Throughout the years of design, our living room has been a vocal point for many families. A great space to bring everyone together from a romantic movie night for 2, to entertaining guests all evening. We all know that a Sofa, Couch, Settee – whatever you may call it, has been one of the essential pieces of furniture to have in your home and is guaranteed to be used daily, by everyone in your home.
Eilersen, Streamline Sofa
Everyone starts off believing that buying a sofa will be the easiest task to do. A lot of the time, people think it’s as easy as walking into a store, sitting in one and saying “Yes, deliver it next week”. What people don’t realize is, there are many factors that need to be considered when making your next purchase for a sofa, especially now with Singapore housing getting smaller and smaller.
Fredericia, Calmo Sofa
As we all know, we don’t buy sofas on a regular basis. We buy on the expectations that our sofa will last forever. So, there are many factors to take into consideration before confirming our purchase.
Eilersen, Playground Sofa
What you’ll learn today is how best to prepare and buy the perfect sofa and I’ve broken it down into 4 easy points to remember. I call it the 4’S of Sofa: Style, Size, Support and Sensibility.
Style
Style of your space and sofa. Firstly, we need to decide on a style of the space. Everyone has different tastes and themes of new designs they’d like to explore. The most common design trends in Singapore have always been Scandinavian design and Modern Luxe. Of course, there are many more to explore.
You then have two ways of creating the perfect living space all with just your sofa, and just by looking at Danish Designs there are plenty of choices of how the sofa can look. Two houses could have the same sofa, but the theme of the space could represent two very different vibes. If we just look at one brand, Eilersen for instance. They have been curating sofas which have all kinds of shapes, heights, and curves. So, there is already plenty of choice to create multiple versions of different styles from just one Scandinavian Design brand. They are one of many who still bring new designs to choose from keeping up with the modern trends.
Bolia, Cosima Sofa
Choosing a style of sofa is something very important to consider. The style of the sofa represents your personality and what you want to show to your guests. The first way to use your sofa is to have it as the main vocal point of the room. It would be the first thing to see when walking into the room, a statement piece then as eyes gaze at the room additional items like your marble coffee table, etc. will pop out. The sofa would have achieved its goal and drawn you into the room. The second way to use your sofa is to blend it into the space. So, upon entrance you’ll see the overall theme of the place and your sofa is a gentle whisper adding to the dimensions of the area.
Size
It’s the most exciting time, renovation your home or get your keys to a new apartment, but the one thing they need to remember is to keep the floorplan. This will be your baby through your shopping and planning experience. From the floorplan or keeping records of your wall measurements will be the main guide to determine your sofa size.
Customers Home, 3D render of Gubi Stay Curved sofa
One rule, which is now widely known as the 2:3 rule. As a rough guideline, all you need to remember is the sofa should be roughly about two thirds of your space. If you are considering add-ons like coffee tables, side tables you can also use the same ruling against the sofa.
Juul, 701 Sofa
From here, you can also play with the size of the sofa. Do you plan to entertain more? You may want to consider having a chaise for the extra seating. Or, if your space is wide enough, change the chaise to another 2-seater sofa to bring the space together for a more intimate meeting place.
Gubi, Modern Line Sofa
Support
All we ever want to do is snuggle up on the sofa and enjoy the comfort of lounging. Firmness, softness, size of armrest all will be considered to give you comfort and support. When trying out new sofas at the showroom, the common habit is to sit upright like on an airplane – don’t do this. Sit just like how you would at home to understand if the sofa gives you all the support in the right places.
Secondly, decide if your sofa is more for entertaining guests or if mainly for a family lifestyle being used daily. If your sofa’s end goal is to entertain mainly guests, you may want to consider a firmer sofa.
Bolia, Noora Sofa
Dimensions of the sofa also play a part in the comfort levels. Everyone is a different shape or build so we will find each sofa performs differently to each other. Do bear this in mind, as the seat depth could not work for both of you if your partner has shorter legs. They could struggle to get on and off. On the other hand, the back height may not be suitable if your partner is too tall. Of course, there are ways around these differences – there are alternative versions of a designer sofa to give tall backs for headrests or additional head roll cushions for support.
Sensibility
Eilersen, Lift Sofa
Saving the best to last, one of the most important decisions is “is this the right sofa for you”. Not only does the sofa need to fix your style and space, but also budget and personal lifestyle.
A couple of end goals need to be met on practicality. Ask yourself these questions, do you have young children or pets is a common one? More commonly everyone has a family cat, and you don’t want to be ill-advised towards a leather finish sofa as accidently their claws may rip the material.
Fredericia, Delphi Sofa
Secondly, do you want to make sure its maintenance is manageable? If you opt for fabric finish always have a spot cleaner on hand for those accidental days you spill wine, and you don’t want to rub vigorously. This is also a good moment to check if the sofa has removable covers or if the fabric is machine washable.
Eilersen, Baseline Sofa
These quick questions are the most common questions we get. And there is the right sofa to answer these. Out of the brands we carry, we can confidently say just within our Eilersen and Juul range they all come with removable covers, and even go the extra step to include a calico cover so your sofa is still usable. Eilersen and Juul among other brands also created “Family Friendly” Fabrics which have different textures and fall under different price groups to allow them to be accessible for anyone’s budget.
House of Finn Juhl, Poet Sofa
Hopefully this article has provided the main groundwork for your sofa shopping. Whilst it would be perfect to find a sofa to tick all your criteria, the reality is more than likely most of them wont. So, ask yourself which of these factors are priority for you and your home.
My name is Connie, I am an Interior Designer Consultant living in Singapore. I’ve created these blogs to help share my experience in Singapore Design with you and provide some valuable tips, ideas and information that will hopefully guide you in your search for the right furniture for your new Singaporean home.
Need inspiration for interior styles or home styling? Danish Design Co is the perfect place to start shopping for furniture.
