JOIN USEven if you are not a couch potato, you will spend time on it. Nandita Manwani offers some expert advice on buying that perfect sofa for your home.
Full leather, half leather, fabric, cane, wooden, reclining, sectional, Tuxedo, Chesterfield, Camelback …whoa! The choice is overwhelmingly limitless and often, one is lost deciding which sofa will be ‘right’ for one’s home.
Since buying a sofa is a fair amount of investment and stays with you for almost a lifetime, it’s important to do thorough homework before choosing this companion for your home. So here’s all the things you should consider when selecting the right sofa.
Thematic alignment
You would have noticed how some homes have a nice warm feel to them. Surprisingly, the reason for it is something that you really cannot pinpoint – such homes have what I call a ‘thematic alignment’, that is, each piece of furniture, lighting, colours, textures and the like aligns with the overall theme of the home.
The theme can be anything from Contemporary to Rustic to Victorian: the key is to blend everything within this central thread.
When selecting a sofa set, thematic alignment is, perhaps, the most important factor to keep in mind. The sofa should blend with the overall theme of the house and not clash with it.
For example, a Sectional (L-shaped) sofa may look great in a contemporary-styled home, but will be an eyesore in a traditional themed one. Similarly, Cane or Wood sofas go well with traditional Indian as well as a laidback modern theme, while a Camelback or Chesterfield with a divan will be great in a Victorian or traditional English theme. Thematic alignment just doesn’t end with the design of the sofa, but extends to the choice of fabric and colours as well.
While silken fabrics go well in a traditional theme, you may be better off with cotton in a classic or woody theme and with leather in a modern theme. Similarly, if your living room is in a contemporary western theme with white and light grey walls, you may go with a dark-coloured sofa to add some balance.Size mattersThe most common mistake made while choosing a sofa is selecting a wrong size. This makes the living room look either crammed or empty. As a rule of thumb, the square/ rectangular area where your sofa set is kept should have a minimum of 20 per cent open space. Additionally when going for recliners, do measure the total stretch size to ensure that you have enough space, both in the front and behind the recliner.
If, on the other hand, you have a very large living area, be sure not to overwhelm the space with the main sofa set. A good idea is to use a combination of seats by throwing in some pouffes, a divan, high-back chairs or a couple of low seats, along with the main sofa set.
Traffic and usage
Is the sofa meant to house the teenager who loves to spend reading hours on this couch, or the husband watching television along with his plate of food or just theoccasional guest that drops by? That’s what I mean by traffic and each kind will need a different perch (I missed mentioning the nine-year-old looking for a trampoline).
The traffic will primarily determine the type of fabric that you need on the sofa and trust me, the choice is not easy. While cotton may be the most comfortable, it wrinkles and fades quickly; leather looks great and can withstand a lot of abuse,but is expensive and difficult to repair; artificial leather or vinyl will resist stains and spillage, but starts to peel off in a few years. What you choose will have both, advantages and drawbacks. Cognisance of ‘traffic’ that your sofa needs to host will help you zero in on a fabric which delivers.
Build and durability
Last, but not the least, it’s about the basics. If you visit the local sofa maker and see the wood that’s used, you will have second thoughts on whether your money is well spent. Though it’s next to impossible to make out what has gone into making the sofa once it is finished, there are some basic checks to confirm if all is well inside.
Sofas that use good quality wood should ‘feel’ heavy. So, when you are at the furniture shop, try and lift one up by its corner. If it feels light, then this is not the right one for you.
Also, when you lift the corner by some distance, the adjacent corners should also lift up; if that is not happening, it means that the wooden frame has not been constructed well or with the right kind of wood.
If you are looking at leather sofas, look for the quality of the stitch and any open
knots. In half-leather sofas (leather on top and art leather on the bottom), check the quality of the art leather by looking at the seam where the art leather meets the real leather – the art leather should not be peeling in places around the stitch.
And if you are looking for sofas in fabric, check whether the fabric is thick enough and can be removed for dry cleaning.If you are the lazy recliner type, ensure that you check and recheck that the reclining mechanism works smoothly and effectively.
And just to ensure that you are covered even when you have not checked everything, look for the fine print on the guarantee card. Ideally any defects, if found, should be reparable onsite rather than you having to ship the sofa all the way back to the store.
So the next the time you’re out buying a sofa, don’t forget the essentials amid the fun. Shop well and wise, so you can spend a lifetime of comfort on your new pew.
(The author is designer & founder, The Studio, Bengaluru)