Which size sofa (with diagram)

[FurnitureLayoutHelpPlease]

I'm finally getting rid of old furniture and replacing my nearly 24 year old sofas but I'm so blind to how new furniture could look in my house.

My house is quite small and I want to minimise the furniture as I currently have too much, and I also want to brighten up the colours.

My current sofas are leather 2 and 3 seaters, and I'm going for two arm chairs plus either a 2 or 3 seater. The problem is that I can't decide on which sofa and my husband is no help whatsoever (I suspect so that he can take no responsibility if it's too big/small🙄!

The difference in size (28cm) of each sofa isn't that big, but in the showroom it looked quite different. My current larger sofa is between the two sizes but overall is neater looking because of the cushions.

Given the room and sofa sizes attached and the limited furniture I plan on having in it, which would you go for?

The layout isn't fixed, it can be switched around but this was my initial thought. I may get little side tables, or a coffee table but I'd rather wait and see what it looks like before adding anything like that. I would prefer the TV over that side, or even in the corner where the small cabinet might go, the TV isn't massive. If it goes on the wall then I might consider a small wall type cabinet underneath or even a little fireplace.

If you had sofas before, why get a sofa and two chairs now rather than 2 sofas? Just curious. Armchairs can take up more room than you think. You say your house is quite small, what is the actual walking space like between the ends of the sofa & the two armchairs, is it actually going to be quite narrow?

Where are your existing sofas on the plan compared to where you have placed the sofa & 2 chairs?

It depends on how many people need to sit on the sofa. I just measured ours and the 2 seater is 120 cm and it's definitely for 2 people. The bigger sofa you could use for 3 people if needed.

Personally I don't like armchairs as they take up too much room for the number of people they seat but then my DH wants an enormous recliner which we're still in discussion about so I might be biased!

Get the bigger three seater. It will seat more guests and you can lay down on it if not feeding great or want to just spread out

If you can walk around it comfortably, I would get the larger sofa personally.

I would go with the bigger one. With two armchairs it will look more balanced.

I don't know about the sofas but I commend your diagram

😂 thanks @depre I'm over invested!

Why go from two and three seat sofas to one sofa and two armchairs. I find the two sofas very limiting. The smaller one is a squeeze for two, ok for sitting, but not for getting comfy.

Currently the smaller sofa is under the front window and the bigger is opposite going across under the stairs. We used to have a big round dining table in the corner where I'm proposing a new smaller one goes. When we had that o angled the two sofas. It was a faff.

The new layout Ive suggested is to slightly separate off the sitting and dining area and create a small pathway from the kitchen to dining. As you can see, it's all open plan so im wanting to create a tidier and neater layout, hopefully!

Currently we also have lots of other furniture, under the stairs cabinets that have pictures at the top and storge for child toys. The tv wall has a large sideboard and there is a corner cabibet pkus tables. Very overcrowded but it worked with small child/toy storage. Now that's mostly going, we want the living/dining space to ve just that. Seating taking more space than other furniture.

I could lie out on the new small one, my husband couldn't. The new armchairs are fairly neat in size, they are 109cmx94cm.

There are two adults and one preteen. We occasionally have a parent there and any other people are visitors.

Sorry for the typos, I'm now on my phone 🤦‍♀️

I didn't answer about walking space around the new larger sofa.

I've marked out the footprint and it appears to have enough space to walk around to the front door, and space between the sofa and chair to the dining space. But I also know footprint and how it will actually look/feel could be different and that's the visual I'm struggling with!

Go for the larger one. It’s not even a ruler lengths difference.

I would go large sofa. But would probably put the two chairs on same side under winder with small cabinet or side table in between.
That way you have a clear space to walk to the stairs

@Caspianberg

That's initially how I envisaged it, the two chairs at the window with something small table wise in-between but that would still leave me with the issue of a cramped space for getting to the dining table, but it's still another option and I suppose the sofa could be permanently pulled out a little.

I'm rubbish at this kind of thing! Thank you everyone.

Hmm, if the measurements you’ve put on your plan are correct, I think you’ll have to go for the smaller sofa. Your drawn sofa is about the length of the smaller one (half the length of the kitchen) but way too shallow. I think the larger sofa will be overwhelmingly large in your space. Can you try to draw it to scale and see what looks better?

In reality I wonder if both options are not too big? I’ve had to guess at some of the furniture measurements and given you a 90cm sq dining table, not sure how large yours actually is, so you might have a bit more space to play with, and 60cm around the table which is minimum for comfortably having a chair.
With a huge sofa, I think you might struggle to get all the rest of the furniture you want in. I’ve put ( ! )where I think you might really struggle with the space.

Earlier I'd decided the large one, now I think you might be right @Nearamir

I'll need to mark it put again, which is a little difficult with current furniture. I keep thinking, like what was said earlier by a pp, it's only a rulers worth, which doesn't seem much but on a sofa it actually is probably more than I think it is 🤦‍♀️

The width of the sofas isn’t the problem, it’s the depth. I don’t think you have space for a “floating sofa”. I’ll have a think about a better layout and post it.

I hate corner sofas generally but this might be a good solution for you. And/or use accent chairs, which take up less space than arm chairs.

It is tricky. And you’re right, 30cm is not really that much. It’s just, if you’re a bit tight on space, it might help the flow of things. It also depends on how many people there are in your household and how much space on the sofa you like to have…….We have two sofas, one is a two/three seater (180cm) and the other is a massive 260cm with a chaise on one end. In reality, no more than two people ever sit on either of them (unless we have guests) because even though you can fit more, it sort of feels like you’re sitting in a row like chairs in a old people’s home 😂 We like to lounge and put our feet up, which can be done just as easily on the smaller sofa as the bigger one!

How about a corner sofa? With tv on kitchen wall?

Your measurements don't work. The width of the space you have, according to your dimensions, is 2.35m. The sofa (whichever length) is 94cm wide so nearly a metre) and your armchair is apparently almost a metre wide. Thats 2 metres side by side (I know they'd be offset slightly). That means you have about 35cm for all the walking space around them and the TV cabinet.

I can’t work out the measurements either. The width of the room is supposedly 2.35m, the width of the kitchen 1.7m (2.35+1.7=4.05, plus a little for a wall = 4.30), and yet the total width is 5.5m?

Because of the layout nd positioning of radiators and doors, there really is a lot of dead space.

I've delegated measuring for now. A corner sofa is an option, I didn't really consider that as I expected less options and thought they would ultimately be bigger. I'll have a think about that, thanks.

I have a corner sofa - persuaded by DH - and I hate it. It doesn't offer much seating at all, the corner is pretty much unusable unless you lie on it. Get the measurements corrected and people will give suggestions!

After much tooing and frying and measuring we decided to go with the smaller of the two. It's actually not much smaller overall than our current larger one. It just seemed smaller in the showroom compared to the larger one but it'll still look big in our wee house. Thanks for all your input and thoughts, it helped.