This study looks at fire growth in a furnished compartment intended to mimic a living room where a couch, either with or without a barrier fabric, served as the primary fuel load. The experiments were designed to quantify the effect of barrier fabrics on the fire hazard (e.g., tenability conditions, heat release rate, time to flashover and smoke generation) of residential upholstered furniture (RUF) ignited by a flaming-ignition source and to validate the failure mechanisms of barrier fabrics previously observed in chair mock-up experiments.Three commercially available couches compliant with California Technical Bulletin TB-117 were procured. The couches were identical except for the type of cover fabric: two couches used a cotton blend cover and one used a thermoplastic polyester cover. One of the two couches with the cotton blend cover fabric was modified by adding a barrier fabric as a liner between the cover fabric and the couch padding material. The barrier contained only intrinsically fire-resistant fibers without additional, chemically active fire retardants. Three fire tests, one per couch type, were conducted. A throw pillow on the arm of the couch, ignited with a propane flame, acted as an ignition source. Measurements included heat release rate, gas species (O2,CO, CO2), video, heat flux and temperature.