Design Course Correction – New Sofa for the Living Room

You may have noticed the other new addition to our living room when I shared our new chair.  Yes, we got a new living room sofa!  No, I didn’t get rid of our dusty blue velvet beauty.  I just moved her into another room, my son’s new room…..more on that coming soon.  The truth is I really loved that sofa.  I still do.  And I really wanted to make it work in our living room.  I was, after all, the one who sourced this specific style and look for our space.  Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the right fit for our living room.  I think sometimes in design when you make an error, it’s better to just course correct all together, rather than trying to force something work.  I realize that can be a lot easier said than done sometimes as course correcting might mean having to wait many months, maybe even a whole year, to save up enough money to be able to afford to replace your “mistake”.  😉

Last year I shared a full, honest review of the velvet sofa we bought from World Market;and in that review I mentioned that while she was a definite beauty, she wasn’t the most comfortable.  I considered having new cushions made, but ultimately the main reason why I decided this sofa had to find a new place in our home was because she was just too dark for the space.  Our main living room sofa is a brown distressed leather that my hub and I both really, really love.  She’s comfortable and easy to care for, plus she looks just as great today as she did when we first got her eight years ago.  In my mind, I thought pairing a blue velvet smaller sized sofa with a large, deep distressed brown leather one was a good call.  A daring one, but a good one.  Turns out she looks good on paper, or when I have all the blinds wide open letting as much light in as possible.   But most of the time in real life the brown leather paired with the blue velvet just looked really, really dark.  It made the room feel like a cave, even with the light color on the walls.  And as much as I love a good dark and moody space, our main living space isn’t one that I want that vibe in all the time.  I think in a room with more windows and more light the two dark materials would be absolutely wonderful together, but this room has one wall with windows and really only receives an abundance of light in the late afternoon.

The moral of the story here is that light walls don’t always equal light and bright rooms.  As much as natural lighting plays an effect on paint colors and rugs, furniture should not be overlooked.  In addition, it’s not just about how much light a room receives but also the direction from which the light comes.  Our living room is backlit so the sofa in front of the windows never has light directed at it, but rather light coming from behind it which tends to cast a shadow on the space just in front at the foot of the sofa.  These are all things I should have considered in the first place.  Design lesson learned.  When I was initially sourcing a second sofa for this space I should have really examined the way this room receives light before fixating on having to have blue velvet.  I wish I could say every design call I make is the right one, but that just isn’t the case.  Although I feel like I learn more from my mistakes than my wins.  So at least there’s that right?   😉  My son sure is thrilled about having a “cool sofa” in his room.  😉

And the hubs and I are both pretty please with our new living room sofa!  She’s light colored but textural, and super comfy!

We did lots of furniture store sofa testing and were happy to hit up a few stores we don’t have by us when we were in California this summer.  The sofa that won both our hearts was the Belgian Slope Arm Slipcovered sofa from Restoration Hardware.  This sofa comes in a lot of different options.  We chose the belgian linen in sand.  It’s a nice heavyweight fabric with good texture.  The color is a nice warm neutral, just light enough without being so light that you have to worry all the time.  My kids are older and the dogs aren’t allowed on the furniture, but I still hope the stain resistant upholstery performs well.

As much as I loved the blue velvet, I really love the lighter, brighter look of the sand colored linen paired with the distressed brown leather.  We felt pretty comfortable going with a Restoration sofa since we’ve been so happy with the leather one we bought from them years ago.

I really love both the comfort and the look of one large seat cushion.

It might have taken a year, but it’s nice to have the living room back on track.  And I know the blue velvet sofa is going to be perfect in my son’s new room.