To make a truly Schplendid sofa – the most comfortable, long-lasting sofa possible – you need seriously pricey ingredients and craft skills hardly anyone bothers with anymore.
Remarkably, we’ve worked out a way to do this without charging silly money.
Here’s how (and why) we do it…
Sofas that are truly Schplendid
Let’s start with the ingredients. A Schplendid sofa isn’t padded with plastic foam and cheap fibre. It’s built from the finest natural stuff on earth, assembled the old-fashioned way by proper craftspeople.
We’ve taken every single element that makes up a sofa and, one-by-one, replaced the industry-standard rubbish with the best, most planet-friendly ingredient money can buy.
-
Upholstery: layers of coconut husk and sheep’s wool, breathable and springy, instead of plastic foam. And in the few places we do need a bit of foam, we insist on plant-based biofoam.
-
Cushions: stuffed with Italian goose down — much more expensive than foam and even feather, but infinitely softer, lighter, and longer-lasting.
-
Frames: solid FSC-certified beech hardwood, dovetailed and dowelled for strength, guaranteed for life.
-
Fabrics: pure Italian linen and velvet, stone-washed in Tuscany, nothing synthetic or sprayed.
-
Springs: eight-way hand-tied coil springs, the kind you’d expect in a Rolls Royce seat, not in an ordinary sofa.
Each sofa passes through the hands of multiple specialists — frame makers, upholsterers, spring tiers, fabric cutters and stitchers, cushion stuffers, finishers. Real craftspeople, not machines.
If you add it all up, you’d reasonably expect this to cost around double what we charge.
So how do we keep it affordable?
Our secret is radical yet extremely simple: we don’t make extra profit on the extras.
In the sofa industry, every additional cost — a more expensive fabric, a better joint, a deeper cushion — gets multiplied by margin. That extra £50 in materials suddenly adds £120, £150 maybe even more to your bill.
We resolutely don’t do that. If something costs us £50 more, you pay just that £50 more. Not a penny over. No inflated markups, no sneaky multipliers.
Instead, we work to a simple fixed margin. We make enough to keep the business in good shape, but no more. Every penny we save on unnecessary costs goes straight back into the sofa itself.
No showrooms, no salespeople, no shenanigans
How can we afford to do this when others can’t? Basically, we don’t waste money on things that don’t matter:
-
No fancy showrooms in city centres with eye-watering rents.
-
No pushy salespeople in pointy shoes, earning fat commissions.
-
No big flashy marketing campaigns pumped out by slick agencies.
We run lean and simple – and every spare penny goes into the sofa.
Why on earth do we go to all this trouble?
Because we believe everyone deserves proper, beautiful, lasting comfort.
As Rohan puts it: “I want to bring wonderful, beautiful, fantastically made things that last forever to as many people as possible.”
We hate the fact that the vast majority of sofas are made of disposable rubbish that quickly ends up in landfill. And we hate the fact that most people can’t afford to avoid buying that rubbish.
So we’ve built a business model that cracks the problem. We believe it’s a genuinely game-changing, eureka moment for the sofa buyer that cares.
The Schplendid raison d’être
Life is too short not to have really good things. Most of us only have the one big, starring sofa in our home.
So we think it’s important to make sure it’s truly the best of the best. A sofa with the finest ingredients, crafted the old-fashioned way, priced fairly and transparently. Not silly money, not disposable landfill fodder — just the best sofa you’ll ever own. The sort of sofa that will still be being re-covered in a couple of hundred years.
That's Schplendid.
Comparison: Schplendid Pricing vs. the Sofa Industry
|
Feature
|
Schplendid
|
Most Sofa Brands
|
|
Materials
|
Coconut husk, sheep’s wool, goose down, FSC beech, Italian linens, 8-way hand-tied springs
|
Petrochemical foam, fibre, pine/MDF frames, polyester fabrics, zig-zag springs
|
|
Craft
|
Multiple specialist makers: frame builders, spring tiers, upholsterers, fabric cutters, stitchers
|
Largely machine-cut foam and staples
|
|
Markup on Extras
|
None – if materials cost £50 more, customer pays £50 more
|
Percentage markup inflates every extra: £50 becomes £120 or £200
|
|
Overheads
|
No showrooms, no sales commissions, no splashy ad campaigns
|
High-rent showrooms, sales staff, heavy marketing spend
|
|
Guarantees
|
Lifetime frame guarantee, transparent and consistent pricing, free returns
|
Limited guarantees, hidden costs, “sales” that hide inflated prices
|
|
Typical Price for Equivalent Quality
|
Thousands less than comparable “luxury” sofas
|
Around double what we charge for similar ingredients and craftsmanship
|
See also:
Why we use Eight-Way Hand-Tied Coil Springs in our sofas
Solid beech hardwood and proper joinery: Why we build Schplendid sofa frames the old-fashioned way
Why we upholster our sofas with coconut and wool instead of foam
Why we only use pure Italian linen and velvet fabrics for Schplendid sofas
Why we use goose down in Schplendid sofa cushions
Why we only use Biofoam (and as little as possible) and never plastic foam in our sofas
The unique, radical pricing model that makes Schplendid sofas affordable
To make a truly Schplendid sofa – the most comfortable, long-lasting sofa possible – you need seriously pricey ingredients and craft skills hardly anyone bothers with anymore.
