3 Step-by-Step Tips for Dressing the Sofa
Some of our favourite parts of homelife revolve around the sofa. While the kitchen is the heart of the home, we consider the lounge to be whatever part of the brain is responsible for our sense of inner peace, warmth, cosiness, and simple pleasure. That’s why, for most of us, turning the sofa into a haven – an inviting retreat in the middle of the room, complete with a carefree scattering of pillows and throws artfully strewn over the arms – is high on the list of interior decorating priorities.
But, in reality, it takes a great deal of effort to achieve the chic yet nonchalant, relaxed yet put-together, artistic yet inviting aesthetic that the most welcoming sofas seem to have. It’s not just a case of piling it high with soft furnishings, particularly if you want it to stand as a focal point when not in use.
Here are our three best tips for creating the ultimate plump and inviting sofa.
1. Limit yourself to breathable and allergy-friendly fabrics
The sofa is a versatile creature. It can be furnished with any number of fabrics, from the ultimate textiles of practicality to the most impractical choices imaginable – although, admittedly, we’ve yet to run into a tulle or organza sofa.
Nevertheless, when you’re looking at our entire range of fabrics, your list of options will be a long one – if not a wholly well-advised one. What we mean by this is that, despite the best intentions, some fabrics are far more comfortable than others – not just for sitting on, but for living with.
While cheaper, synthetic fabrics are lacking the breathability of natural fibres like cotton and flax (used to make linen). Breathability is a key feature for comfortable clothing and upholstery since it allows air to pass easily through the fibres and prevent you from feeling overheated.
Besides, natural fibres are far more accommodating to those of us – particularly children – with sensitive skin since they are made with far fewer chemicals and synthetic elements.
Limiting yourself to fabrics like linen and cotton is not the creative curb it may sound like at first. It simply channels your inspiration toward options that will prove the most comfortable (and durable).
2. Introduce a few cushions of contrasting colour
When you choose the fabrics for your soft furnishings, it’s tempting to stick to the safe side of the colour wheel by matching them, as best you can, to the ‘base colour’ of the sofa. It keeps things simple and avoids any potential clashes between your soft furnishings and, say, your walls, carpets, rugs, or other furniture.
But contrasting colours are more than just menaces to a carefully chosen accent colour. By intermingling your matching sofa cushions with some juxtaposing colours and patterns, you’ll create a much greater sense of depth. The volume created by all those cushions huddled together will be a lot plainer to see, and create something guests will want to sink into, rather than perch themselves against.
One handy trick for ensuring that a contrasting fabric doesn’t look too conspicuous or out of place is to find another fabric that echoes one of the colours (or the pattern) in the first. If you can avoid placing them too close together, you’ll be able to establish a nice balance without it feeling too staged.
It can also help to work around one designated statement pattern, which you can read more about here.
3. Take on more than you need
Too many cushions? We’ve never heard of such a thing. While you want to make sure that at least some of the sofa remains visible and ready for you and your guests to actually sit down, the secret to creating a plush, sink-into-it sofa is to keep going until you start to feel like you may be going slightly overboard – then to go a little further than that.
If you end up with too many for one sofa to hold, they can spill over onto your chairs, your window seat, or even a neat little pile on the floor, which someone will inevitably find and make use of for reading, TV-watching, or taking a rest by the fire.
Remember that a plumped-up sofa will bend to accommodate those who sit on it so, what looks like an excess of cushions will, during a night of film-watching and dozing off, actually turn out to be the perfect number. Besides, it never hurts to have a few spares.
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