The Sofa Project

This is a fantastic service that should be supported to the fullest. Whenever you move somewhere and need to flesh out the place with some additional chairs, cabinets and cupboards, etc, go here before you buy something new from some hideous chain store. You can find some absolute bargains here, and they do a range of household electronic goods, too, from TVs and stereos to washing machines and dryers, all of which have been serviced by their in house engineers to make sure they’re running well before you buy. Very nice.

This community project is a way buy and recycle sofas and other household goods. Proudly proclaiming that they started out as one man with a van, they’re an 8 lorry operation now providing cheap (or just plain affordable for some of us) furniture and saving some landfill space. If you’ve got an old sofa in the Bristol area they’ll come and pick it up for free. As well as furniture they’ve been branching out into electronics and white goods.
Their showroom is unlike any usual furniture shop. Firstly, there’s a distinct lack of annoying sales people trying to con you into thinking that ‘pay nothing until twenty twelve’ makes that four figure price tag totally worth it. Secondly, it’s all sort of stacked up, the only adornments being the price tags. Obviously its a fairly rag tag selection, although everything is clean and they’re picky about health and safety, which is good to know. A visit here may well be fruitless but you might just what you need.

It is true that in 1982 the very successful social enterprise The Sofa Project, was called the ‘Shifting Old Funiture Around’ project. Mmm snappy marketing. Luckily they’ve improved and changed their name.
I am fully supportive of such a charity that provides jobs, training and work experience to the long term unemployed and those with few opportunities.
The project provides an affordable way for individuals and families of lower incomes to deck out their homes with good quality, but very reasonable goods. They sell new, nearly new & second hand furniture and appliances in their shop and deliver to a wide are across Bristol.
Their sofas and all the other bits and bobs are all safety tested, clean and well-​laid out in the huge shop down near Old Market. If you genuinely don’t have a lot to spend, this is the place — you don’t have to go without.