You'll find good quality living room furniture at stores that let you sit on it, lift it, and look underneath before you pay. That usually means a specialist furniture showroom or an independent store, not a marketplace listing with one photo.
I used to work in several furniture showrooms in Chicago, including Jesse Chicago, Top Home, and Milwaukee. I spent most of my day helping people work out why two sofas that look alike are priced $4,000 apart.
Here's how I'd rank the places to look.
Specialist showrooms. These carry a few makers and know how each piece is built. Prices are higher, but you can test everything and usually customize size and fabric.
Independent local furniture stores. These are often family-run and tend to be honest about which lines hold up, because they see the returns.
Direct-to-consumer brands with a showroom or a real return policy. These are fine if you can try before you commit. Read the return terms closely, because shipping a sofa back can cost $200 or more.
Big-box and marketplace sellers. These work for side tables, shelves and things that don't take daily weight. I'd be careful buying a main sofa here.
The store matters less than what you check when you get there. In about two minutes you can tell most of what you need to know.
Lift one front corner of the sofa about six inches. If the other front leg rises with it, the frame is stiff. If it stays on the floor, the frame is twisting.
Unzip a seat cushion. You want dense foam wrapped in fiber or down, not a single block of soft foam.
Ask what the frame is made of. Kiln-dried hardwood or steel is a good answer. "Engineered wood" on a sofa frame is a reason to keep looking.
Ask about the warranty on the frame specifically. Good makers cover it for 10 years or more.
A quick example of why this matters: a $900 sofa that sags in four years costs you $225 a year. A $3,000 sofa that lasts fifteen costs $200 a year, and you sat the whole time comfortably.
Start with the piece you use every day, see it in person, and run those four checks before you look at the price tag.