U Design It Sofa Company

From the second we walked into Johns shop we knew we found the right place we wanted to purchase our couch. He patiently listen to my husband go back and forth on what we wanted, he said it would take 3 weeks for couch to be ready, it took ²¹⁄₂ and we could not be more happy with it. We highly recommend this place, it’s family operated and they do quality work. We are very happy!

We were so lucky to find John — we needed a long sectional to fit in our new living room, but were really picky about the color and style — never realized a custom piece could compare to the price of pre-​made furniture!
John was incredibly nice and flexible with our budget, too!
The whole process was seamless and sooo much better than buying from a regular furniture store! John kept us updated the whole time by txt, which was extremely convenient. He even delivered it for a small fee.
We LOVE our new couch and are so glad we could support a hard-​working local craftsman, too!!!
The quality of his work is absolutely amazing for the price! It seems the negative reviewers didn’t check out his shop before buying.
We are SO happy with our purchase!
I highly recommend stopping by John’s shop if you’re considering a custom furniture piece!

John was extremely reasonable while helping us design our dream sofa. His shop is full of beautiful examples of his work, definitely stop by and check out the quality. We gave him a budget and he was able to fit everything we needed into it, as well as only $ 30 for delivery. He also helped us move it into our home. It was nice to buy from someone who loves and takes pride in what they do!

BUYER BEWARE!
This place actually deserves zero stars.
I went here after my friend bought a sofa from John and was raving about the great deal she got. Here was mistake #1! Even though a friend recommends something, you should always do your own research and look at the furniture on display carefully. I had been looking for a sectional for a couple years and was too overly excited when I heard I could get a custom sectional for less than typical retailers. I raced over there and quickly pulled up Unilocal before entering. I saw that they had 4 stars and didn’t bother to read the reviews. 30 mins later I had spent nearly $ 1500 on a sectional including delivery. I paid a 60% deposit that same day. (Some would consider that mistake #2)
The quality is awful and he will not give you your money back. He will try to fix the poor quality but will come back with the exact same thing. After a lot of arguing he will offer to make you something new but why would I want something new if it will be the same horrible quality???
Save yourself a ton of stress and do not go here. I ended up buying another sofa at Floor Plan LA and love it.

Over the moon with my new couch! And looks more expensive than what I actually paid for it — a beautiful dark blue — almost Navy — microfiber kinda velvet-​y shiny chenile-​ish fabric. Very comfy — good enough to sleep on! (I opted for the single seat cushion.)
I feel like I am copying design goddess Emily Henderson for a fraction of the budget she has.
And John and his man very kindly delivered it all the way up to my walk-​up — the same day I purchased it! They even brought my old couch back DOWN to the neighbors on the floor below me! My stairs are a bit narrow and windy — but they got it up un-​scathed — thanks to the plastic wrapping they put on it. I wasn’t even sure the couch would make it up my old-​timey Echo Park stairs.
(I actually chose to buy the floor model, which had only been on the floor less than a week. Hey — If it ain’t broke!)
Skip IKEA couches and come here for a little bit more money and a LOT more style. I can’t believe I almost bought an IKEA couch just to save a couple hundred bucks on some banal eye sore. You’re gonna be looking at your couch for years to come.
Now I just have to upgrade everything ELSE in my apartment because the couch is definitely the best looking thing in the place.
John clearly works hard and has been doing this a long time. Very nice and respectful guy.

I was really pleased with the service and the sofa. John was very friendly, professional and responded to calls quickly, even when he was on vacation. The sofa is beautiful. It was fun designing it myself. The only thing I’d say in the negative column is that the sofa isn’t as cushiony as some I’ve sat on, but it’s mid-​cenutry modern so the pillows aren’t as thick as on modern-​style sofas.
John and another man delivered it and they walked all the way up to my 4^th story walk-​up apartment with the sofa.
For the price, this is a great deal. You’d pay as much for some Ikea sofas and these are hand-​crafted and made to order. Definitely worth it!

See above. Sofa was completed & delivered, but then John said he wasn’t going to unload it into my apartment after I had made certain that was what I purchased.
He said he had bad knees & a bad back so he couldn’t help but what do you know, he was able to for an additional $ 20.
Sofa is adequate, service atrocious.

