A sofa is undoubtedly the centrepiece of pretty much any living room, be it an overtly chintzy number with heavy formal connotations, or a more simple, quietly stylish end-on couch for family film nights. Get this right, and all the best will surely follow. But how to go about it?
A long sofa that fills up an entire living room can prevent access to doors and cupboards, make TV-watching difficult, and create uncomfortable hangout spaces.
Size
Before sourcing your sofas, you must to know the layout of the space – you wouldn’t want a sofa so large it overwhelms the room and makes it feel much smaller than it really is.
An under-scale sofa will quickly seem lost amidst your other furnishings. Using a tape measure, mark the floor where you envisage placing your sofa, then measure up.
You could choose a modular sofa over seats that are straight to give a bit more flexibility in seating: you can always change the modular seating to suit the occasion – that might be more intimate circular arrangements for smaller functions, or more linear arrangements for parties.
Style
In every living-room, the pooling-place for companions or company is undoubtedly the couch: its yielding fabric and generous cushions offer up a welcoming area where all may sit down together, take it easy, and gossip. Their diversity means that, no matter the environment and particularly in the event that the room’s dimensions do not permit the purchase of a singular model, two two-seater models will make for a much better compromise than a single three-seater one.
Measure the spot where the sofa will go before buying: if it’s taking up a prime walkway through the living room, then that will inform your decision. What if you want calm and neutral, or frenzied and high-octane? Your chosen fabric will play a huge part in questions of wear, but also in the overall texture of your fabrics for comfort or style.
Function
Sofa is an important member of living room. It is also the center of place of sitting in living room.Other things with sofa can help us feel safety and comfortable as well as provide a great area of family and friend`s gathering.
To optimise use, make sure that chairs or loveseats are facing off against a sofa to allow for conversations, which ensures an adaptable, fluid space that will more easily accommodate shifting needs.
Look for any protruding focal points within the room’s architecture – such as a hearth, a nook or a fireplace – and arrange sofas so they open towards those features, so the room feels ‘in harmony,’ says Megan Dufresne, principal designer at MC Design in New York. ‘Then you can add the little things such as accent tables and side chairs more easily.’
Sofas could also be used as pictorial anchors in a space and make traffic lines apparent without impeding flow and not be a hindrance. People could then circulate around the furniture without getting in each other’s way and also not get stuck by it.
Comfort
Your furniture has to hang together as a group, and a dissonant sofa can thwart that possibility – a bulky piece may leave no room for a coffee table and an end table to fit comfortably, the configuration of the floorplan may block off doorways or simply make reaching, say, a wall-mounted TV-set difficult to reach.
Third, your sofa must accommodate regular day-to-day living. If possible, put your intended sofa on the floor at home and train dog on it. If she appears calm, and studies indicate that her general demeanour is relaxed, go ahead and adopt her. Your comfort and that of your sofa will be tested soon enough. 3rd, importantly, choose a sofa that will allow for daily living. If possible, put the coffee table on the floor with your dog, and see how she reacts to resting on it; if it seems comfortable to her (and studies show us that can be judged from a dog’s relaxed demeanour) then, by all means, adopt. You’ll find out about your own comfort soon enough.
Heed the ‘liveability factor’: try to go for an upholstery that isn’t fussy to live with – so anything from polyester to cotton. While luxurious-looking velvet and suede are lovely, they can be expensive to keep clean. If possible, select a sofa with a washable fabric or one that attaches a slipcover so that you can either change the look up as needed or ease out those stubborn stains or spots – or cover them up – without having to redo the whole look in an entire new style.
