Colourful Sofa Buying Guide

While a seemingly straightforward task, choosing the sofa that is right for you and your home requires a lot of careful consideration. First up is sofa styles – are you looking for a traditional sofa or something contemporary? The material is also key – are you interested in leather, fabric or velvet? And as they say, size also matters – a sofa can look too imposing or get lost in a room if not chosen carefully.

On top of all that, is sofa colours. Your choice of colour will have a big impact on your room. So, this particular decision, while a fun one to make, needs a lot of careful thought.

To help navigate the colour palette with ease, we’ve put together this colourful sofa buying guide to help you work out which colour couch is right for you and your home.

Why Choose a Colourful Sofa

When walking into a room, a bright coloured sofa immediately draws the eye. It’s the focal point of your room, it’s a statement, with the rest of your furniture and décor either acting as a deliberate contrast to it or serving to complement it. And there are a plethora of colours out there to factor into your decision making, from a red sofa to bright blue sofa and multi-coloured sofa – if you can think of a colour and shade, there will be a sofa to match it.

While bright colours tend to create a much bolder design statement, they are as equally versatile as the more neutral shades. Take pink for example. A pink sofa can completely change the look and feel of your room. When surrounded by warm, neutral colours, a pink sofa can look fresh, but it can also work comfortably in a colourful room, alongside splashes of colour, perhaps in your rug, lampshades or the pictures on your wall. Pink also sits unexpectedly well in an industrial-style room, working beautifully against dark wood, metals and exposed bricks.

With its many shades, a blue sofa can make a real impact in your living room. Depending on its shade, blue can do many things – it can make a room feel cool and breezy or it can make it feel warm and cosy. It also goes with a whole host of other bright colours, with orange being its chromatic opposite, whereas hot pink and sunny yellow work brilliantly with aqua blue.

If you want your living room to be a place of calmness and serenity, a purple sofa could be the answer. From a deep rich royal plum to a subtle silvery lavender, purple works best with neutral palettes and sits beautifully alongside natural wood – so it would be an ideal choice if you have wooden floors.  

While a few years ago it was generally overlooked, green is very much in vogue at the moment. Whether it’s the jewel-toned Emerald green sofa you’re interested in, a more laid-back relaxing olive or perhaps a vibrant lime green sofa, which packs a punch, there’s no denying that a green sofa is here to stay and worth giving some serious thought to.

Whilst it’s not necessarily a brightly-coloured sofa, grey is very much the coleur-du-jour and well worth adding to your Pinterest board. There are a whole host of bright colours that go with a grey sofa, including yellows, greens, oranges and pinks – all of which can be utilised in your cushion colour to ensure you still draw the eye.

How To Choose a Colourful Sofa

Once you’ve decided a colourful sofa is for you, the next task is how to go about choosing one. First, you need to consider the room it’s going into and what sort of impact you want it to make. Do you want a statement sofa that stands out from the crowd? If so, the choices are endless but it’s worth looking at what it will sit alongside.

Standing out is one thing but clashing is another! While clashing colours can give a room real vibrancy when you stick to colours equal in tonal strength when done wrong they can make a room feel unsettling and uncomfortable.

If you’d rather the sofa worked with the decor in your room, look for colours that complement your existing theme. For example, if you have neutral colours such as grey, cream and beige, a blue sofa would sit seamlessly alongside them.

Alternatively, if the colour of your room is very simple and muted and you want to brighten it up, why not look at a multi-coloured patchwork sofa to give your living room that extra edge? Colour pops also work incredibly well here – with bold colours like red, orange or pink really bringing a room to life.

Make sure to also factor your floor colour into your decision making. If you go for a dark sofa and have a dark floor, it could disappear into the room somewhat – light coloured or metallic legs would help to create definition or you could use a rug to put some space between the sofa and the floor.

It’s also worth considering the sofa’s usage and from a longevity point of view, its maintenance. Is this sofa going in the family room, to be used by children, visitors and maybe the family pet, with potential for stains and dirt finding their way on to the sofa cushions? Or will it sit in a more refined space, such as a study? If this sofa will be used and much loved by a whole host of personalities, from little to large and two-legged to four-legged, a light colour may not be the right choice, whereas a darker colour can hide a multitude of sins!

The location of your sofa within your space may also play a part in your decision making. A dark sofa will start to fade over time if it is exposed to too much natural light, so if you’re planning on putting your sofa next to a window, if you invest in a dark sofa, factor in that you may need to draw the curtains/close the blinds so that it isn’t directly in the sunlight during the day.

If you’re interested in a corner sofa, the colour once again plays an important role in your decision making. An ideal choice to really maximise the functionality of your living space, it will inevitably become the main focus of your room, so a really bold or bright colour might be a little overwhelming, while a neutral colour with some bold accessories will still make a strong impact.

Upholstery Sofa

It’s not just the colour of your sofa that can influence the design and style of your room – the material you choose also has a big part to play. With a whole plethora of styles and colours to choose from, you then need to think velvet, leather or fabric and consider the various pros of each one (and the occasional con!).

Leather Sofa

While it doesn’t offer quite the colour palette that fabric and velvet do, a leather sofa is an extremely popular choice and it’s easy to see why. Durable, hypo-allergenic and easy to clean, a good quality leather sofa will add a touch of elegance and class to any room. Offering a timeless aesthetic, it can sit comfortably in a modern or traditional room and will complement both a neutral and a brightly coloured wall, giving you real flexibility.

The only real con to a leather sofa is the feel of it. In the winter, it can feel cold when you first sit on it, and if we’re lucky enough to have a warm summer, leather can feel like it’s sticking to your skin – all of which can be solved with the appropriate heating/cooling of the room.

Fabric Sofa

Offering an almost unlimited range of colours and patterns, a fabric sofa is ideal for those looking for a brightly-coloured couch. Softer to sit on that its leather counterpart, fabric sofas are available in all types of sizes and styles, offering you the opportunity to create a contemporary or traditional look. A fabric sofa is also less likely to scratch, so will be able to handle pets’ claws, keys and any other sharp objects!

When purchasing a fabric sofa, it is worth bearing in mind its potential to stain – and that you may need to have it cleaned every few years, giving yourself peace of mind and your sofa additional durability.

Velvet Sofa

For pure luxury in terms of feel and a real wow factor when it comes to style, a velvet sofa wins hands down. Adding a real sense of depth to any shade, sumptuous velvet evokes a real sense of warmth and comfort, oozing richness in colour from every angle, providing you with a real statement piece of furniture that will stand the test of time.

From a maintenance perspective, if well looked after, a premium quality velvet sofa can last for years and is less likely to snag. It can, however, fade over time, so needs to be kept away from the window where possible. It will also attract pet hair and dust so will require a more regular clean than a fabric or leather sofa.

Whatever colour and material you decide to go for, a bright coloured sofa will undoubtedly transform your living space. Ultimately, your decision will come down to personal choice, style and the space you have to work with. If you’re not 100% sure a particular colour/material will work, take a swatch home with you and see how it looks against your walls, furniture and in both natural and artificial light. Your sofa is a large investment and will be a feature in your home for years to come. Try not to rush your decision or get too overwhelmed by choice. Take some time to do some research in advance, gather inspiration and ideas from Pinterest and other design sites and enjoy the process!