This $800 Article Couch Is the Best Bet for the Price
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I’ve sat on over 100 couches as the Strategist’sresident couch tester, and one thing I’ve observed is that price and quality are not always strongly correlated. Some very expensive couches are not very comfortable; somecouches on the cheaper end of the spectrumoutperform models that cost three times as much. But in general, it’s hard to find a good, new couch for less than $1,000. (If you’re open to buying asecondhand couch,which is how I’ve bought every couch I’ve ever owned, there are a lot more options in that price range.) When I learned that Article — a brand that makes some of ourfavoriteaffordablefurniture— was launching an $800 couch, I had to test it out myself.
It’s solid and comfortable.
The Article Hanson looks like what I’d imagine if someone told me to picture a normal couch. It’s a vaguely mid-century-modern two-seater with solid wood legs, upholstered in three shades of polyester chenille — light gray, dark gray, and a seafoam green. It’s 77 inches long (the site lists it at 80 inches), a good size for smaller apartments.
All of my testers — Strategist beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst, senior writer Liza Corsillo, junior writer Bella Druckman, and editor Lauren Levy — found it comfortable to sit on, not too deep or shallow. The cushions are made of foam wrapped in polyfill and have a nice bounce while offering plenty of support. The last couch we tested in the Strategist office,a megadeep Wayfair loungerthat cost $650, was so lumpy and butt-numbingly firm that you couldn’t sit on it for long. The Hanson is in another league comfort-wise — Corsillo remarked that she could imagine getting a good night’s sleep on it, and Druckman says it’s her favorite place in the office to sit and work.
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The upholstery is durable, but not the most aesthetically pleasing.
The Hanson’s upholstery scores a 50,000 on the Martindale scale, a test of abrasion resistance. (For reference, a curtain might have a Martindale score of 1,000, and a bus seat would be around 100,000.) That means the seat is unlikely to go threadbare anytime soon, but its polyester-chenille fabric doesn’t look or feel especially luxurious. It’s a woven fabric with a high pile used often in inexpensive, hard-wearing home textiles for its texture, resistance to pilling, and soft handfeel (Ruggable rugs are made from it), but it isn’t my favorite aesthetically — because of the way it’s woven, it really looks and feels polyester-y.
It’s a good starter couch.
Although I had some quibbles with the upholstery and a few small construction details, this is the best couch I’ve seen at this price in a while. It would be perfect for a first apartment or guest room; it feels solid enough to survive a move or two, unlike some other couches at this price range. My one caveat: Article’s less expensive couches sometimes have an issue with the foam deflating over time, which doesn’t happen immediately. I’ll check back in six months with my review on how it’s holding up.
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