Buying a Sofa

My latest Product Ideabook for Houzz is live.  I realized that in two years, I hadn’t blogged about sofas so thought it was high time.  I tried to include various styles of sofas from retailers and custom shops in the ideabook. You can read it here.

Sofa’s can range in price from $500 at Ikea to over $5000 depending on the style, fabric, size and manufacturer.  I find most clients are comfortable paying somewhere in the middle which should buy you a sofa built to last.

Sofa Buying Tips:

1) Measure your space and do a floor plan (hand drawn with graph paper will do!) so that you can see what size sofa will work best in your space.  (Or hire a designer (pick me!) to do this for  you.)  Sofas come in varying widths and depths.

2) Flip through magazines and blogs to figure out what style you are drawn to and what will work well in your space.

Do you like a skirted sofa or no skirt?

Do you like one seat cushion, two or three?

Do you like a tight back sofa?

or cushion back?

Do you favour a sofa in a vibrant colour or pattern?

Is your sofa for a living room for entertaining or a family room for lounging and napping?

Do you like roll arms or square arms?

(Images 1, 2, 4, 6 – via Pinterest; Images 3, 5, 7, 8 – Lonny)

3) Buy the best quality your budget allows.  A well-made sofa should last at least 10 years.

* Buy North American when you can. 

* Ensure the sofa is constructed with a kiln-dried hardwood frame; the joinery uses wooden dowels, wood corner blocks or metal screws and brackets; the springs are either eight-way hand-tied (thought to be the best) or web and coil; the foam should be high-resiliency foam or my personal preference, soy based foam (a more greener choice.)  If you like a plumper alternative, the foam can be wrapped in down.  Style at Home has some tips here.

Do you love your sofa or has it seen better days?

Please contact me at vanessa(at)vanessafrancis.com if you need help choosing a sofa or if you have any other decorating needs.