How to choose a sofa

The living room is one of the most important rooms in your home. It’s where you relax, entertain guests and spend time with your family. Central to the room is your sofa – it’s probably the most important piece of furniture in you whole home, and certainly one of the most costly, so you want to be sure you are making a good purchase.

The first point you should think about is the size of your room. Look carefully at the dimensions of the sofa you like (this is where buying online from Danetti comes in handy – all the dimensions are clearly indicated), and measure the space you have. Try to visualise the sofa in the space. Will it bump into other items of furniture, or take up som much floor space that the room will start to look small? If you’re working with a small space, then ot for a sofa that has a small frame – no enormous padded arms.

Once you’ve finally decided that you’ve chosen the right size sofa for the space, there’s one last consideration – your doors. Measure the frames and make sure that the sofa will fit through!

The next consideration is the style of sofa you want. Are you somebody who likes to sink deep into a sofa and fall asleep, or do you prefer designs that offer more support and are a bit more formal? Your decision might be influenced by how you mainly use the living room. If it’s often filled with teenagers watching TV and is where you and your friends like to snuggle in with a glass of wine, then you probably want the sofa to be squishy and relaxed looking. If you like formal entertaining and want the sofa to be a place to sit after dinner, then you will need a firmer style. The ‘rake’ of the seat – that is the angle of the seat in relation to the back. Sofas for lounging in tend to have deep seats an a steep rake, so your body gets pulled into the sofa. Formal sofas will have a shallow rake, so you’ll be kept more upright.

When it comes to construction, good sofas have wooden frames that are glued and screwed together. Seat cushions are normally filled with high density foam or filled with layered fibre to give a softer appearance. Feather and down cushions are another option but should be pocketed to prevent a lumpy appearance. The traditional coil sprung base is popular but can limit the design, so an alternative is to have zigzag horizontal springs stretching across the frame. A high tension webbing criss-crossing a frame like a trampoline can be good for modern shapes.

If you’re planning to invest in a new sofa, Danetti would be happy to advise you further. Just give us a call!

View Danetti’s sofa range.