How to Mix and Match Sofas and Chairs
Your living room is the place you go to relax, it’s a place you catch up with friends or watch a film. It’s where you can unwind and put your feet up. And it’s very much a room where the design embodies your lifestyle – from large corner sofas to accommodate social gatherings, to Chesterfield wing back chairs by the fireplace, your choice of furniture represents your style and when you have room to introduce both a sofa and one or two smaller chairs, it’s a great opportunity to have some fun and create an aesthetic which is unique to you. If you’re not sure how to choose styles that will complement each other, here’s our guide on how to mix and match sofas and chairs.
Should Sofas and Chairs Match?
The question of whether you should have matching furniture in your living room is a popular one and interestingly, there is no right answer. If you want to have matching living room furniture there is a wealth of choice out there that will enable you to pick a similar style of sofa and chair in the same fabric. This can be a good option if you have bright or patterned wallpaper and want your furniture to offer a sense of calm in your space.
Alternatively, there are different ways of having matching furniture. For example, you could choose matching styles of sofa and chair but have fabric and leather combinations – perhaps a fabric sofa and a leather armchair.
Or, you could have matching upholstery but choose two very different styles of chair such as a contemporary armchair with a traditional sofa. At Darlings, you can take advantage of our augmented reality feature to help you visualise how your sofas and chairs would look in your space, which will help you work out if the leather and fabric sofa combinations work in reality.
Mismatched Sofas
If you’re happy to try pairing two completely different styles and type of upholstery with your sofa and chairs, there’s a world of opportunity to do so, with incredible results!
The first option to consider is potential leather and fabric sofa combinations. By choosing a timeless leather chair or sofa, you can be bold or playful with your sofa. Hot pink velvet? It works perfectly with a tan leather chair. Boucle loveseat? The ideal partner to a leather sofa.
Alternatively, look at mix and match sofa ideas that take two colours which will complement each other. You can pick out colours that already in exist in your space, perhaps on your rug or some artwork, and choose a sofa colour to match, and then choose an alternative colour and fabric for your other sofa or chair. For example, if you have yellow in a wall painting, you could look at a mustard yellow chair or sofa, and pair it with a neutral grey or a sumptuous navy chair. There are so many different colour combinations that work well together, it’s just a case of choosing one colour that you’d like to feature and then doing some research to work out the best shade to pair it with.
But…you don’t have to find colours that complement each other if you don’t want to! Ultimately, as we mentioned earlier, your living room is a place where you can create an aesthetic that’s entirely about you. So, if you like the idea of a loud wallpaper and two completely mismatched sofas, then that’s the way to go! This is all about personal choice – the benefit of mix and match sofas is that you don’t have to choose between two styles that you really like, you can have both. A traditional leather high back chair can be just as high on your wish list as a contemporary fabric sofa and while they offer two very different aesthetics, they can work wonderfully well together.
Before you make any final decisions, do plenty of research, order some free fabric samples and make the most of our augmented reality to see what works and what doesn’t. If you’d like to see the chairs and sofa in person, head down to one of our stores where one of our team will be more than happy to show you the different options.
