While hunting for a modern sectional to purchase for our home, we noticed that it was hard to find reviews on West Elm sofas and the ones we did find were a little concerning, so we thought we’d leave a review that may be helpful to you in case you are furniture hunting.
We’ve also gotten LOTS of questions on Instagram about our living room sectional, so we’re detailing all our thoughts in this blog post!
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Here is our review of the West Elm Andes Sectional after using it for almost 2 years.
2023 UPDATE: We included an update to our review at the end of this blog post!
STYLE: modern & minimal
It has a slim and low-back profile, so it doesn’t look bulky at all or take up too much space visually. This kind of style would be great in a small space or apartment since it has an airy and minimal look.
In our home, we have the sectional up against the wall, but it definitely looks amazing from the back too especially because of its low-profile look.
As far as style goes, it was exactly what we were looking for, and still love the look today! We absolutely love its modern and minimal style and were immediately drawn to its unique sleek, black metal legs.
FABRIC & WEAR: GOOD
There are many fabrics to choose from and you’re able to order free fabric swatches from their website. We ended up choosing one of the “quick ship” options in TWILL STONE which is a light gray color.
So far, after almost 2 years of daily use and entertaining guests every week, we’re happy to report that the fabric has worn very well!
As with ANY couch, rotating the cushions regularly helps it to wear evenly and we highly recommend doing this for both the back and bottom cushions. Otherwise, the cushions may start to look a little saggy in areas where you sit the most.
We do have a cat who likes to sometimes use the sofa as a scratching post and amazingly, it has never snagged! We did notice a little bit of pilling on just a few areas, but because the stone twill fabric has a heathered look to it, it’s not noticeable.
The Andes sofa does have removable cushion covers, which came in handy when we needed to wash the cover after our friend’s dog peed on it. After a machine wash on delicate, the material still looked as good as new.
We’ve been very impressed with how the fabric has held up and it really looks great even after how much it’s used every day!
COMFORT: 8 out of 10
At first, we were hesitant about the low back and whether the couch would be comfortable since it looks like it COULD be on the stiffer side. We tried out some sectionals from other stores at higher price points that had the sleek modern look that we wanted but were super stiff and so uncomfortable. This is NOT the case for the Andes!
Even though it’s not down-filled, it’s still comfortable to lounge around in because of how deep it is. The “standard” depth of 40 inches is pretty deep, to begin with, and they do offer an EVEN deeper version (46 inches), but the standard would probably be deep enough for an average-sized person.
We both rank it 8 out of 10 because of the low back, we wouldn’t say it’s the BEST movie night kind of couch or anything, but it is plenty comfortable. We would honestly say that it has the perfect balance between looks and comfort!
When the sectional was first delivered, the cushions were pretty firm but they did soften up pretty quickly after some breaking in.
SEATING: fits 7 people
We wanted to make sure there was plenty of seating for entertaining and love that the Andes L-shaped sectional fits 7 people comfortably! One thing that we really like is that instead of separate bottom cushions, both sides of the couch have one large cushion (no one likes to sit on the crack!)
CONFIGURATION:
There are many configurations to choose from, making the Andes very customizable for your needs!
WHAT WE SELECTED:
- Andes 3-Piece L-Shaped Sectional
- Fabric and Color: Twill, Stone
- Size: 108″ Length, 40″ Standard Depth
- Leg Style: Dark Pewter
- Sectional Depth: Standard (40″)
2023 UPDATE: Note that the available sectional sizes have changed since writing this blog post and the Stone Twill fabric is no longer available as a fabric choice.
COST:
For this configuration, we got it on sale for $2,638 (before tax & shipping). Because the look was exactly what we wanted and due to its ability to seat a lot of guests, we felt it was really worth the cost!
- Discounts & Sales: Look out for the West Elm sales which happen pretty often.
- Shipping: Note that you do have to pay for their white glove delivery where they will unpack, assemble, and remove packaging material for you. This added $249 to our total cost.
We were tempted to spend less for a different sectional to save money, but we’re so glad we ended up allocating more of our living room budget to the couch and saving in other areas of our design.
