Buying a Sofa
Sofas have tended to fall into two categories, something you slump in, to watch the TV, its shape and colour generally unmemorable or the straight backed, hard seated antique type, elegant to look at but impossible to sit on for longer than about 15 minutes. No piece of furniture has ever been so close an index to lifestyle changes. It has varied in size, shape and sturdiness with the fashion not only of women’s dress-styles but of men’s also. Now it is echoing once more the way we live – our clothes, our entertaining, our artistic expression and our personal demands for comfort and style combined.
The sofa is enjoying a style revival. It is being used increasingly as a focal point in the design of a room. Introducing a sofa, alongside occasional chairs, into a room setting is an excellent way to make a statement and give a lift to the surrounding furnishings, without expending too much effort. A sofa, whether classic or contemporary, can add interest and is an opportunity to experiment with colour and shape.
When choosing a sofa consider the existing style of your room and either blend with it or introduce a contrast. BTCbyDESIGN sells a particularly elegant example, the Moustiers Sofa. This is a modern version of the antique Knole sofa and is proving very popular – please visit, BTCbyDESIGN’s ‘Living Room Furniture’.
There is an enormous variety of styles to choose from - contemporary sofas with corner units, traditional deep seated – whatever the style, the sofa today exudes personality, not forgetting the luxurious and exotic cushions you can spoil your sofa with.
The comfort of a sofa depends on the angles employed in the frame and the type and method of covering. Padding distributes the weight by increasing the area of contact between the sofa and the body. A wood bench feels hard because the contact point between the occupant and the chair is small. The same body weight over a smaller area means greater pressure on that area. Spreading the area reduces the pressure at any given point. In lieu of padding, flexible materials, such as wicker, may be used instead with similar effects of distributing the weight. Since most of the body weight is supported in the back of the seat, padding there should be firmer than the front of the seat which only has the weight of the legs to support. Sofas that have padding that is the same density front and back will feel soft in the back.
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