Update: About a week after we posted our earlier reviews, we finally received a call back from John. He sited a family emergency as reasoning, and said he had to suddenly leave town. While I can fully relate to having to drop everything and be with family, I also know that in the business that I run, it is my responsibility to alert clients of closures or a change in their products or appointments. It certainly would not be okay for me to disappear and not contact my clients or respond to messages within 24 hours, much less upwards of 14 days.
We finally spoke with John when he returned to town and to work, and set up a new delivery date of two and a half weeks after the original delivery date.
When we were at the warehouse and set up the original delivery, we specifically checked that «they» would deliver the couch and bring it up the stairs to our third floor walk-​up apartment. We went over it a few times, just to be sure: «…And you’ll bring it up the stairs? Stairs aren’t a problem, right?» John assured us there would be no problem and that was that. Fast forward to the delivery and John was the delivery guy. How was this one person going to bring a sectional couch up three flights of stairs? Well, he didn’t want to. He was just going to drop off the merchandise. He remembered nothing of our conversation and agreement. Thank goodness my boyfriend was home for the delivery and not me alone, because he had to help John get the couch up the stairs. If it were just me, what would we have done? I certainly would not have been able to lift said couch up three flights of stairs.
So now we have the couch and we do love it. It’s comfortable to sit and lay, and it’s the perfect size and color for our cozy apartment. The sectional pieces weren’t connected so we had to purchase a connector to attach them (so they wouldn’t move apart), but other than that we are super satisfied with the finished product.
I run a small business as well, and above all the talent and passion I have for the product I sell, it is my superior customer service that keeps clients coming back. I was hoping that was what we would receive from John and «U Design It Sofa Company» when we first walked into the warehouse that day, but sadly it was not. All in all, the product is great and we are happy with our purchase; however, we will not be using this company again for our future custom furniture needs.

I had two couches, a regular bench and 2 storage benches made by John and I love all of them. To be honest, it was not a totally smooth process. I don’t have time for details right now, but basically John took several weeks longer than he estimated in the beginning and he didn’t seem to keep the notes I gave him on my orders so some things were not exactly the way I had asked for. And I think he rushed my order because I was pressing him hard on an exact deliver date and the craftsmanship on just the one couch was less than excellent. He remade it for me without hesitation. It’s perfect and totally beautiful.
I see a few reviews that say they can’t get in touch with John. I believe he is a good man and an honest, if not perfect, businessman. He was relatively easy for me to get in touch with and if he is consistently not answering, I think it’s because he’s just too busy. I do not think he would take your money.
The whole reason I saw those bad reviews was because we’re ready to buy another couch for the office I’m decorating and I’m considering special ordering from John again. I wanted to see the pictures again for design ideas. This time I will be extremely specific about what I want and I will probably send my notes to John several times just to make sure he is totally certain about what I want. I will also expect to add a few weeks to my completion date.
It’s an amazing thing to be able to custom order furniture with the fabrics that you want. I picked out some funky combinations that look amazing. I’ll try to post pix soon. John is good. I would happily order from him again. And, he’s reasonably priced.

We were looking for a sectional sofa that had to be made to order due to my short stature and couches out there are all one size. U design it sofa co was the second company we were serious about and are so glad we didn’t go with the first one. The first company was double the cost and we felt very pressured to add this and that on to the cost. At U Design It Sofa Company We got just what we wanted at a very reasonable price with excellent workmanship. The sofa is even more beautiful than we expected and John was easy to deal with. Thank you for your beautiful, comfortable and perfect fitting sofa.
Debbie H Woodland Hills

I had john design me a large mid century sectional. he drew up the design exactly to what I wanted and custom built it for me. his materials are all top quality microfiber and has a huge selection of colors. lifetime warrenty on the wood framing. took him about 8 weeks and they delivered it and set it up. it was worth the wait. the couch was 11′ x 12′. it was a big couch and a great price. most places wanted more money for a smaller couch and cheaper material.
I’ll be talking to him more about chairs sometime soon

John’s the man. Built my sofa exactly to my specs and delivered on time. Price was great and workmanship is out of this world. Highly recommended!

I bought my sofa from here thinking it was a great deal for a handmade sofa and because of all the great reviews for them. I can’t argue that they’re a great deal, they truly are, however I can say you get what you pay for.
Some things to note when you buy a couch from here. Looking at the pictures they seem great, in fact when I received it I was still very pleased with it but there are some major design flaws that you should be aware of.
First of all the tufting here is horrible and should be avoided as the buttons on my couch started popping less than a week after receiving the couch. They were willing to replace the buttons but every week the buttons kept popping off and after a while driving to Sun Valley (over an hour drive) just wasn’t worth it anymore. Although they give you a guarantee on the couch, they give you attitude when there’s a problem with it and don’t really care about customer satisfaction. There was not one week where a button didn’t pop off so I ended up cutting off all the buttons. The reason all the buttons kept popping? Well they weren’t placed in sturdily and were just there for aesthetic purposes.
Also, the seam on this couch is just skewed and off and the fabric sage and bunches up in areas because of the fit.
Look the couch is cheap but there’s a reason it’s cheap. If you’re looking though for a piece that you’ll be happy with in a couple of years I wouldn’t go here. Knowing what I know now, I would have gone somewhere else.

