Unsponsored Sabai Design Essential Sofa Review (Updated)

This post contains updates. Please scroll to the bottom of the post to view.

Sabai Design Sofa Review

When we moved to Austin in March, I set aside a bit of money to purchase my first ever new couch. We bought our previous couch in 2010 from a waitress at a Greek restaurant just off Florida State University’s campus (remember Pitaria, anyone?)

The couch, a glorious green velvet, had belonged to her boyfriend and dated to the late 1970s. It had a few tears, cigarette stains, and splatters of white paint from a sloppy living room paint job.

Even so, it served us fine for over a decade. Part of my hesitation about getting a new couch was that I wanted something that was both sustainable and durable. I didn’t want to fall prey to a “fast fashion” type purchase on a trendy item that wasn’t well constructed. And I was also mindful of our specific needs as a multi-cat home.

I knew I wanted to: 1. still have a green couch, 2. keep the velvet to reduce visible cat scratch marks, and 3. find something that had washable or replaceable components for longevity.

Enter Sabai Design. It seemed too good to be true (turns out, it was). I’m sharing this review because I was only able to find positive reviews online. I hope this review will help you make a more informed decision.

Sabai Design is a new-ish furniture company that incorporates sustainability into every aspect of its business model. Made with 100% recycled and upcycled fabrics and FSC certified wood in the USA, it maintains high production standards.

But what really sold me – besides the claim that there’s no off-gassing – is that every component is replaceable. The couch cushions are slip-covered and can be cleaned or replaced. And each piece of the couch can be repurchased individually if it gets too worn down in time.

Of course, I thought to myself, there’s a bit of risk there given that Sabai Design is a start-up that may not survive long enough for me to order replacement parts.

Unfortunately, despite all the lovely claims and good intentions, my Sabai Design Essential Sofa (pictured above) has been a nightmare. Within one week, I already needed replacement parts.

Sabai Design Essential Sofa

Delivery and Assembly

I purchased the Essential Sofa in Seafoam Recycled Velvet during a sale for $1,408, including shipping. I received it just under a month later. Individual parts of the couch are flat-packed and assembly is left to the customer. Fine with me.

I meticulously followed the assembly video and, at first, everything seemed great. Though, you can see in the photo above that there was an issue with the front horizontal beam aligning with the sides from the get-go.

Immediate Issues

I noticed that design flaw a few days later and emailed customer service. They suggested that it was an assembly issue, so I deconstructed the whole thing and tried again.

During the process of disassembling and reassembling, the piece that holds one of the feet completely fell out of the couch. I hammered it back in as a stop-gap, but now that foot is wobbly and not secured to the couch.

I also noticed that one of the screws holding the front beam in place had bent rather severely, presumably from sitting on it. Since we have never had more than two people sit on the couch, and never two people for more than an hour, this is concerning.

When I put the couch back together for the second time, it looked exactly the same as before. Customer service concluded it was an upholstery issue (seems a bit too severe to be an upholstery issue to me). But now the front beam is also leaning forward a bit on the left side, signifying an alignment problem.

Customer Service

Customer service has been very polite and timely (I have not been very timely due to a wild work schedule these days). They offered to replace one of the sides, the wonky screw, and the front rail.

But that doesn’t really seem like a solution. This couch is less than three months old (!) and has not even been put to the test in terms of use. And there are already numerous construction, upholstery, and durability issues. How can they guarantee that this won’t happen over and over again?

What now?

I should have known better than to trust a start-up. The premise is so, so good, but perhaps they’re cutting corners to keep costs competitive.

It is difficult to bring a product to market, especially a sustainable product. But, in my opinion, Sabai Design was not ready to go to market.

I have requested a full refund. We’ll see what happens.

---

Update 7/29/24

After requesting a refund, the customer service manager asked if I would consider trying replacement parts instead. I obliged. They sent me a new side and a new front rail. The new side is fine.

The new front rail looked more aligned at first, but after about two weeks, it was sinking again. I sent a follow-up email and they told me that now they think there is a screw-hole alignment issue in the side (which is what I thought it was in the first place!). They’ve asked for another set of photos, which means I have to disassemble the couch again.

It’s frustrating because this is the main piece of furniture in my living room and it’s what I sit on every night. At this point, I feel like they should pay me a wage for troubleshooting.

Update 10/12/24

After some more back and forth, Sabai agreed to provide a full refund in August. They requested that I return the sofa. I disassembled it and sent it back. After a few weeks, the CEO, Phantila, reached out to apologize.

She told me that, upon inspecting the returned sofa, it was clear there was a manufacturing issue impacting the screw alignment between the side and the front beam, an issue they hadn’t seen before. She offered to send any piece of furniture from their collection, free of charge. After discussing best options, I asked if it would be possible to receive the exact same Essential Sofa without defects and she agreed.

The sofa arrived last week and I am sitting on it while I type this. The new sofa is holding up better so far, though it was a bear to assemble because the back piece had a reinforcement screw hole out of alignment with the side. It ended up taking Daniel and I about two hours to assemble, even though I knew the steps from memory (and we reviewed them again just in case).

---

Conclusions: Do I recommend Sabai Design?

I am impressed and grateful that Phantila reached out and generously offered a new piece. And I will say that, in spite of recurring issues, this is one of the better couches in its price range when you consider fabric quality and stability.

The furniture market is full of “fast fashion” type pieces these days and there simply aren’t that many options. If Sabai is able to consistently correct manufacturing issues before pieces are sent to customers, they will be a truly competitive option. They already beat all the “leather look” microfiber pieces you can buy at big box furniture stores.

So, while I encourage caution and a willingness to engage with customer service, I am willing to put Sabai back on my “maybe” list.