When you fall for a sofa, it usually starts with how it looks. The shape of an arm, the weight of a fabric, the way it seems to belong in a room before you've even sat down. But I've always believed that what you can't see matters just as much as what you can.

The suspension system hidden beneath the cushions is the quiet foundation of everything. It's what determines how a sofa truly feels to live with, not just the first afternoon, but ten or twenty years from now. It's what separates a beautiful sofa that lasts from one that slowly lets you down.

We're completely open about how ours are made. So let me take you inside.

The wire-mesh individual coil: our flagship UK and European collections

Coco, Barton and Henrietta 

How it's made: Rows of high-tempered steel coils are set into the frame, much like traditional springs, but rather than being tied with twine, the top of each coil is interlaced with a flexible steel wire grid. It's the same principle used in the finest luxury mattresses, brought into the heart of your sofa.

The benefit: That interlocking mesh connects every spring into one unified, responsive surface. Your weight is distributed evenly across the entire seat, eliminating the pressure points that cause lesser sofas to bottom out or dip in the places you sit most. It's what we think of as architectural support, a no-sag foundation built quietly into every cushion.

The sit: Consistent, reactive and alive across every inch. Whether you're perched on the edge or sprawled right in the centre, the support feels exactly the same. The sofa holds its shape and its bounce, beautifully, without any effort on your part.

The 8-way hand-tied coil: our flagship US collections

How it's made: Each individual carbon-steel coil is placed into the frame by hand, then tied with high-strength twine in eight directions, front, back, both sides, and all four diagonals. It's a painstaking process that demands real skill and time, and the results are unlike anything a machine can replicate.

The benefit: Because each spring is independently tensioned and connected to its neighbours in every direction, the whole system moves dynamically with you. The tension is shared across the entire frame, preventing any internal shifting over decades of use and ensuring the sofa maintains its loft and shape for the long term.

The sit: Deeply buoyant, with a soft, generous, sink-in quality that still gives you structure and support beneath. It's a technique passed down through generations of master upholsterers, and every sofa built this way is a hand-built original, with a warmth and character that's genuinely hard to describe until you sit in one.

The fishmouth sprung system: our wider collections

How it's made: Inside the seat, rows of sinuous zigzag springs run from the back of the frame to the front. At the front edge, they meet a reinforced, pre-formed wire edge, shaped something like a fish's mouth, which clips firmly to the frame. It's a highly effective semi-mechanical system designed for consistency and longevity.

The benefit: The sinuous springs provide even suspension throughout, while the fishmouth edge does its most important work right at the front of the seat, exactly where most sofas begin to give way first, at the point where your legs rest over the cushion. It holds that edge firm, year after year.

The sit: Controlled, consistent and reassuringly solid. A slightly firmer feel than our coil systems, with a crispness that keeps its shape through daily life without any fuss.

Which feels right for you?

The individual coil gives you a reactive, even bounce across the whole seat, springy, resilient and built to last without sagging.

The 8-way hand-tied is for those who love a softer, deeper, more enveloping feel, handcrafted in the truest sense, with a warmth that reveals itself the moment you sit down.

The fishmouth system offers a firmer, more uniform support, dependable, crisp and beautifully consistent over years of daily life.

Whichever draws you in, I can promise that every sofa we make is hand-built with genuine care and made to be with you for a very long time.