John’s been making mid-​century modern furniture, since… well…the mid-​century! He made me a perfect florence knoll style sofa in marigold tweed. I even got to pick the wood finish of the dutch frame.
Originally, I’d thought of buying a similar sofa from Thrive, but got sticker shock.
That’s why I’m so glad I found John, because his quality is excellent and the price was really reasonable. For the cost of a «better» IKEA sofa, I got a hand-​made, custom piece.
I also didn’t have any issues with his customer service. All my interactions with him were positive and he delivered my sofa on time and as specified.
Thank you John for a great experience.
****
Update: Just saw John again to pick up some matching bolster pillows. It’s been 3 months, and I haven’t had any issues with my couch. None of the buttons or the seams have come off, and it settled in nicely.

So glad we found these guys!
The owner John is very nice, and a straight shooter.
We got a beautiful mid-​century style sofa, ottoman, and armchair all for under $ 1500, such a great deal! They were done in 3 weeks and are gorgeous and sturdy.
Highly recommended!

John was fantastic! Our sofas are incredible. I brought him pictures of love seats from Macy’s and the Roberto set from zgallerie. He made the sofas exactly like the designer ones for SO much less!!! I highly recommend him and will be using him again soon!!!
Thank you, John!!!

Some of the pieces here come out nicely done, but others look cheap in real life. Not only was I unwilling to take a chance on what my finished product might look like, I was extremely dissatisfied with the unprofessional way in which John conducts his business.
1) His emails are curt and have such poor grammar and spelling that I literally could not understand the message he was trying to convey to me at times.
2) Although I can appreciate, as he explained to me, that English is not his first language, if he cannot send an intelligible email in English, then he should hire a fluent English speaker as an assistant.
3) We made an appointment to meet at his warehouse, so that I could see some of the fabrics and designs in person and he didn’t even show. Later, he told me that he was down the street and only 5 minutes late to our appointment due to traffic. If that had been the case, I would have definitely run into him, since I was at the warehouse for 20 minutes!
4) I STILL wanted to work with him, so I continued to wade through unintelligible emails and short responses, but in the end, decided I’d be better off doing business elsewhere.

I really don’t see what some of these reviewers are so negative about… kind of makes me wonder what the rest of their lives are like.
I got John’s name and number from a carpet cleaner I used (Clean Nest, by the way…) and he quoted me half the price of another upholsterer. I went to his factory in Sun Valley, chose the fabric… I was offered other fabrics at an additional cost, but I didn’t need anything fancy. I made my choice, no «upsell» no issues at all.
He came to pick up chairs the next week, promised a few weeks in shop, and brought them back yesterday. Everything looks terrific; my once mauve colored chairs, nearly 45 years old, are now teal blue to pick up some color in my living room.
I NEVER ran into a problem with John as a few here have said. Maybe these are the kinds of people John doesn’t want to deal with… or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps their lives are filled with negativity… you get back what you give.
Thanks John, for a very painless and pleasant experience. I wish I had more chairs for you to do.

The photos say it all. (edit: I can’t attach photos to my review, hmmm.) Not happy. Not a good re-​upholstery experience. I’m aghast at the bad craftsmanship. I just picked up my chairs and called someone else to get them reupholstered again. U Design It is cheap, and I guess I got what I paid for, cheap looking chairs. I don’t mind John’s personality, but the fact he delivered such bad workmanship makes me think he/​they just don’t get it. I thought they knew design, but if they did, they’d never redo my chairs the way they did.

After reading the Reviews on Unilocal,I traveled to wonderful Sun Vallet to see what this was all, about.
Upon arriving to the showroom, I was greeted by John. We discussed what I needed, and he helped select fabric, filling etc. All went well.
He promised a 4 – 5 week deliver. He did indeed deliver on time.
The item was FANTASTIC. I basically took in pictures of what I wanted from a brick and mortar retail store, and he replicated the item, with better filling, at ¹⁄₃ the cost.
Sure, maybe John isn’t the most personable guy around, but he delivered the item on time, better than expected, and I highly recommend. He is a no nonsense fella, and so am I, so I’m OK with that.
I will definitely use again.