Buying a new sofa for your flat is a commitment since they aren’t the cheapest pieces of furniture – even if you buy from IKEA. Sofas are central and they are your go-to seating in any room; sometimes they even double as a sleeping area. Since you’ll probably own this sofa for a long time, you want to make sure it is exactly what you want, so research is necessary.

As with any decision, there isn’t an across the board standard for everyone. You’ll have to take into account your personal environment such as room size, colour and who will be sitting on it. If you have kids and pets, you’ll probably want to stay away from leather (or anything nice really). Look at flat weave fabric sofa upholstery such as cotton because it will stand up to the abuse of time and a rowdy family, especially comapared to tweed. Make sure you get a high thread count as well.

Again, if you are buying a sofa that will be taking a lot of abuse, buy a classic (or sometimes called standard) back sofa over a pillow back. Pillow backs have removable cushions and are very comfortable, but they need a lot of attending to and fluffing or they can look very messy. A straight back does away the need for maintenance. If you do decide to go with a pillow back with a hectic family life, invest in some floral throws to ease the look of pillow disarray.

If you do have the leisurely home life to invest in some two-seater small leather sofas, make sure you get corrected grain leather to ease the tedium of cleaning your sofa. Quality matters if you don’t want to buy more than once.

Did you know?

Fainting couches – similar to the chaise longue – were popular in the 19^th centuray because the Victorian corsets restricted blood flow and caused women to faint.

-Jeff H.

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