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The moment our new Quince Stillman Sleeper Sofa was carefully lowered into place by the movers, I realized I’d made a mistake. The couch it replaced had been in that spot for a decade, its faded gray cushions stained, sagging, and lumpy from use by the time we moved it to the curb for new owners to pick up. The Stillman, with its bold blue fabric and clean lines, perked up the whole room. It almost felt like we’d renovated—my mistake had been waiting so long to upgrade.
That evening, the Stillman got its first real test: Would it be a comfy place for me, my husband, and our two kids to flop down on and cuddle during bedtime stories? Because, as excited as we were to host guests on something other than a blow-up mattress, this was going to have to work as our couch. It’s right in the middle of the living room. The reviews rolled in: Our six year old, who had sobbed waving the old couch goodbye, swiftly declared the new one “hard” by comparison (a fair point, as the old sofa cushions were so squished that you sat in them rather than on them) and insisted she’d never love it. Our three year old climbed all over it, leapt from the cushions and back onto them, and displayed all the markers of love at first sight.
We all settled in and found that while, yes, the cushions were firm, the Stillman was so deep—a full 40 inches from front to back—that it was cozier and really felt bigger than any couch we’d ever owned. The fabric is soft, the frame is sturdy, and we never cuddled up anywhere else for story time after it arrived. Even our daughter came around and is deeply attached to it.
What My Family Loves About It
Finding a comfortable sleeper sofa that can also be your family’s main couch is a tall order, especially if you don’t want to spend five paychecks on it. On a day-to-day basis, we really just want a great sofa. We only plan to unfurl it when guests come to stay for the weekend, which has happened twice in the three months we’ve owned it.
The Low, Square Arms
Another feature that pleasantly surprised us? Six-inch-wide track arms that sit low, just a skosh above the seat cushions. They are wide enough to hold a mug of hot coffee or a book, and even your head on a pillow. (Yes, we nap on this sleeper sofa when it’s configured as a sofa. Why bother opening it for 20 minutes?) A couch with a higher arm forces your head up at an odd angle, something I’ve never really been bothered by until I slept on the Stillman.
The Soft Performance Fabric
Quince touts its performance basketweave fabric as being “soft, textured contract-grade” and also Oeko-Tex certified. But they don’t disclose the composition of the material on the product page. It is in fact 73% polyester and 27% cotton, which turns out to be a very balanced blend. Nearly a third natural fiber, it doesn’t have that plastic-y sheen of so many performance fabrics and feels more like a long-loved cotton tee, soft and barely velvety almost like a chenille. But the polyester keeps it easy-clean. While I haven’t dealt with any major spills, small smudges have come up easily with a few swipes from a wet cloth.
The Extra Depth
As a family of four, I can’t state enough how much we enjoy the 40-inch depth of the couch. It has a gravitational pull that drags us onto it for every activity. After much discussion, we’ve decided that’s actually because the cushions are so supportive. If they were made of down, it wouldn’t work for us. The Uno discard pile, the plates of snacks, and the stacks of books would all go sliding off between cracks and onto the floor. (And our backs would be killing us.)
The Sturdy Construction
When configured as a sofa, the Stillman is 83 3/4 inches wide, 40 inches deep, and 35 inches high. That means it’s just shy of being a standard 7 feet long, so it can fit in smaller rooms, and the heavy feel and squared edges give it a pretty solid presence. The back cushions are generously stuffed with recycled polyfiber, giving them a squishy touch but with plenty of support. The seat cushions are a blend of foam and recycled fiber and decidedly firmer than the back cushions. This is not a cloud sofa.
The $1,900 Price
Quince generously gifted me the Stillman for this review. But at $1,900 with free white-glove delivery, it was the most affordable option I was considering buying, and I will almost certainly buy more furniture from Quince in the future considering the value. I haven’t even gotten to how well it works as a sleeper sofa—it’s such a nice piece alone that the price feels like stealing. (Our old saggy couch? We got it at an outlet ten years ago and it was twice as expensive as the Stillman.)
The Intuitive Conversion
You open this sleeper sofa the same way you open most sleeper sofas: by removing the seat cushions, grabbing the handle on the metal frame, and heaving. The heaving part is not for the weak—the easiest way for me to get ours open is by putting both feet on the frame and pulling with my whole body, then hopping to the ground when it pops out. (That is almost certainly not a Quince-approved move, for the record.) Quince says to expect a “smooth, effortless opening and closing,” and while I wholly agree that it’s smooth—the bed really just unfurls on its own once you get it going—I would not call it effortless. Putting it back together also requires a shove. I don’t find any of this to be an issue, since its heft is what makes it so sturdy to sleep on.
Note: Once you open up the sleeper, there’s a big gap between the head of the mattress and the back of the sofa and you need to cram the two seat cushions into place to create a headboard. They are a tight squeeze, but once they’re in it works great.
What Our Guests Love About It
This summer, we had two different couples sleep on the Stillman. Both times, I opened it up and got it ready for them with nice sheets, pillows, and blankets. They all enjoyed sleeping on the 5-inch thick queen memory foam mattress and did not report any squeaking when they got up in the middle of the night to tend to their children one room over.
Almost every sleeper sofa I’ve ever snoozed on has been the same: a bed of squeaky springs that screeches every time you roll over and drags you down towards a slumped section in the middle. Not so on the Stillman, as all four of our guests who have slept on it reported that the mattress was “firm” or “sturdy.”
- “I like a firm mattress with some yield and I feel like this delivered! Would sleep on it again. Wouldn’t be embarrassed to ask my parents to do the same.”
- “Firm but still slept well, even though I didn’t think firm was my thing.”
- “The mattress was firm but not so much that I remember it weeks later as a poor night’s sleep. Overall, would recommend!”
- “It felt like a pullout version of a Tempur-Pedic. Great support. Felt sturdy. No spring board.”
Should You Buy It?
In this golden age of design brands, there are plenty of other sleeper sofas on the market that are well-made, lovely looking, and comfortable to sleep on. But there are very few that check all those boxes for under $2,000. (Did I mention that the frame is constructed in the U.S. of solid kiln-dried engineered wood, all certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative?) If that’s your budget, you really can’t go wrong with this sofa. But if you’re being picky, you should only buy the Quince Stillman Sleeper Sofa if you like firm cushions, the boxy look of low track arms and a two-back-cushion design, and a sturdy memory foam mattress for your guests.