How To Mix And Match Sofas, Chairs & Footstools
Once upon a time, perfectly matched living room furniture sets were all the rage.
Now, mixing and matching textures, colours, shapes, and styles has become the newly fashionable method of decorating a living space!
This is especially apparent in sitting furniture. Sofas and chairs are a great place to exercise this creative design freedom.
Playing with design features in this way is a wonderful method of creating interesting, homely spaces. It can open up a whole new way of crafting interiors, allowing you to customise your space to perfection.
However, the fine line between stylish and discordant can be a hard one to walk. That’s why we’re here!
This article will provide you with tips on how to successfully mix and match sofas, chairs and footstools. We’ll cover:
- Whether you should mix sofas and chairs
- How to successfully combine complementary styles
- How contrasting fabrics can create an interesting look
- How matching patterns with solid colours can elevate a space
- How to use symmetry when designing your living room
- Why you should experiment with different arrangements during your design process
- Why a statement piece could be a great addition to your living room
- How to add some fun with an unexpected pop of colour.
Let’s get started!
Should You Mix Sofas And Chairs?
You’ve probably already guessed the answer to this question: Absolutely!
There’s really nothing wrong with matching furniture sets. It’s an easy way to get a harmonious living space without having to worry about fully custom designs.
If you want something that fits your exact desires and stands out from the crowd, then mixing and matching is a great option.
It opens the door to a whole new range of styles, themes, and feelings that can be evoked by your living space. It also allows you to discover combinations and styles that you may never have considered before!
There are certain things to keep in mind as you choose furniture pieces that will help you to avoid clashing or overcomplicating your space. However, in the end, it’s all up to personal taste.
Ultimately, the person you’re designing for is… well, you! The most important part of designing your home is that you like it.
Mastering The Art Of Mixing And Matching Sofas, Chairs, And Footstools: 10 Top Tips
Combine Styles That Complement Each Other
An easy way to combine non-matching sofas and chairs is by choosing complimentary styles.
Some just won’t work well together! For instance, if your living room is traditional, maximalist, and covered in patterns, an industrial, solid-colour sofa will probably stick out like a sore thumb.
Instead, you may want to select a style that is adjacent to your existing one. By choosing a sofa or chair that matches this way, you’ll find it much easier to create a cohesive final look.
For instance, if your space is modern but not minimalist, you could introduce a traditional-style armchair. This works especially well if you match other aspects of the furniture such as colour or shape so that they blend in ways besides style.
This can work very well for bringing some interest and variance of shape to a room. Some other examples of complementary styles could be:
- Industrial and monochrome modern
- Traditional and contemporary eclectic
- Cottage and rustic traditional.
Use Contrasting Fabrics For An Interesting Look
Evoking contrast through fabrics is a great way to make your space feel more interesting and varied. It works best in traditional, eclectic, or generally playful spaces. Of course, this is a guideline – not a rule!
When you’re designing an interior, don’t think of it as a strict puzzle to be solved with hard rules. Instead, treat it more like a painting.
Add colour, texture, and style like you’re filling in a canvas. Think about what works with one another, how they can elevate other parts of the space, and whether they complement the existing decor. There is no single right answer in design!
A great way to do this is by using contrasting fabrics. This can apply to almost any style and type of fabric, but should usually be limited to fabrics that evoke similar styles and feelings.
For instance, rattan and linen are both homely, rustic, and textured. This means they work great in the same space. This is because they contribute to the same general “feel”, so they harmonise wonderfully.
On the other hand, rich silk and rustic rattan would probably look out of place together.
When you’re playing with texture, you should probably avoid too much variance in shape and style. Generally, you’ll want to pick one or two things to vary in your space, and then unite the pieces with a commonality.
A great way to unite varied fabrics is by adding pillows or throws that match other furniture in the room. For instance, you might have a velvet chair and a linen sofa. You can then pair these items by adding velvet pillows to the sofa!
Some examples of contrasting fabrics that work well together include:
- Coloured velvet and linen
- Corduroy and leather
- Leather and floral accent fabric.
Match Patterns With Solid Colours
It’s very easy to overwhelm a space by including too many patterns layered on top of one another.
Of course, there are always exceptions. In a hyper-maximalist, eclectic space, a mishmash of patterns can work wonderfully.
However, in most spaces, you’ll want to break up the heavy pattern with the occasionally solid colour piece.
In a living room, this would usually be done with a patterned sofa and solid colour chair, or vice versa.
If your space is feeling tired and monochrome, a pop of texture is a great way to counter this! It can really breathe life into an otherwise dull living area.
