What sofa you should not buy
An improperly selected sofa can kill all the beauty of the interior, your mood and photos for Instagram. So get ready, reading this article can get a little painful.
A sofa is a very large object and needs to be picked responsibly, as it gets a lot of attention.
You’ve probably noticed interiors where everything seems to be fine, but at the same time, something isn’t right. You should probably blame the sofa.
What parameters the right sofa should NOT have:
1. Strange armrests
If the armrests are catching your eye, then something is wrong with them.
If the armrests have a wooden panel on top, especially if it is on a special mount-stand, I recommend avoiding such sofas. Keep looking. A lot of people are attracted by this detail since you can put a cup of tea there, remote control and much more. But people forget that it is more convenient to use a coffee table for these purposes. Moreover, when you put something on the armrest there is always a risk of pushing it off. It will also no longer be possible to lean on this armrest, and that is supposed to be its purpose in the first place.
By the way, we are not talking about entirely wooden armrests. Those can be used and they look very beautiful.
Overly puffy armrests are also among the odd details you should avoid.
The best solution would be to buy a sofa with laconic armrests that will be easy to use and will not draw in all the attention.
2. Colored decorative inserts
A good sofa is always monochromatic and modest in decoration, it will not be oversaturated with unnecessary details.
If New York, Paris and other tourist attractions are on the pillows, it still won’t give you the feeling of being there.
If monograms, flowers, butterflies, shells and anything else are depicted on the sofa, this will not make your sofa more beautiful either.
Also, if there is more than one color in the decoration of the sofa (decorative pillows do not count), then most likely this is also not the best option.
3. Multifunctionality
If the sofa has shelves, hidden boxes, adjustable headrests and other transformable things, this too is a bad sign.
The sofa is designed for sitting on it (as well as sleeping), not for hiding a treasure there, making a library and arranging decor. Do you feel how the whole picture and the general impression immediately deteriorate? The sofas in the photo below immediately make the room heavier and clutter it.
As for the adjustable headrests, the sofa should be comfortable initially, and not after a lot of manipulations. Moreover, the unevenly positioned headrests look strange and sloppy.
4. Strange legs
Good sofas have clear geometric legs. If you notice that the legs are trying to get out to the front — it’s a bad sign.
But whether the sofa is raised above the floor or not is at your discretion. Just remember that a sofa with high legs makes space lighter and the effect of clutter and stockiness disappears.
5. Toy color
If the color of the sofa can be found in the color palette of Play-Doh, it is better not to get it. Always look for more complex colors, muted, with a touch of grey (such as on the picture below). Such a sofa will look unusual (in the good sense of the word), thoughtful and refined.
If desired, a bright sofa can, of course, be used, but this trick can only be performed by professionals. After all, this is quite difficult, since you need to know how to properly fit such a sofa into the interior.
6. Extra details
Contrast stitching, leather, wood-trimmed inserts, shiny elements (such as using a shiny thread to create a pattern or a satin braid along the contour of the sofa) and other “pretty” details rarely look pretty. Be extremely careful and picky about small details when choosing a sofa.
Conclusion
When choosing a sofa, remember one main idea — it should not be pretentious and flashy. It is always better to give preference to laconic models, they fit better into the interior and look more expensive.
Compare these two sofas. The cost of the one on top is $8130 and it will definitely not decorate the interior, but the cost of the one on the bottom is $470 and look how refined and elegant it looks.
If you want to make an accent with a sofa, then do it with the color and/or fabric as in the photo below, and not with the “interesting” details.
See, all the sofas below and all the good examples throughout the article have a lot in common. All of them are monophonic, without shelves, milled inserts, they have restrained forms and non-pretentious armrests.
Yes, at first in a store, such sofas may seem boring to you, but it will become a wonderful base, an ideal background for decor.
You can decorate it with pillows and a blanket thrown over it. Here you can and should give free rein to imagination and use prints and bright colors. It will look very pretty.
But with an initially “pretentious” sofa with all the disadvantages that were described above, such a thing will not work. If you add pillows to it and put some kind of decor nearby, the interior will already turn out to be overloaded.
Useful note
Remember, the size of the sofa should be proportional to the size of the room. Too large of a sofa in a small room will further reduce it, and too small will “get lost” in a large room.
Author Anna Stupak (Interior designer)
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