At the end of last year we shared our latest home update – our new velvet Chesterfield sofa which was our (rather luxurious) Christmas gift to us!
We’re so in love with it and it already seems to be getting more comfortable from day to day. We deliberated on the choice of this sofa for a long time and wanted to be sure that we got it right. After all, it would be an expensive mistake to make – especially a second time! (We were never really happy with the black leather one we had before).
Choosing a new sofa isn’t easy, so here are our tips for choosing the right sofa.
Top 5 Tips On Choosing The Right Sofa For Your Space
#1 Sit On It!
Our biggest tip would have to be actually sit on it! I know that it sounds silly, but if you’re anything like us you’ll be doing more and more of your shopping online and it’s really tempting to .
We drove 1.5 hours to the nearest showroom (twice!) to sit try out our sofa. Sitting on it, testing how comfortable it is and seeing the quality for ourselves is what actually made us choose this sofa over all others.
Sit on it as you would at home. You really want to get a feel for how it will work for you. If you tend to lie down on your sofa, test that in the showroom, too!
#2 Go For Quality
I know that this is easier said than done. When we bought our black sofa in the living room not long after we moved in we only had a very limited (aka. none) budget to spend on a sofa. We rushed the decision and compromised too much. I wish we’d waited. Our new sofa has a solid beech frame and comes with a 20 year guarantee so we know that years to come we can have it recovered.
Ask a lot questions. What’s important to you will of course vary, but things like ‘What’s the frame made out of?’, ‘What fabric or leather will be best for your home and the way you use the sofa?’ and ‘What kind of warranty does it have?’ are always good to know. Other questions to consider are ‘What are the cushions made out of?’, ‘Can they be removed and washed?’, ‘Could the sofa be recovered in the future?’, ‘Does it need any kind of maintenance?’. The people in the showroom are there to help you and if they can’t answer your questions, maybe it’s not the sofa for you.
For us, there are only two things in your home that it’s really worth investing in. The first one is your mattress (a good night’s sleep is priceless) and the second is your sofa. Just think about how many hours you spend sat on it – it’s really an investment that you want to get right and spending just a bit more on a high quality product can make all the difference.
#3 Choose What You Like
We’re firm believers in choosing what you like for your home. I know that we share ours on the internet and inevitably open ourselves up for scrutiny, but at the end of the day we still always choose what we want. We’re the only ones that have to live with our decisions every day and we’re the only ones that have to like our space. I totally understand that a turquoise velvet sofa isn’t for everyone, but we don’t care and love it!
Don’t choose something because it’s currently “in” or it’s something you feel you should have or because you’ve seen it in an amazing room on Pinterest. Think about what you really like. A radical design choice can be good (like when we painted the dining room a dark blue) but it can be an expensive mistake to make when it comes down to furniture!
Choose what’s right for you, your family and your space. Nothing else matters.
#4 Size Does Matter
A major consideration to take into account is the size of your new sofa (or any other piece of furniture for that matter). There’s no point in buying something that you can’t fit into your room!
Something we like to do when we buy a new piece of furniture, especially if it’s larger than our current item, is tape out the surface area on the floor with some masking tape. If you are still unsure or have something chunky, it’s also worth considering stacking some cardboard boxes to give you an idea of how much space your new item will actually take up.
#5 Ask about delivery
There are huge differences in what delivery includes. We paid for our black sofa to be delivered yet no one seemed to find it important to let us know that the delivery only included it to be plonked out of the van and onto the pavement.
It’s not a heavy sofa, but I obviously couldn’t carry it on my own and the van driver refused to help. Luckily our neighbours were having their house redecorated and the kind guy that was working there gave me a hand to carry it into the house. It’s a miracle that someone was around to help and that it wasn’t raining in Manchester!
That wasn’t a mistake we were going to make again and our new sofa included full delivery right into the living room.
#6 Bonus Tip: Don’t Panic!
When your new sofa does arrive, don’t panic – especially if you’ve chosen something that’s very different to what you used to have.
Any big change takes some getting used to. We knew that our new sofa would be a lot larger and a lot more colourful and we were sure that we’d made the right choice for our space. Having said that, it still was a bit of a shock when it arrived. There was nothing wrong with it and it was exactly what we chose, but it was so very, very different from our old sofa that I admit to having a brief moment of “omg, have we made the right decision!?”. Now that we’ve had it for a couple of weeks and are used to the change I can’t imagine the living room without it.
Do you have any tips for buying a sofa? We’d love to hear them! What was your biggest splurge of the year? Do you have a statement piece of furniture?
Finding good furniture you like can be very difficult. So, I liked your tip about actually sitting on it before you buy it. That way you know it is comfortable. Going to an actual furniture shop to try out the sofa does seem like a good way to know that you will like the sofa.
You definitely made a bold choice in your sofa, but I think it works well. I really like your tip of taping off the area the sofa will take up. I always forget this part of the process and sometimes have to be a little creative in my placement of the couch. Mostly I don’t get to put it where I originally planned. However, I do think the most important thing to do is to make sure you love the couch. When I first got married I got an old ugly couch. However, I almost cried when we finally had to get rid of it. It was so comfortable that I could live with the hideous color, especially since couch covers aren’t too pricey.
Thanks, James. I totally agree with you – loving whatever it is you buy has got to be the most important thing!
Cx
I really like your tip to sit on it! You will never know how comfortable a sofa is just by looking at a picture. My boyfriend and I recently spent over an hour at a furniture store testing out different sofas. It was surprising to see how our opinions changed once we sat down on some of them. If you can’t test it out before hand I would suggest making sure there is a good return policy. Thanks for these great tips!
Thanks, April! It sounds like such an obvious thing, but it’s surprising how many people just order something on the internet without ever bothering about how it actually feels. Surely the main reason you buy a sofa is comfort!
Cx
Hey Christine, great piece of content though. In my opinion choosing a fabric also plays an important role in buy a best quality sofa sets. Microfibers look great and can easily be cleaned. It is not difficult to find today inexpensive sofa sets with the microfiber upholstery.
Thanks for sharing your tip, Nitesh! I totally agree that the choice of fabric is really important. We actually have a sofa that has a microfibre fabric and even after years of use it still looks like new. It was definitely worth the investment.
Cx
I really love what you said about choosing something that you really love, and not just what is currently popular or trending. A good friend of mine recently asked me for advice on choosing furniture. I’ll have to make sure that he chooses a furniture store with a large variety, including both modern and classic designs. Thanks for the great advice.
wow.! Great Post……!
I really like your tip to sit on it! You will never know how comfortable a sofa is just by looking at a picture. My boyfriend and I recently spent over an hour at a furniture store testing out different sofas. It was surprising to see how our opinions changed once we sat down on some of them. If you can’t test it out before hand I would suggest making sure there is a good return policy.
Thanks for these great tips!
I really like your tip about asking for your sofa to be delivered and knowing what that entails. My sister also had an incident where she asked for her couch to be delivered and found it on the pavement when she arrived at home. I will definitely keep these sofa tips in mind for the next time my husband and I are in the market for a new one.
I like your tip to tape out the dimensions of potential new furniture. That way you can imagine the item in your space clearly. I’ll have to try that as I outfit my first apartment.
The best thing before buying the sofa. Essential tips.
Thanks for the tips for choosing a sofa. I have been trying to choose furniture for my living room for a while, but I am having trouble. I like that you mentioned to really consider the size of your sofa and what you will need. I have people over often, so a bigger couch would be better.