Remarkably, we’ve worked out a way to do this without charging silly money.
Here’s how (and why) we do it…
Sofas that are truly Schplendid
Let’s start with the ingredients. A Schplendid sofa isn’t padded with plastic foam and cheap fibre. It’s built from the finest natural stuff on earth, assembled the old-fashioned way by proper craftspeople.
We’ve taken every single element that makes up a sofa and, one-by-one, replaced the industry-standard rubbish with the best, most planet-friendly ingredient money can buy.
Upholstery: layers of coconut husk and sheep’s wool, breathable and springy, instead of plastic foam. And in the few places we do need a bit of foam, we insist on plant-based biofoam.
Cushions: stuffed with Italian goose down — much more expensive than foam and even feather, but infinitely softer, lighter, and longer-lasting.
Frames: solid FSC-certified beech hardwood, dovetailed and dowelled for strength, guaranteed for life.
Fabrics: pure Italian linen and velvet, stone-washed in Tuscany, nothing synthetic or sprayed.
Springs: eight-way hand-tied coil springs, the kind you’d expect in a Rolls Royce seat, not in an ordinary sofa.
Each sofa passes through the hands of multiple specialists — frame makers, upholsterers, spring tiers, fabric cutters and stitchers, cushion stuffers, finishers. Real craftspeople, not machines.
If you add it all up, you’d reasonably expect this to cost around double what we charge.
So how do we keep it affordable?
Our secret is radical yet extremely simple: we don’t make extra profit on the extras.
In the sofa industry, every additional cost — a more expensive fabric, a better joint, a deeper cushion — gets multiplied by margin. That extra £50 in materials suddenly adds £120, £150 maybe even more to your bill.
We resolutely don’t do that. If something costs us £50 more, you pay just that £50 more. Not a penny over. No inflated markups, no sneaky multipliers.
Instead, we work to a simple fixed margin. We make enough to keep the business in good shape, but no more. Every penny we save on unnecessary costs goes straight back into the sofa itself.
No showrooms, no salespeople, no shenanigans
How can we afford to do this when others can’t? Basically, we don’t waste money on things that don’t matter:
No fancy showrooms in city centres with eye-watering rents.
No pushy salespeople in pointy shoes, earning fat commissions.
No big flashy marketing campaigns pumped out by slick agencies.
We run lean and simple – and every spare penny goes into the sofa.
Why on earth do we go to all this trouble?
Because we believe everyone deserves proper, beautiful, lasting comfort.
As Rohan puts it: “I want to bring wonderful, beautiful, fantastically made things that last forever to as many people as possible.”
We hate the fact that the vast majority of sofas are made of disposable rubbish that quickly ends up in landfill. And we hate the fact that most people can’t afford to avoid buying that rubbish.
So we’ve built a business model that cracks the problem. We believe it’s a genuinely game-changing, eureka moment for the sofa buyer that cares.
The Schplendid raison d’être
Life is too short not to have really good things. Most of us only have the one big, starring sofa in our home.
So we think it’s important to make sure it’s truly the best of the best. A sofa with the finest ingredients, crafted the old-fashioned way, priced fairly and transparently. Not silly money, not disposable landfill fodder — just the best sofa you’ll ever own. The sort of sofa that will still be being re-covered in a couple of hundred years.
That's Schplendid.
Comparison: Schplendid Pricing vs. the Sofa Industry
Feature
Schplendid
Most Sofa Brands
Materials
Coconut husk, sheep’s wool, goose down, FSC beech, Italian linens, 8-way hand-tied springs
Petrochemical foam, fibre, pine/MDF frames, polyester fabrics, zig-zag springs
Craft
Multiple specialist makers: frame builders, spring tiers, upholsterers, fabric cutters, stitchers
Largely machine-cut foam and staples
Markup on Extras
None – if materials cost £50 more, customer pays £50 more
Percentage markup inflates every extra: £50 becomes £120 or £200
Overheads
No showrooms, no sales commissions, no splashy ad campaigns
High-rent showrooms, sales staff, heavy marketing spend
Guarantees
Lifetime frame guarantee, transparent and consistent pricing, free returns
Limited guarantees, hidden costs, “sales” that hide inflated prices
Typical Price for Equivalent Quality
Thousands less than comparable “luxury” sofas
Around double what we charge for similar ingredients and craftsmanship
See also:
Why we use Eight-Way Hand-Tied Coil Springs in our sofas
Solid beech hardwood and proper joinery: Why we build Schplendid sofa frames the old-fashioned way
Why we upholster our sofas with coconut and wool instead of foam
Why we only use pure Italian linen and velvet fabrics for Schplendid sofas
Why we use goose down in Schplendid sofa cushions
Why we only use Biofoam (and as little as possible) and never plastic foam in our sofas