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CHOOSING A NEW SOFA
Eep I am so excited to share this news with you! As I type this post I can hear the siren call of my new sofa calling to me. It’s pretty (so pretty!), comfortable and has made me feel 100 x happier about the overall decor of our living room!
Let me backtrack a minute here. You may remember that in our living room we have two sofas: one is a muted olive colour, which is a beautiful hand-me-down from one of our dear friends. The other sofa (up until this point) has been an L-shaped dark teal number. The sofa we’ve switched out is the teal one, and I can’t wait to share our new one with you soon! Full reveal coming next week.
In the meantime I thought I’d pop together a guide to choosing a new sofa. It’s one of the biggest decisions when you’re piecing together your home, both size-wise and when considering your budget.
HOW I GO ABOUT CHOOSING A NEW SOFA
MEASUREMENTS
There’s no getting around this one – you have to measure up your space before you embark on your sofa-choosing journey. That way you can narrow down your search to sofas which will actually fit in your home.
When I first began perusing dwell sofas online, I knew that I wanted to go for an L-shape again (more on that below). I immediately fell for the Lugano style, and pretty much had it delivered and installed in my mind, before I realised that it was far too large for our space! Fortunately dwell has an experienced customer service team on hand, who were able to help me to navigate my new sofa choice. The dwell team made some alternative suggestions, and I found a style which I absolutely adore. Can you guess which designI went for?! dwell also have a great help and inspiration hub on their site.
Ultimately I was able to opt for a sofa which is marginally larger than my previous one. If you’re unsure of the spacing in your room, you can try marking up where the sofa will go with masking/electrical tape, or using the ‘carboard box method’: flatten a bunch of boxes and cut them into the footprint of the sofa you’re looking at to gauge if the sizing will work.
NB: When I was choosing my sofa, dwell stores were still closed due to COVID, however I have it on good authority that the in-store teams are equally helpful.
CHOOSING A SOFA SHAPE
By this point you already know that I went for another L-shaped sofa! I love having the chaise section to stretchhh out on.
The chaise also helps to divide up our living room, creating a cosy nook for us to watch TV in, enjoy the fire, and entertain friends.
In our current flat the living room is large and so this technique works really well. However even in our old flat, which was much smaller, we had an L-shaped sofa and used it to define an area too. In that instance the L-shape helped to divvy up our open plan living and dining room.
CHOOSING A SOFA COLOUR
This bit was fuuun! OK, it was all fun, but this bit especially so!
The main reason I wanted to update our sofa was the colour. I felt ready for something lighter and brighter to bounce more light off of the back of our living room.
And so I set about choosing a softer-hued sofa. I had my eye on a few neutral colours: creams, earthy tones and a few blushes too. I ordered sample fabric swatches from dwell, and compared them all on arrival. The colour we’ve gone for isn’t the one I thought I’d go for but I’m SO happy with the result!
If you’re on the fence about your sofa colour my advice is to think about your overall colour scheme, both in the room and throughout your home. I aim to create a harmonious flow throughout my home, and so a similar colour palette runs throughout. Think also about the overall style of your decor. Our flat is Georgian and so elegant pieces which reflect that era tend to work well. That’s not to say that a contrast can’t work though! I love juxtaposing eras too. It’s totally about finding your own blend of pieces.
I find Pinterest, decor magazines and the Instagram ‘save’ function so helpful here. The more inspo the better!
FIND A BRAND YOU TRUST
Purchasing a sofa is, for many people, one of the largest furniture investments they’ll make in their home. Hence why it’s important to find a brand you trust.
I’ve ordered from dwell before and found their service and quality to be great. When it came to placing our order for the sofa, again I was impressed with the whole experience. I was kept in the loop as to the sofa’s construction, dispatch and delivery. Then on the delivery day itself, the sofa arrived perfectly on time and was delivered and assembled by two lovely guys, who even took away the packaging! The. Dream.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend dwell. In fact I’m pretty sure I’ve already waxed lyrical to most of my friends and family. As well as encouraging them to come and ogle my new sofa – ha!
MIX OLD AND NEW
My final tip is to think about how your new sofa will fit into your space, and in amongst the things you already own and/or are planning to buy. Your own collection of cushions, throws, side-tables etc can really help to bed your new sofa into a space.
I know that when we first got our new sofa it felt like this amazing shiny new piece, and it was only when I added my own cushions, popped a throw on it and moved my coffee tables around that it really felt ‘bedded in’. When you’re searching for a new sofa it’s helpful to think about what you already own, and how that will fit in with your new addition.
If you don’t already have the perfect cushions, I give you full permission to make updates ????!
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?
Are you searching for a new sofa, or a new big-ticket furniture piece? I hope that this post is helpful if so!
I am so excited to share our new sofa with you next week. Charlotte and I just shot the pics and I did a happy little dance just looking at them!
Love, Monica x
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