American-Made Quality • Custom Comfort • Honest Everyday Pricing
It’s easy to overlook the little things when you are buying furniture for your first home. Mistakes are made, mostly due to a lack of education surrounding the best way to buy furniture for your home. At Sofas ETC, we take the time to teach our customers about sofas so that they have all the information they need to make an informed purchase. Today we want to share this information with you.
Keep reading to discover the most common mistakes people make when buying a sofa and how you can avoid them.
When our customers come into our store looking for sofas for their living room, they are always drawn toward the largest pieces that we carry since they are designed to be eye-catching works of art. Unfortunately, not every living room can accommodate furniture of this size.
The most common mistake that people make when shopping for a sofa is buying a sofa that is too big or small for their space. This usually happens because you decide not to measure your space before you start shopping, and you fall in love with an item that is disproportionally sized for your room.
How large a sofa looks in store is not a good indication of how large it actually is as showrooms are specially designed to highlight the look of a chair and elevate it so that more people are likely to buy it. So although a sofa might look deceptively small in a showroom, you may not be able to fit it through your doorways when you bring it home. To prevent this, measure your space before you start shopping and browse online by filtering out larger/smaller pieces before you visit any stores in person.
In the digital age, people think that furniture stores are a thing of the past since you can shop for sofas online and make your purchase with a click of a button. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. You need to try out your sofa in person to secure the perfect match.
If you are on the taller side, you need to make sure that the seat of your chosen sofa is deep enough to allow you to sink into it comfortably. If you are short, you should look for a piece with a shallow seat as it will reduce the strain you put on your legs as you try to rise out of it. You can’t check these things if you don’t visit a showroom.
While you are in store, you should test out a sofa the way you would use it at home. Lay down if you like napping on it in the evenings, tuck in your legs if you like to curl up with a good book. Don’t be shy. This is an important decision, and one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not testing your sofa out properly.
We always suggest that you check to make sure that the arms of the sofa sit at the right height. As this is the complaint, we hear most from our customers that have come to our store to replace a year old sofa they bought online.
A common mistake people make when buying a sofa is not choosing a piece that will coordinate with the style of your existing furniture. While a sofa can be a statement piece, it should be able to blend well with the scene you’re creating in a way that you are comfortable with, not just aesthetically but functionally.
The style function of your ideal sofa is determined by its design. A large white statement piece will not work stylistically in an eclectic living space cluttered with children’s toys in the same way that a leather piece will not work well in a large open-plan living room. Your goal should be style cohesion.
Many people don’t put much thought into the fabric of their sofa as they believe that all fabrics are made equally. This is not true. Every type of fabric has its positives and negatives, so be sure to do your research before you make your purchase. If you are stuck between two fabrics, then we suggest that you visit our store. A member of our sales team will be happy to help you decide what type of fabric is right for you to help you avoid a costly mistake.
You should make your choice based on how your new sofa will be used in your space while taking into account where it will be placed in the living room. For example, if you plan to purchase a large sofa for your living room for you and your family to use every evening, then we suggest that you avoid delicate fabrics in lighter colors. Especially if you plan to place this sofa in direct sunlight as the fabric would be destroyed even before you’ve had a chance to really enjoy it.
We suggest that you bring a swatch of the fabrics you are considering home with you to look at. This will allow you to compare the shade to other pieces of furniture in your space, the colors of your walls, and see how the fabric reacts to the light in your home.
The last piece of advice we always give our customers when they ask us how to avoid common mistakes people make when buying a sofa is to always invest in quality sofas for their home. While sticking to a budget is important, if there is one item worth forking out for, it’s the sofa. Buying a quality sofa means you won’t have to replace it in only a couple of years as quality pieces are built to last.
A low-quality sofa will lose its shape quickly (especially in the cushions), sometimes within a matter of months. Even if your cushions look plump after a year, low-quality sofas also have low-quality frames, which are known to break seemingly out of nowhere, leaving you with nowhere to sit and enjoy family time.
Truly, it’s worth investing in a quality piece of furniture where possible.
We hope this guide listing common mistakes you make when buying a sofa helps you choose a sofa for your living room.
If you are interested in purchasing living room furniture in Baltimore & Columbia, visit our furniture store.
Serving the Ellicott City MD, Hunt Valley MD, Owings Mills MD, Clarksville MD, Timonium MD, and surrounding areas.