The best thing you can do for yourself (and your family) is make sure you have a sofa that works for your home. There’s nothing worst than spending your hard earned money on a sofa that’s cute, but uncomfortable, or doesn’t fit the space (or your family). Three things you must consider when choosing a new sofa is function, size, and space requirements. Keep reading to see how to figure it all out.
Function
How will the sofa function in your home?
Will the sofa just be for “show” or will you actually use it? If your sofa is going in a formal living room or another room that isn’t used all the time, then the function of the sofa won’t be the same as a sofa in a room that your family uses all the time. A sofa in a formal room might not get sat on often, so you won’t have to worry about stain-resistant fabrics or ultra plush seats or even extra deep seats, because most likely – the sofa won’t get much traffic.
But, if your sofa is in your family room or den, you need to be more concerned with details like durability of the fabric, the comfortability of both the seat AND back cushions, and you need to know how the frame is built – basically you need a well-made sofa. This can be more expensive than a less durable, less comfortable (but, cute) sofa. The thing I love most about a well made sofa is that they FEEL great and LOOK great, too!
If you have people come over often, you have super hyper fun kids that like to jump all over the furniture, and/or there will be lots of lounging and sleeping on your sofa, durability and comfort is especially important. If a sofa isn’t made well, excessive lounging is one of the reasons you’ll see fabric on a sofa start to droop.
Size
How many people does your sofa need to fit at one time?
If you have a large family, you need to make sure your sofa will accommodate the people that live in your home. You can go with an extra large sofa, two sofas, or large sectional. (If you don’t have enough space to fit a larger sofa(s) or sectional, alternately you can get comfy chairs to help with seating.) Think about whether you expect to host guests often for parties, family gatherings, etc.
If you have a smaller family, and don’t need to accommodate a large group of people, then a standard size sofa would fit your needs well.
Space Requirements
How large is your room and how large (or small) does the sofa need to be?
This is REALLY important. Before you spend your hard earned coins on a sofa, you need to know what size you need. And, in order to really maximize the space, you need to know how much room you have to spare. If you have a really huge room, then you probably won’t have an issue, but if your room is small, you need to make sure you’re getting the right size sofa that’s not too big. Here is where measuring your room and other furniture is extremely important. Check out my measuring post to see how to easily do this. Once you’ve measured your space, you’ll be able to easily see if the sofa you want (that fits your function and size requirements) will fit in the room.
If you need more help choosing the right sofa that perfectly fits your needs, hire me to help or join my 4-week decorating workshop. During the workshop, I’ll show you exactly how to decorate any room in your home, step-by-step.
And, guess what? I’ve created a FREE worksheet that accommodates this post to help you figure out the kind of sofa you need to buy. Download it by clicking the graphic below.
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[right]Download the worksheet here (or by clicking the image) and make sure you tweet me if you find it useful![/right]
I’d love to know if you found this post helpful? Have you given this much thought into purchasing sofas in the past? Leave me a comment below.
Till next time,
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