Restoration Hardware Cloud vs. Albany Park Kova: Which cloud couch is worth investing in?

This article is part of our series?Battle of the Brands, in which we compare category-leading products to their counterparts to determine which are actually worth your money.

Investing in a new couch or sectional is no small thing, and as such, there are lots of criteria to consider. From design and size to price and materials, each component is integral to deciding if the sofa is right for your space. None more so, however, than comfort. Because, let’s face it, if the couch ain’t comfy, then no one’s going to sit on it.

Upon launching in 2015, Restoration Hardware’s Cloud collection of modular seating made waves in the furniture industry and beyond?— celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington are devotees — because it combined modern, clean lines with over-the-top comfort, deep seating, lots of customization options and a sky-high price tag. The smallest Cloud sofa (72 inches long), for instance, with the most basic, non-performance fabric rings in at around $6,000. From the get-go, Restoration Hardware dubbed the Cloud “the world’s most comfortable couch,” a catchphrase that quickly caught on. Like all cult-favorite products, Cloud dupes have arisen. Need proof? The #cloudsofa hashtag on Instagram has nearly 6,000 post tags featuring both the real thing and lookalikes.

Among them is Albany Park’s Kova collection. The maker of some of my favorite direct-to-consumer furniture pieces (the couch in a box among them), Albany Park strives to deliver quality furnishings at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. Kova is one of the brand’s three modular furniture styles, and it’s self-described as being — you guessed it! — the world’s most comfortable couch. (This viral TikTok video helped prove that claim.) While its customization options aren’t as vast, the deep seating is there, and its price is a whole lot more palatable. The smallest Kova couch comes in at 84 inches long and is currently on sale for $1,348.

Which one is worth the investment? Let’s put them to the test.

Restoration Hardware Cloud vs. Albany Park Kova at a glance

Touting a cloud-like seating experience, both the Restoration Hardware Cloud and the Albany Park Kova are modular couches made of downy, feather-filled cushions and pillows that are said to be otherworldly in terms of comfort. Priced at opposite ends of the spectrum, the two couches can truly be any size or format thanks to their interchangeable pieces that can be clustered or purchased separately.

It’s important to note that both brands — and the many consumers that adore cloud couches — are up front about the fact that these couches are best suited for lounging, watching movies and informal cozy time. Would you want to have cocktails and conversation with your neighbors on either couch? Not likely. The Kova and the Cloud are both 40+ inches deep and have supple seat and back cushions that definitely give off a more laidback (literally!) vibe.

I tested the Albany Park option in my home’s playroom, putting the Kova Sofa up against my family of six. In addition to visiting the Cloud couch at my local Restoration Hardware retail store, I also chatted with Pretty Proper Quaint influencer Andrea Loredo Bachalis, who purchased several Cloud modular pieces in 2021 and has the couch in her New Jersey home’s family room. (Check out her YouTube reviews of the couch when she first bought it and again two years later.)

Comfort

I’m going to address the elephant in the room first: the claim to be the world’s most comfortable couch. It’s a big assertion to make, and both couches go to great lengths to back that statement. Whereas regular couches typically have taut cushion seats—with the goal of looking like no one has ever sat on them before — both of these couches are doubling down on feathers to mimic the feeling of a pillow. As such, both need constant fluffing and refluffing in order to look tidy.

The Cloud’s seat cushions are more cube-like in appearance, and that’s because they feature a high-resiliency foam core wrapped in a thick layer of feather-and-down wrap. The Kova’s seat cushions, conversely, more closely resemble a pillow and are composed solely of feathers and fibers.

Both couches also feature foam toppers on their kiln-dried solid hardwood frame base and arms. Having personally sat on both, I have to say that the Cloud is more successful here. When sitting on the couch, the base and arms literally feel like downy cushions. Yes, there is a hardwood frame in there somewhere, but no amount of pressing my shins into the base or leaning my forearm into the arm could find it. The Kova has a similar construction, but the foam topper is thinner — if you knock on the base, it sounds like you’re knocking on wood. The back and arms have a thicker layer of foam, but the result is still not as smushy as the Cloud.

All of this leads me to the real test: how the couch feels when sitting on it. I can’t say enough good things about the Kova. The experience is akin to being swallowed by pillows — my sofa also came with two side pillows, so you’re never in contact with the couch’s arms — and literally everyone in my family, including my four kids and my husband, is obsessed with just how cozy it is. While I was concerned about the cushions being limp, saggy and?uncomfortable, that fear was squashed immediately. Instead, all of the cushions and pillows are fluffy but also sort of rigid, since they can stand up on their own. Given the magnitude of the sofa — it’s 10 feet long and 42 inches deep — it can even accommodate all six of us for movie night. My husband literally can’t keep his eyes open when laying on the Kova, he says “it’s too comfortable to not fall asleep.”

According to Bachalis, the Cloud experience is similarly sublime. “It’s super, super comfortable,” she says. “We truly do melt into it. It’s like a bed in our living room and people fall asleep on it all the time. We had our old couch, a West Elm one that was in our NYC apartment, and that couch for us was always the comfiest couch, we loved it so much. And we were like, ‘Is this couch going to be more comfy, is it worth the upgrade?’ We ultimately decided that it was. When you have the Cloud cushions next to the West Elm cushions, these are so much softer, you fall into them more. It’s more mushy and soft and we love it.”

Appearance

While their chief selling points of comfort are identical, the Cloud and Kova’s appearances are not. As I mentioned earlier, the?Cloud’s seat cushions are more cube-like than the Kova’s pillow-looking versions. It’s also of note that the Cloud’s back and side pillows are meant to be leaned against the frame and arms at an angle, whereas Kova’s are propped up vertically.

