How To Choose The Right Sofa Colour

Choosing the right sofa is a big commitment! They can be expensive and also become the focal point of any living area. So, you want to be sure you’re making the right choice for yourself.

The main concern of any sofa buyer in 2021 is, ‘How do I choose the right sofa colour for my living room?’ Whilst there is no ‘right sofa colour’ overall, there are certain colours that will work better than others depending on your design style, existing furnishings and future redesign plans as well as who exactly will be using the space.

So, in this article, we’ve covered all of those considerations and more to help give you inspiration on how to choose your new sofa.

Choose A Style For The Space With The Right Sofa Colour

If you have a particular style in mind for your living room or sitting space, this is a great place to start! If you can narrow down the look and feel you’re trying to achieve, you’ll be able to do some research and look at some examples to see what sofas other designers have chosen on sites like Pinterest or other interior design blogs.

As an example, you could choose one of the following styles:

Traditional – Rich colours, Burgundy, Gold-lined, Patterned

Traditional and classic furniture is designed to add opulence and a touch of old-world charm to a living room. If you’re looking to achieve this look, your space will have elegant touches such as mirrors, gilded frames, stylish panelling and wooden accents like mahogany furniture. Take this range of beautiful and elegant accent chairs.

When choosing a sofa for a traditional or classic space, you should consider rich, deep colours such as burgundy, orange, green, or even a more neutral colour paired with a coloured pattern. You can also accent your sofa with ornately patterned throw pillows and cushions. These types of sofas tend to be made of velvet or other fabric and can also have elaborate designs on them in yellow or gold.

Farmhouse Or Cottage Style – Neutral Tones, Pastel Pink And Blue

Farmhouse interior design is about blending traditional, rustic touches such as light, exposed wood, ‘shabby-chic’ finishes, clean lines and farmhouse furnishings to create a light, airy and warm atmosphere despite often being fairly neutral in terms of colour.

When thinking about a farmhouse sofa, you should think about warm shades of cream, as this is a common design choice for farmhouse-style rooms. However, a pastel would also not look out of place. A blush pink accent tub seat would suit a cottage-style living space with a warmer colour palette, whereas a pastel blue sofa would suit a more coastal cottage style room which is designed to be cooler, fresh and reminiscent of sea breeze.

Industrial – Brown Leather, Burnt Orange, Olive Green

An industrial style living room is a modern and popular choice for 2021. Industrialism is centred around the look and feels of a factory or industrial space with paired back design, as well as features such as brickwork, wood, exposed metals and copper finishing.

A great sofa colour for an industrial living space that would complement this type of style is brown, especially brown leather, burnt oranges, darker shades and even olive greens. For an industrial finish, you could also choose a sofa with brass or copper feet, wooden bottoms or exposed steel beams.

Minimalism – A White, Black Or Grey Sofa

For a minimalist space, you’ll need to think about using clean lines as well as allowing light to naturally flow throughout the room. Minimalism is all about choosing shades and tones that blend together as a whole to create a bright, airy and uncluttered space. So, choosing a sofa shade such as grey, white or in some cases black would work well with a minimalist interior.

However, some interior designers instead choose a bright sofa colour such as a deep orange or dark blue as a single focal point of an otherwise minimal room. So, this option can also look great, working to create a real feature in the living space as long as the rest of the interior is minimal.

Maximalism – Bright And Bold Colours, Vivid Greens, Pinks And Blues

Recent years have seen an increase in maximalist interior design. Whilst minimalism is all about clutter-free, neutral and functional living space, maximalism is the exact opposite. Therefore, with a maximalist interior, your imagination really is the limit. You can pair multiple colours, textures and patterns in the room décor with different ones for walls, flooring, rugs and of course, your sofa.

A sofa to suit a maximalist room will be bright and colourful. Whether you choose a more vivid shade or a pastel one, any colour is likely to work well. So, you can think about choosing pink, green, blue, yellow, or even a patterned sofa. – Don’t be afraid to think bold when it comes to this type of design style.

Consider The Décor of the Room

Whichever design style you choose, or whether you’re choosing a mix of different inspirations, you’ll also need to think about the other items and décor within the space. Whether you want to match your sofa to the interior design of the living room or stand out with a real statement piece, the first thing to do is take stock of what’s already present.

Wall Colour

If you already have an idea about what colour you’ll be painting your walls, this can be a great place to start when it comes to choosing a sofa colour.

