional sofa in the rental house living room and then buy something “I really liked” when we moved. I said yes to the Joybird offer and started investigating what I had just gotten myself into since I had never bought a large piece of furniture from online furniture stores!

JoyBird Review

1. Joybird Sofa Ordering Process

I popped over to the Joybird website and couldn’t have been more excited. I am obsessed with mid-century modern and all things clean, bright, and simple and that pretty much describes every single piece of furniture Joybird makes!

It was encouraging to read the many positive Joybird reviews online (and very few negative reviews) and gave me courage that this would turn out well.

I couldn’t wait until the delivery date! But I am ahead of myself…

2. Finding a Joybird Sectional Sofa that Fit the Room

I had measured our new living room and found that to make the best use of space and get enough seating for the entire family, it would be best to do an L shaped sectional that had equal size sides and the most efficient length would be between 8′ & 8 1/2′.

When I visited the Joybird website I found that their corner sectional with 3 cushions measured about 8′ 4″ which would fit perfectly.

Now that I had the perfect sectional layout, I needed to choose the frame style for my new sofa.

After waffling between several amazing sectionals that all had clean lines and a modern feel of both the back cushions and seat cushions, I settled on the Calhoun Armless Corner Sectional.

Isn’t it beautiful?

Now that I had my sectional selection, all I had to do was choose a fabric.

3. Selecting the Best Sofa Fabric for 3 Boys & a Dog from Joybird

With Joybird upholstered furniture, you can select any fabric with any frame along with the color of the legs of the wood frame. I needed a good quality fabric that I liked and looked good in the room, but even more important was that it needed to be able to withstand three boys and a dog.

I requested the Joybird fabric samples and got strangely excited when they arrived because there was so much choice for the furniture pieces.

So many different types of fabrics, textures and beautiful sofa colors and I was having a hard time deciding.

Joybird Durable Sofa Fabric

There was one set of fabric swatches that I was most excited about.  They are called Safeguard Fabrics, and they are super soft and stain-resistant. That is a good thing! It turned out to be the best couch fabric for kids AND a dog.

After going around and around in my head, I ended up choosing:

• Cody Pacific color Safeguard Fabric
• Coffee Bean colored leg

And then I placed my order.

4. Delivery of My Joybird Sectional Sofa

I received update emails from the customer service team about what was happening with my Joybird couch and an approximate delivery date window. For instance, the build progress series includes frame cutting, frame assembly, fabric cutting, sewing, upholstery, quality control, and then shipping and delivery timeline.

I received a call scheduling the delivery date a few days before it arrived via curbside delivery and then a confirmation on the day. The truck arrived on time for home delivery and the delivery guys carefully took three very large boxed furniture boxes off the truck and opened them in front of the house.

They carefully carried it into the rental house.

Once in the living room, they attached the pieces together. The Joybird sectional pieces are held securely together with a metal latch.

It was white glove delivery without the literal white gloves.

I really liked the way my new couch looked and functioned in our rental house and have fallen in love with that particular style.

And the sectional was big enough to hold an entire family or two sleeping boys without them even touching (which is extremely important).

How do I know this?

It wasn’t long before there was a sleeping boy comfortably stretched out on the sectional…no, this is not the sleeper sofa version!

Joybird Sectional Sofa Moves with Us

OK, so my initial plan was to use the Joybird sofa in the rental house as a temporary solution until we finally moved into our new house.

And then the new house took 3 years to build. <–So much time!

Oh, and I fell in love with the Joybird sofa and decided it needed to come with us to the new house.

The size surprisingly was perfect for the new living room. What I didn’t know until I looked for a new sofa was that this size is surprisingly hard to find and it was one of the many options when configuring furniture with Joybird.

What I like about the Joybird Sofa [Review]

• The design of the sofa is really nice.
• The couch cushions stay on the sofa even with rough family use.
• It is easy to clean the cushions when needed. In our house this is a regular occurrence since the dog is given free access to the sofa.
• It looks and functions really well after 4 years of daily, family use which includes 3 teenage boys and Panda!

What I don’t like about the Joybird Sofa [Review]

• The cushion covers get twisted with use and so the seam lines are askew. If you open up the cushion with the zipper, you can manage to get it straight, but it takes some work.
• The cushions are a little bit bigger than the frame (or feel like they are) after years of wear. It may be that they can’t be pushed as close together as they used to be.
• The fabric that has been exposed to daily Texas sun is slightly faded. In the sofa’s defense, I can’t imagine finding a fabric that would hold us as well as this has and it isn’t very noticeable.
• At year 4 1/2, one of the front couch seat cushion seams that is in the most popular seating place ripped a little. It could be easily hidden by flipping the cushions.

I have been incredibly happy with this sectional sofa and returned to the Joybird website recently to see if they offer other items 5 years later…and they do!

In fact, they now have a full line of furniture that extends beyond the living room pieces of furniture into dining rooms and bedrooms. They are unique pieces with a mid-century modern feel that would fit perfectly into my new house.

Update: My Joybird Sofa Has a New Home

After 5 years of living with this living room furniture, I decided I wanted a leather sofa thanks to Panda, our frenchie. I went back to Joybird and was happy with the choices that they offered, but ended up finding exactly what we wanted from a local home furnishings outlet store and made our purchase there.

One of my friends who had been over to my house many times and sat on that sectional for hours {giggle} asked if she could have it for an Air B&B that she ran. It is the perfect solution because it is sturdy and still looks great and can stay in good shape for a long time.

More Home Fun from Kids Activities Blog

• Check out our interior design coloring pages that are perfect for adults…or kids who love design.
• Make a blanket fort with the furniture you have as a foundation.
• Check out this sensory friendly furniture…how cool is that?
• Kids can make their own cardboard furniture with the boxes leftover from your Joybird delivery!
• DIY dollhouse furniture building is fun and easier than you might think!
• Target outdoor furniture is something that we cycle through regularly!
• How to create a kids study space at home.
• We found the best backyard hammock ideas around. It is like a vacation at home.
• Living with small spaces like I was? We have these super smart small room organization ideas that can make your home feel and function much bigger.
• How I fit 3 kids in one room for many years before they were teenagers.
• Need some kids bed ideas? We have so many cool ones.
• How to build your own LEGO table from IKEA furniture.

Have you found a piece of furniture that you totally love? Do you have any experience with Joybird furniture?