A big part of the Cloud’s original allure was that the sprawling, cozy couch was most often ordered (and displayed in showrooms) in white in Restoration Hardware’s “Performance Perennials” fabric, which comes in four textures. Sure, the Cloud is also available in a slew of other fabrics like velvet and leather, but the reason the couch shot to fame was because it was as soft and white as a cloud. “I had seen it all over social media, I love the aesthetic of all-white everything, and I’m very much a comfort person — all of that was what led to me to eventually buying our Cloud couch,” says Bachalis, who purchased two corners, two armless and one ottoman in the classic depth. “I got the performance fabric in white, and it’s pretty good actually. I was very nervous about getting a white couch because I have a dog, but I’ve found if there’s a stain, take a wet napkin to it and it comes off immediately. We do a lot of living on this couch, we spend a ton of time on it, and it still looks super white. That said, I’m probably going to get it professionally cleaned soon.”

Because I got my Kova in darker olive green velvet, I’ve found the fabric to pretty much be bulletproof. My kids have likely gotten a few stains on the fabric, but they’re undetectable to the human eye — and I’ve found most spills roll right off.

Something the couches do have in common appearance-wise is that they’re perpetually disheveled. After two years of owning her Cloud, Bachalis says, “This couch can be a bit of a headache — it’s true what they say, it is always looking like a mess, so if that’s not your vibe, this is not the couch for you.” To ward against that, Bachalis finds herself regularly fluffing the sofa. “We just try to change up the cushions, move them to different locations on the couch, turn them upside down, flip them over, etc.”

The Kova is similarly unkempt and as such, I’m thrilled it’s tucked away in my playroom and not front and center in my home. Every time I walk by the playroom, I’ll pop in to flip the pillows or pound out the seat cushions (which, by the way, are not reversible like the Cloud seat cushions). Because I opted for the velvet, which is thicker, I haven’t had any complaints about the fabric wrinkling; the messiness is due the pillows and seat cushions being askew from my family lounging on the couch.

Customization

Restoration Hardware is undeniably a luxury furniture brand and what consumers get with that elevated price tag are options — lots of them. The Cloud collection not only comes in 149 fabrics — 19 are stocked, 130 are custom — but shoppers can also choose between three frame styles that include the most relaxed (and popular) broad-armed cloud option, which has a 24-inch back; the tailored track-arm design, which has a 28-inch back; or the most traditional slope-arm style, which has a 33-inch back. You can also opt for a bench seat or a luxe (44 inches) or classic (40 inches) depth, and an armless chair, a corner chair and an ottoman. The Cloud layout possibilities are literally endless. (Not feeling modularity? The Cloud Sofa comes in four lengths ranging from six to nine feet.)

The Kova rolls with more of a “come as you are” mentality, offering consumers much less customization. In a nutshell, the couch’s only option is colorway/fabric, of which there are seven available — and, it’s worth mentioning, none of those hues are white. Like the Cloud, the Kova has modular pieces like the armless, the corner, and the ottoman that can be purchased separately to create a totally unique layout customized to your space.

Design details

Given that both the Restoration Hardware and Albany Park couches are modular, both also rely on a system of connectors to keep the pieces in place. Having reviewed more than a few modular couches out in my time, I can attest that Albany Park’s Kova connectors were the fastest and easiest I’ve ever experienced — and the couch hasn’t budged in the month since we set it up, despite four children regularly using it as a jungle gym. Unfortunately, Bachalis hasn’t had a good experience with the Cloud’s crocodile-clip connectors. “A big pet peeve about this couch is that the pieces have frequently become unhooked,” she says. “How we’ve solved that is by putting a rug down and sometimes putting a console behind the couch to try to keep it in place.”

A big design selling point for me on both couches is that all of the seat and pillow cushions are removable and machine-washable. However, when I spoke to a salesperson at Restoration Hardware he said that while the covers can be machine-washed, he always recommends dry cleaning to avoid any shrinking issues.

All of the Cloud’s cushions and pillows are reversible — making it ultra-easy to fluff and flip — but Kova’s seat cushions are not. Instead, they have black mesh backing underneath that works as a gripper, keeping the cushions in place. Having sat on both couches, I can say that Kova’s mesh backing is the smarter design, because the Cloud cushions have zero grip and therefore shift during lounge sessions or, for example, when you’re getting up off the couch.

Bottom line

After spending time on both couches and chatting at length with Bachalis, I can say with 100% confidence that the Kova is the way to go if you’re looking to buy a cloud-style couch. Yes, price plays heavily into this — the Albany Park options come in at a fraction of the cost of Restoration Hardware options. If the Cloud were a perfect couch with zero faults, that sky-high price point might be justifiable, but ultimately that’s not the case. “Honestly if I could go back, I’d get one of the dupes,” says Bachalis. “I wanted this couch so badly. But now I just feel like, why spend that much and get one that looks just okay after two years?”

The Kova and Cloud couches are lounging pieces that are going to always look a little messy. Looking past that disheveled vibe, I couldn’t find many faults in the Kova. It’s incredibly cozy, huge in size, easy to put together, easy to clean and totally sturdy and durable.

There’s also the fact that all Albany Park products are shipped to your door for free in two to three weeks, which is incredibly fast for the much-backlogged furniture industry. Comparatively, Restoration Hardware’s “in stock” fabrics can take several months — or longer, according to Bachalis, who ordered an in-stock fabric and still had to wait months for her Cloud pieces to arrive.

Back to price: My 121-inch Kova Sofa I have is currently on sale for $2,039. The 10-foot Cloud (created with one modular armless and two corner chairs) retails for $8,485. Two very similar couches, two very different prices. For me, the decision is crystal clear — the Kova is hands-down a better investment than the Cloud couch, and more importantly, it’s a smokin’ deal considering that you get a phenomenal 10-foot couch for just two grand.