If you’re sticking to a neutral tone such as white or cream, this is a versatile blank canvas that pairs well with almost any colour. If your walls fit this description, it really is your choice as to whether you’d like a neutral sofa to match, or to choose a really bold sofa colour as a statement piece. The sky truly is the limit! You can even match colourful accents within the room to your sofa colour to create a theme.

However, if your walls are wallpapered with a pattern or painted with a specific colour, you’ll need to think more carefully about your colour choice. For patterned walls, find a specific colour within the pattern (perhaps a highlight colour) and match your soft furnishings including your sofa to this colour. This will keep a consistent colour palette and avoid things looking too busy. For a painted wall, you can use a tool such as Coolors to build your own custom colour palette and test colours that work well together.

Flooring

Similarly to wall colour, a cream or neutral carpet is very versatile. It pairs well with the most stylish 3 seater sofa colours if you’re opting for a light, airy room or even a farmhouse or cottage design style.

It’s more unlikely that you’ll be choosing a coloured carpet, (unless you’re opting for maximalism) however you could have wooden or vinyl floors that can range in tone. This can be something that’s hard to get right when choosing a sofa colour, so always make sure to request a material swatch from the seller in order to test your options and see how they work together. Remember, the colour you can see on your computer doesn’t always quite match up with the fabric in person. You can also find the name of the exact colour you’re looking for on the Pantone Colour Chart to make sure what you’ve ordered will fit.

If you have a wood floor, it’s also likely that you’ll have some kind of rug. Similarly to patterned walls, you should match your sofa to one colour within the pattern to keep a consistent colour palette. However, if your rug is white or neutral, you can choose a bolder, statement colour for your sofa.

Décor And Features

In addition, you should think about any other items within the room. Do you have art on your walls such as framed photos, posters, canvasses or any prints? Do you have a lot of gold or brass picture frames, or even flowers and plants?

It can be easy to veer into making your living room look too busy or cluttered if you have too many stand-out pieces. So, if you’ve got quite a lot of different colours within your wall features as well as other pieces within your living room, choosing a grey sofa or a white sofa is guaranteed to blend well.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for more of a stand-out piece that complements rather than blends into your wall colour theme, you could choose some bright colours. For example, if you have a lot of hanging plants, or prints and photographs of plants or nature, a green sofa or even shades of pink or yellow could work well. In addition, if you’ve got a certain colour curtain, it can work well to match this shade with your couch or even the throw pillows on the sofa.

Think About The Occupants Of The Space

When choosing sofa colours, you should also consider the purpose of the space as well as who is going to be using it.

If you have children or pets, you might want to opt for a dark sofa. Naturally, you don’t want to spend a good chunk of money only to end up with a stained fabric that traps odours. For this reason, for those worried about mess and spillages in the home, it might be best to avoid a neutral colour, as well as white, cream and pastels.

It’s also a good idea to take into account the material of the sofa. In this case, choosing a sofa that’s easy to clean such as a leather sofa would likely be a better choice than a velour or velvet sofa, for example.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a sleek, minimalist room with a stark, white sofa that’s ok too – just as long as you don’t have pets that might be lying on the furniture or family members who like to eat their dinner in front of the television.

Choose A Sofa That Will Work Well In The Long Term

Buying a sofa is a big investment – and one that doesn’t always come cheap. When it comes to sofas, you really do get what you pay for. So, if you want something that’s going to stand the test of time, you should expect your budget to reflect this.

So, if you are buying a sofa for the long haul, this means you’ll want it to work well with numerous different colour schemes. It’s likely that you’ll be redecorating your living room or sitting room at least once during the time you live in your home. Therefore, if you’re not sure about your redecorating plans or don’t feel like the most confident designer, choosing versatile colours like grey, beige, cream and other natural tones. These colours tend to work well with any decor.

However, if you’re a seasoned designer or have a real knack when it comes to interior design, you can be bold with your colour choice. Also, don’t forget, you can always update your throw pillows, cushions and other soft furnishings to match a new colour theme if you decide to redecorate.

Conclusion

At this point, you should have a better idea about how to choose a sofa colour for your living area. Just remember to choose a design style in order to look for inspiration, build a colour palette that includes your wall, floor and room items, as well as thinking about how the space will be used and how it might be redecorated in future.

By following all of these steps, you simply can’t go wrong! Now you can start your search for the perfect sofa!