Buying a sofa online is mostly about not making one of three mistakes: getting the shape wrong for the room, getting the size wrong for the doorway, or getting the fabric wrong for the household. This guide covers all three.
Start with the room, not the sofa
Before you fall in love with a particular shape, measure your living room and walk through the layout in your head. Where does the light come from? Where is the TV? How many people normally sit and watch TV at the same time? A six-seat corner sofa is wasted in a room that hosts two people most evenings.
The single most useful measurement is the longest unbroken wall. If it is under 2.4m, a three-seat sofa will dominate. If it is over 3m, you can think about a corner sofa or a larger two-piece arrangement.
Corner sofas
The most popular shape we sell, and for good reason. A corner sofa uses the geometry of the room to seat five comfortably without taking up two full walls. Most corners come as left-hand or right-hand orientation, named from the perspective of someone standing in front of the sofa looking at it.
Watch the depth. Corner sofas often have a deeper seat than standard sofas because the corner needs to support someone sitting at any angle. That is great for lounging, less great if you sit upright to watch TV. If you prefer to sit upright, look for a corner with a seat depth of 55 to 60cm. For lounging, 65 to 75cm.
Two and three-seat pairs
A two-and-three combination is more flexible than a corner sofa. You can rearrange when you redecorate, you can split them across rooms if you move, and you can mix fabrics (one in plain, one in a textured weave, for example).
The downside is total seat count. A three-seat plus a two-seat gives you five people comfortably, the same as most corners, but takes more floor area in total because each sofa has its own arms and ends.
Sofa beds
Sofa beds make sense if you genuinely use them. If your in-laws stay twice a year, a sofa bed is a luxury you do not need. If you have a guest sleeping in your living room every other weekend, a proper sofa bed earns its keep.
The two mechanisms worth knowing about are click-clack and pull-out. Click-clack is simpler and cheaper but the mattress is the seat cushion, so comfort is mid-range either as a sofa or as a bed. Pull-out has a separate sprung mattress hidden in the frame, which means it works better as a bed but the sofa is bulkier. If the bed is the main use, go pull-out.
Cinema sofas
These are the recliner-style sofas with built-in cup holders and powered footrests. They take more room than they look like in pictures because the rear of the recliner needs clearance to tilt back. Allow 30cm of space behind each recliner seat.
Cinema sofas are not for everyone but they are exactly right for households that watch a lot of films and want comfort without buying a separate armchair.
Fabrics, in plain language
Bouclé. The textured, looped fabric that has been everywhere for three years. Soft to touch, surprisingly hardwearing, comes in dozens of cream and oatmeal tones. The downsides: it shows stains because most of the popular colours are pale, and pets with claws can pull threads loose if they scratch at it.
Velvet. Luxurious and great in dark or jewel tones. Velvet has a pile direction, so it can look two-toned across a single cushion under daylight. That is normal. Velvet does mark with finger pressure, which most people learn to love or learn to ignore.
Leather. Lasts the longest and ages well. The trade-off is upfront cost. Real leather will mark with use but those marks become part of the character. Bonded leather is cheaper, looks similar at first, and tends to crack within five years. We do not sell bonded leather.
Linen and weave blends. The mid-range option. Easier to live with than bouclé, less expensive than leather, and most household stains lift with a damp cloth or a gentle upholstery cleaner.
Measure the doorway before you buy
The single most common reason a sofa goes back to the warehouse is that it does not fit through the door. Measure:
- The narrowest doorway between the front door and the room the sofa is going in (including any internal doors)
- The height of the doorway (people forget this)
- Any tight stairwell turns if the sofa is going upstairs
Most sofas have a packed depth of 90 to 110cm, so they need a doorway taller than that. If you have a tight hallway, look at sofas with detachable arms or modular corners that come in pieces. Half our corner sofas ship in two pieces specifically for this reason.
If you are still not sure
Send us a photo of the room and the rough dimensions. We will tell you which shape will work and which one is going to feel cramped. WhatsApp 0731 040 6150 or hello@aurino.co.uk.