IN SUMMARY: HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Your sofa is often the largest piece of furniture in the living room and really impacts the feel and look of your home.
If we had to pick our favorite piece of furniture that we’ve purchased for our home, we would choose our sectional! The Andes has the perfect balance between style, function, and comfort. From our experience, the stone twill fabric has been pet-friendly and has worn very well even after daily use and entertaining guests on a weekly basis.
We hope to be able to take our West Elm Andes Sectional to our future house too (we love it that much)!
UPDATE: August 2023
Here is the update to this review with our most recent thoughts after having this sectional for 5 years:
We just moved into our new custom home and brought the Andes sectional with us! We’re still using it as our living room sectional but plan on moving it to Tim’s man cave and picking a different sectional that is even bigger to fit our large living room better.
Our Andes sofa is still in great condition! It’s been about 5 years of using this sectional every day and I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how great it has held up. The cushions are not saggy at all and we actually don’t fluff or rotate the cushions as much as we should just because we’ve been busy and forget to (but that is ideally recommended to do for even wear)!
The only thing I’d probably change is choosing a performance fabric for peace of mind especially now that we have a toddler (we originally chose a ready-to-ship in-stock Twill fabric at the time). The Twill fabric has been fine for us but I know West Elm offers Performance Twill and other Performance fabric options that I wish I considered more at the time of purchasing.
In case of any spills, our new preferred method of cleaning the Andes is with our life-changing Bissel cleaning machine which cleans stains out amazingly! The Bissel cleaner is so handy to have at home for cleaning rugs and other upholstered chairs – it’s just a must-have in general!
Even while I’m browsing other deep sectional sofas for our new living room, I’m still drawn to the sleek modern style of the Andes sofa which elevates the living room instantly!
We are big fans even after all these years and would still highly recommend this sectional!
Follow on IG @vivandtim.home for more modern home inspiration!
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Hello Vic and Tim, thank you for the great review. Do you know by any chance if an extra set of exchangeable covers can be purchased? So happy I read your post. I was always wondering about the Andes. Andrea
Hi Andrea! You’re very welcome, I’m glad you found this helpful! I believe sofa covers can only be purchased from third party companies who make them, since I couldn’t find any sofa covers on West Elm itself.
Hello Viv and Tim,
I am so glad that I found your review. I have this sectional in my cart for a month now and it’s the one I decided on, I wanted to ask how tall are you both and is this sectional comfortable enough to sleep on and would you buy it again?
I’m getting the 90” and the depth is 36” I am 5’10” so I am hoping the low back doesn’t cause a problem.
Hi Donna! I am 5ft and Tim is 5’9″ and it is comfortable to sleep on (that’s where our guests sleep and they all say it’s very comfortable!) It’s more on the medium-firm side so it feels supportive when sleeping on it. We do have the 40″ depth though which makes it feel spacious to sleep on after taking out the back cushions for more space. As for the low back, I think it naturally isn’t as comfortable as a couch that has a higher back but I find a lot of the modern couches have low backs and I personally like that look better! Hope this helps 🙂
I forgot to add that we would buy it again! I love the style so much and it has held up surprisingly well after 4+ years!
You mentioned that it’s best to rotate the cushion so the sofa wears evenly, which I completely agree with. But since you only have two bench seats, how are you able to rotate them. You also mentioned that you could take the covers off to wash, how difficult was it to get, the cushion back into the cover? I need to buy a sofa, and I have been researching for a while to see what the best situation would be for my small living area. And I’m considering this, would love some feedback. Thank you!
Hi Tanya! For the L-shaped sectional the bottom cushions are able to be flipped over and we just swap the two long bottom cushions every so often for even wear. It wasn’t difficult to get the cushion back in after washing. We’ve had the andes for 4+ years now and it’s held up so great!
Thank you for your thoughtful review! Do you still have the Andes? and if so how is it holding up after 4 years?
You’re very welcome! We still have our Andes in our living room and it’s holding up great! I think rotating the cushions does help a lot too. We still love it and will be bringing it to our new house when we move soon 🙂