where to buy new sofas on what on earth to get?

[lucielooo]

Currently have a cream/brown living room which I loathe and always have done (acquired cream sofas and brown accessories from sister as too skint to buy my own so very grateful at the time but have always hated blandness of it)

I'm also now living in a rented house with light coloured laminate flooring and magnolia walls [huge sigh]

Having always rented I have very limited decorating/interior design skills but I know I hate hate hate curent room.

Anyway DP and I have agreed to replace current sofas and try and make living room look nicer. Any suggestions what to get? DP has a love of 80's style black leather sofas with levers. Not happening. I love colour.

Am also expecting DC1 in April and have 2 teenage step-sons so needs to be suitable for slattern caring for baby and muddy teenager? Preferrably not plastic.

Very grateful for thoughts/suggestions!

We have cord ikea ektorp
very comfy and washable
cheap and cheerful

sorry can't get link to work for some reason

Red corduroy ektorp in ikea

Leather isn't a bad idea with teenagers and small kids, so maybe you could do what DH suggests, since leather sofas are so cheap at the moment, and then jazz it up with brightly coloured cushions and soft throws, coloured lamp shades and curtains or blinds and brightly coloured bunches of flowers or orchids. You'll be gutted if you buy a new soft-covered sofa and the baby chucks up on it straight away, leaving pale stains that you can never quite get rid of. When my kids were small we had loose covers and I washed them nearly every week. Now we have leather and i barely even wipe it down. Much easier.

Thanks ggirl that looks lovely.

Menagerie... leather is definitely the practical choice but and I really can't see myself washing the covers every week.. my does this with hers and they are an absolute pain.

What goes with brown leather sofas (sorry I'm a decorating idiot) I quite like brown leather, but just not that keen on brown/cream/coffee combos's - lovely as they are it's what I've got now and not really my sort of thing? I just can't picture any kind of colour with brown leather and not that keen on black leather (or white)

Realise I am being very fussy/difficult hence my problem!

I think you can do loads of colours with a brown leather sofa as it's fairly neutral in itself. I would go with rich colours, rather than vibrant or pastel. So plum, wine, teal, gold and forest green would all look good (not necessarily all at the same time though).

A good starting point would be to find something that you really like the colours in, perhaps a rug, curtains or a painting. Then accessorise around that theme using coloured cushions and perhaps a snuggle rug or throw on the sofa. You could even pick a season, like autumn, and use those colours.

that's great bran thankyou! I love forest green/teal (not together)

Am off to explore accessories!

Those automn colours are lovely too actually, I'd like an autumny room!

Ikea ektorp sofas are good and reasonably priced and can get them in most combinations and can be updated with some throws or colourful cushions .

I like that autumn palatte too, although I think the Maple Red is probably a bit too purple for the rest of the scheme. From that scheme I would use Chestertown Buff or Saybrook Sage for the walls and get a variety of cushions and a rug that each use at least 3 or 4 of the colours from the palatte.

Kevin McCloud has a couple of books about colour schemes, one is better than the other but I can't remember which is which now.

Brown, teal and duck egg look lovely together, but would be too chilly for a north or east facing room I think.

Well if you go for leather, don't buy the colour leather sofa manufacturers call brown/black as I have discovered to my cost, that once you get it home it's black black :(

we just bought two TETRAD DEGAS GRAND off e bay - totally lush. Leather base with washable cord covers , so all easy to clean. Filled with feather so lush, just sink in at night and can't move cos too comfy.
<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.bedexpert.co.uk/res/user/833.jpg&imgrefurl=www.bedexpert.co.uk/products/details/degas/305/&usg=__VgAAjZ9vfMWwYKoIrU8VvAEwLAU=&h=367&w=600&sz=104&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=T-GJctMHEdMFRM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=214&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtetrad%2Bdegas%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D388%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=349&vpy=134&dur=2469&hovh=175&hovw=287&tx=92&ty=166&ei=5abFTMnIN8r94AbHyOC5Aw&oei=5abFTMnIN8r94AbHyOC5Aw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=4&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

I have anthracite velvet loose covers on my biggest sofa, and they have proved fabulously teenage boy and small girl proof - you can wash and tumble the cushion covers. I highly recommend!

don't buy anything with a 'qualofill' polyester fibre filling - AWFUL sagging which needs 'puffing' (physically beating up) everytime you sit on it!!!