Changing a sofa is not a choice to be made lightly, whether for its colour, volume, size or quality. Often in the heart of your living room, the place of life par excellence, the place of reception and the place where the family meets.
Thinking and clearly defining
Your expectations become a no-brainer when buying a sofa because the tone and splendour of it will give character to the rest of the room.
More concretely
Your sofa must answer these questions: what is your lifestyle? Do you often receive guests at home? Does your living room have a part-time cinema? If your evenings take place in front of the television, you will have to opt for a wide seat, capable of accommodating you in any position.
In addition
The volume is an essential element of choice. A small sofa in a large volume could do the trick, and your sofa p should be proportional to the room. The idea is to mark the floor with painter’s tape to study the potential insertion or not of the sofa in your living space, to see the circulation in the room and to give you an idea of its size. There are also now virtual reality applications, including from some manufacturers, to allow you to simulate the arrival of a particular model in your living room.
Finally
If you have young children, you must choose an easily washable material and the same for pets. Be careful; the measures are also suitable for bringing your sofa into your home. Sometimes it can’t get through your door, turn down the stairs, or whatever.
A question of style
As we have said, the sofa is one of the central elements of your living room decoration. Its shape must set the tone: minimalist, generous, rounded, etc. It is colour too.
You can match it with the existing one, but the idea is to start from a blank sheet and choose a shade that suits you. If your decoration is “natural”, look for suitable sofa coverings, such as linen or cotton, with pastel shades. These will also go very well with wood, as leather lives with metals. Also, think about the space-saving provided by some sofas that can also be used for storage. Corner sofas can have a chaise longue that turns into a chest to store, for example, plaids, sheets or pillows. Finally, if you don’t have a guest room, consider the convertible sofa, in one way or another, as an extra bed.
It is also an asset for decoration because there are covers of different colours (for example, at Ikéa), allowing you to change colour during the year. Cotton has the advantage of being inexpensive and pleasant to the touch. The other side of the coin is that it stains more quickly, but treatments exist to limit this drawback. Leather treated regularly and with care, is one of the materials that age best and even improves over time, but it is more fragile and expensive and requires attention. Velvet, very trendy for 4 years, soft and colourful, offers a charming, cosy side. Nubuck and suede, very resistant, and a bit less expensive than velvet, are often chosen by vintage enthusiasts.
There remain synthetics
Market leaders in recent years, for their resistance to stains and daily aggressions, the most affordable. But which are effective when they are intersected. For the seats with high resilience, so-called HR foam cushions are the most comfortable, especially if their density is close to 30 kg/m3. But you will find bulltex seats (like the mattresses of the same name), light and solid. Finally, there are down cushions for the cosiest. In any case, choose sofas with the “NF furnishings” standard, guaranteeing quality.
