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How to Choose the Right Sofa Color for Your Living Room

Because your sofa will be the focal point of your living room, it will define how the space looks and feels. Therefore, choosing the right color scheme, and by extension, upholstery, will contribute to defining the interior design of the space.

Don’t worry! You don’t need to be a professional decorator for this. Anyone can put together a sofa and loveseat living room set with the right tips and an eye for balanced color choices and comfort. 

Home of Cozy is here to help! We’ll give you the tips you need to choose your color palette and make a sofa selection that suits your style preferences and fits well in your home.

Tips for Choosing the Right Sofa Color

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when selecting a sofa for your home. 

  • Note how a sofa fits with your other living room furniture.
  • Don’t follow what’s trendy if it doesn’t make sense with your existing setup.
  • Consider a sleek, monochrome palette.
  • Consider the texture and materials of your sofa as well as your other living room furniture.
  • Get a sofa that’s one to two tones darker than what you envision.
  • When in doubt, stick to neutrals like white, black, brown, and beige.

Take stock of your other furniture and decor

One of the most important things you can do before choosing a color for your new sofa is to take stock of the other home decor occupying your living or family room. Here are a few specifics to note:

  • Do you have a coffee table? What’s the color and material?
  • Do you have throw pillows you’ll want to use? They should fit well with the living room sofa color. 
  • What’s the wall color in the room where the sofa is going?
  • Not the color of any other furniture or ottoman in the room. 

If you can, order color swatches from your furniture retailer and compare them against your paint colors and the other elements in your living spaces. 

Avoid “Trends”

Because of their typically high price, sofas are an investment that you should treasure and aim to keep for at least 7-15 years. That’s why we advise that you avoid trending statement pieces. When the trend fades, you may be stuck with a costly mistake,

While you can homage to certain trends that speak to you, we advise that you focus that energy on smaller pieces (like throw pillows or accent pillows) that won’t be so cost-ineffective to remove later when the trend goes away. 

Design Notes: link internally to the post on how long a sofa should last: https://www.clearscope.io/ftf/reports/d4ecf035e6c47279/optimize 

Monochrome Matching

If you’re not sure what color to go with even after taking stock of your furniture and decor, you can’t go wrong with a monochrome color palette.

Using monochrome matching (i.e. varying shades and tones of the same color) is a great way to make a living room look cohesive and well put together. This will help those living in a small space to make a  small living room seem visually larger than it really is. 

Vivid Contrasts

However, if a monochrome palette seems a bit boring to you, you can go in the other direction with vivid contrasts in a bold color palette. In this way, you can use bright colors like jewel tones to highlight brilliant visual contrasts among objects.

You should note, this will work better in larger spaces where you can play around with the color, light, shape, and proportion more liberally than you could in a smaller living space.

Some common options for those who choose this route might include a yellow sofa, red sofa, teal, or blue sofa.

Consider Texture and Materials

It is key to remember that your fabric upholstery or leather upholstery will play a key role in which way you choose to go with your color palette. For instance, a leather sofa is likely only going to come in neutral colors, whereas a velvet sofa is more likely to come in those vivid jewel tones we discussed in the last section.

Additionally, choosing a natural or synthetic fabric sofa can also come in a variety of color options.

Opt for one to two tones darker than what you envision

Another important consideration is to opt for upholstery color choices that are one to two shades darker than what you’d like. There are two reasons for this. 

First, if your couch is going to be in direct sunlight, the color will fade over time. You can avoid this by choosing a fabric sofa that won’t fade in sunlight, or positioning your couch away from direct sunlight.

Additionally, darker sofas also help to minimize the appearance of stains and/or pet hair. We also have a number of pet-friendly sofas we can recommend.  

Stick to Neutrals

If you have a varied color palette already and aren’t sure what’s going to fit well, we suggest choosing a neutral sofa. You might choose a white sofa or gray sofa, or if dirt and high traffic is an issue, consider a black or brown sofa. Play around with texture, proportion, and silhouette to create a room that’s sleep and well put-together, but still comfortable and practical. 

Finding Your New Sofa

By now you should have a good idea what color sofa you should choose for your living space. When you’re ready to buy, Home of Cozy can help you find the best place to buy a couch. We can also help you narrow down your choices whether you’re looking for a loveseat, a sectional sofa, reclining sofas, or futons.

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