If you already have a brightly coloured, busy-texture chair, then a simple, solid-colour sofa is a great choice to compliment it. This is best paired with cushions that match the pattern of the chair to unify the space.
When choosing your colour and pattern, it’s good to match the colour to a single aspect of the pattern.
For instance, if you have a black and gold, floral patterned sofa, you could match it with a gold armchair in the same colour. This would really pop and bring some life to the space, without clashing with your existing decor.
Some other examples of pairing patterns with solid colours can include:
- Traditional, pink floral pattern chair paired with a solid, rosy pink sofa
- Green and orange, geometric, modern sofa paired with an emerald green chair
- Turquoise/blue shades, wave-patterned sofa paired with a solid colour, turquoise chair.
Play With Symmetry
When you’re choosing the placement and design of your furniture, a great way of bringing harmony to space is through symmetry.
This is done by matching the fabric, texture, partner, colour, or design of two items on opposite sides of space, mirroring each other. For instance, you might place two matching armchairs on either side of a fireplace.
This will bring a sense of cohesion to the space. It helps make your design feel intentional and will pull the space’s focus together toward a central item – whatever sits at the “mirror line” of your symmetrical layout.
Normally, symmetry means matching all aspects of a furniture piece with another, including style, shape, and colour.
In some cases, you might be able to evoke symmetry by only matching one of these features. This will be less stark in its effect on the space, but will still create similar outcomes in a more diluted form.
Some examples of how you might use symmetry in a living space include:
- Two matching armchairs facing toward a fireplace
- Two parallel sofas facing inward toward one another, framing a large wall art piece
- Two matching floor lamps standing on either side of the main sofa.
Experiment With Different Arrangements
There really is no right or wrong way to put your living room together.
Everyone’s taste is different. What you think is gorgeous could look hideous to another person, so don’t let traditional style rules hold you back too much.
However, it is worth trying things out before you commit to a big furniture purchase when redesigning a room.
A great way to come up with a design you like is through experimentation. This can be done physically or digitally.
If you have some Photoshop know-how, it can be really useful to play with colour, texture, and shape by editing a photo of your space. This can be done fairly easily and has plenty of tutorials online.
You can even Photoshop furniture into a room to get an idea of how it looks.
Even if you don’t have that technical ability, it’s not a problem! You can experiment by moving around your furniture to try out different arrangements.
If you want to experiment with colours, a great way to do this is by getting a blanket in the colour or texture you want to try and then draping it over a piece of furniture in your space.
Additionally, make sure to consider the purpose of your space when designing its layout.
For instance, if you want a quiet place to read, you’ll probably want to place your armchair in a corner or by a window.
On the other hand, if you want to create a conversational sitting space for guests, then you’ll want it perpendicular to your sofa to create an easy social space.
Examples of living room arrangements could include:
- A sofa in the centre, with two armchairs perpendicular on either side to create a conversational sitting area
- A single armchair in a corner, with comfy decorations and plants to create a lovely reading nook
- An L-shaped corner sofa with a diagonal TV stand to create an easy TV-watching area.
Mix And Match Contrasting Styles
Much like mixing directly complementary styles, mixing contrasting styles is another way to make a space feel really interesting if you’re feeling brave!
This has to be done with caution, as it’s very easy to overwhelm the space with this method.
To do this, keep in mind the four main aspects of any piece of furniture: style, shape, colour/pattern, and texture.
When choosing furniture pieces, try to match at least two or even three of these features.
For instance, you might have two chairs in very different styles. To make them still feel cohesive, you could make sure their colour, pattern, and shape match. By only varying a few aspects at a time, you’ll help your room still feel unified.
A few examples of this method could include:
- A traditional armchair matched to a clean, modern space by choosing the same square-edge shapes and monochrome colours as the existing decor.
- A rustic, farmhouse sofa matched a contemporary space by using the pre-existing blue colour scheme and floral patterns.
- A minimalist, modern sofa matched an eclectic, traditional living space by incorporating colourful patterns and interesting shapes in its design.
Add Different Shapes
When aiming to create interesting spaces, it’s important to consider more than just colour and pattern.
You should also think about the different forms in furniture you choose. For instance, a chair might have rounded edges, hard square shapes, or flowing organic forms.
If you want a more dynamic look, it can be a good idea to mix and match shapes.
You’ll want to avoid extremely stark contrast with a single piece of furniture. If your room is filled with dainty, flowing furniture and you add a huge, bulky, square armchair, it will look huge and out of place.
Instead, think about the shapes you’ve already used in the space and play off them. Think of what shapes would complement those already there, or use highly contrasting forms in a deliberate, measured way.
The main thing to keep in mind is scale. You can have an extremely square and an extremely rounded chair next to one another harmoniously – as long as their scale matches.
Choose a consistent scale for your seating when you start designing the room, and then stick to it!
A great way to introduce a greater range of shape language to your living space is with accessories. This includes things like coffee tables, lamps, curtains, and decorations.
When done intentionally and with consideration for scale and overall shape language, this method can create a very appealing effect.
Some of the ways you could introduce some shape variance into your room could include:
- A round rug to balance out square-edged furniture pieces
- A statement piece armchair with flowing shapes to contrast hard, modern sofas
- A square-backed armchair to complement a more traditional, eclectic style with rounded shapes, tied together with more traditional cushions.
Use A Statement Piece
A great way to begin the design process is by identifying a statement piece. This means an item that will stand front and centre in your room (literally or figuratively) and become a design focal point.
Often, this means some kind of outrageous sofa, armchair or coffee table that immediately commands attention when you enter the room. For instance, it might have very striking shapes, patterns, or colours.
Once you have this centrepiece, you can then base the rest of the room around it.
This is a great way to create a cohesive space, since it provides a root for all your future design choices. You can base your colour scheme and fabric choices on this singular piece of furniture.
Some examples of statement furniture pieces could include:
- A brightly patterned, curvy, traditional armchair that has unusual shapes or features
- A solid-colour but very vibrant sofa that defines the main accent colour of the room
- A large, extravagant fireplace at the centre of the room.
Use Pillows And Throws To Tie Pieces Together
Bright and bold furnishings are a great way to spice up an otherwise bland and monochrome space.
However, they can feel a little disconnected from the rest of your decor on their own. Sometimes it can feel like they suddenly appeared in a room that really isn’t meant for them!
To avoid this, you can make use of items like pillows and throws to tie these pieces into the overall decor.
The best way to do this is to incorporate colours, patterns, textures, or shapes from other parts of the room into a furniture item. For example, you could tie a bright blue armchair in with a mostly beige room by adding matching blue pillows to the room.
Pillows are especially wonderful for distributing patterns across a space. This can really elevate an otherwise plain and boring room, especially when matched to a statement-piece furniture item like an armchair.
Some examples of how you could use accessories to tie a room together could include:
- Adding a deep, red armchair to a beige-toned room. Then, placing matching red pillows on the existing sofas
- Adding a turquoise sofa to a monochrome, white and grey space. Then, build on that further by adding turquoise curtains to the same room
- Adding a rose-floral patterned sofa to a mostly solid-colour room. Then, add matching floral throws and pillows to the other furniture pieces.
Add A Touch Of Fun With An Unexpected Colour
Playing with colour is a great way to make your room feel fun and interesting!
It works especially well in eclectic, traditional or contemporary spaces. However, it can also work perfectly in more modern or minimalist spaces if done properly.
The main thing is choosing a single, strong accent colour and sticking to it. You want to avoid completing strong colours that will make you feel overwhelmed as soon as you step into the living room.
This doesn’t mean the rest of your space can’t have any colour, however.
Softer, darker or less saturated colours are fine elsewhere. Just limit your use of ultra-saturated colours.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box here. There are rules to design, but sometimes the weirdest, most out-there idea turns out looking great!
If you want a pink-themed living room, choose a couple of furniture pieces and really go pink! You should avoid oversaturating the entire space in a strong colour, but one or two spots of an unapologetic accent colour will create a great style.
If you want to use more than one main colour, you should learn a bit about complementary colours.
The main thing to remember is that colours work best with the hue at the opposite end of the colour wheel. These are complementary to one another, meaning they will always look good together.
Some examples of accent colour use that could work well include:
- A pop of pink in an otherwise yellow room, maybe with a statement piece armchair
- Orange pillows and throws in a room that’s mostly monochrome blues and purples
- A bright, turquoise rug in a mostly orange and red coloured space, matched with similar pillows on the sofa.
The Bottom Line
Each of these things will help you build an interesting, appealing space using mixed and matched furniture pieces.
It can be a little intimidating to start a design project like this. Largely, this is because there are so many rules and aspects to consider that can be overwhelming!
However, we want to reiterate that the person you’re designing for here is you.
If you love something, do it! Sometimes, rules are made to be broken.
On the other hand, if you’re not sure about something, rules can be a great way to explore different solutions to your design problem. They can help you nail down what style looks best in most cases.
Use our guidelines as a guide, and not as restrictions. They’re here to help, not bind. Happy decorating!
