Choosing couches and layout for family room

11 years ago

After visiting many stores and sitting in tons of couches, we are close to making a decision. The Ekornes Stressless sofas were significantly more comfortable for us than the others we tried but they are expensive. We can afford them, but if we go that route, we really don't want to make a mistake.

I'd like to fit seating for at least 5. Here's the family room layout:

Here's a picture of the TV/Fireplace wall:

The cabinets are natural cherry as are the ones in the kitchen and the kitchen counters and backsplash are in the same stone as the fireplace surround. Between those and the rug, there are already a lot of colors in the room. One thing we need help with is choosing the color for the couches. I don't think we should go too light because that won't have contrast with the natural maple floor and I don't think super dark would be good. But I don't have confidence in my judgement on either. We are leaning toward the Paloma Pearl Grey leather - it's a light slightly bluish grey that picks up the light blues in the rug and works well with the stone.

We like having some clear floor space for the grandkids to play. Can we fit a 3 seat couch and love seat with a couple of ottomans? Or perhaps a 3 seat couch and two of the recliners?

The model we are considering is the Stressless Paradise.

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Comments (7)

mtnrdredux_gw
11 years ago
Everything in your room is a very warm color, grey blue is very cold. So I vote no.

Maybe you can link to your color choices?

Also, try room planner. It's really intuitive to use.

Here is a link that might be useful: free room planner
Cloud Swift
Original Author
11 years ago
mtnreredux, I wish that i could link to the color choices. The only place I can find them on their site is in their Design Online tool and that works on Shockwave which I find kind of a pain.

I've tried using some room planners and pushing paper couch pieces around on a room plan, but I don't have a good feel for whether the layouts will work. I know that we want the main couch to face the TV/fireplace area and be around 3.5 to 4 feet away from the island. The rug is 7' by 9' or we could swap it with a bit smaller one that we have in our bedroom with the same colors but more of the darker blue and less red area.

Perhaps I don't understand the warm and cool color thing. After all, I've seen green referred to as a warm color in a post and I thought green was cool.

Isn't the stone in the room mainly cool with all that blue? There is a lot more of that then shows in the picture because the kitchen counters and backsplash are all in that stone.

Is it wrong to mix warm and cool colors? I often like a warm cool mix. It's hard to find a warm choice that fits. They have browns but something like a chocolate brown feels too dark. A reddish brown (they have something called cherry) seems like it adds too much red with the room already having a lot of cherry cabinets and some red in the rug. We don't like the orangy colors they have. There are light kind of neutral colors like kitt and stone, but then they seem too similar in color to the maple floor or the cream walls.

There is a medium brown that they call khaki (but it doesn't look like what I think khaki is) that might work. Or a dark green called new forest, but I think that's still cool and it feels out of place introducing a new color that doesn't tie in with anything else in the room, and it might be too dark.

The pearl grey isn't too dark or too light and that it ties to the blues in the stone and the rug.

Perhaps

Here is a link that might be useful: Stressless design online
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chispa
11 years ago
Have you actually brought the actual leather colors to your house/room? Ask to borrow a large sofa cushion from the store - you might have to leave a deposit. You might also want to ask for a leather swatch of the current dye lot, specially if the sofa floor models have been in the store for a while.
Cloud Swift
Original Author
11 years ago
They have over 30 colors of leather so the furniture store only has couches in some of them. They don't have them in any of the colors we are considering. They gave me a small swatch and that looks good to me at home.
Olychick
11 years ago
I was looking online at their site and they have corner pieces in your style, so I wondered if you've considered a sectional with one chair? The corner pieces have a wonderful curve that would look beautiful in your room. It might keep it from looking too crowded (or being too crowded) because there would be 4 fewer arms in the room. Maybe wrap it from the right side of the fireplace down to the tv and put the chair at the other end, with space for the kiddies over by the window?

If it's the right shade, think the grey would be lovely with your fireplace and cabinets.
Cloud Swift
Original Author
11 years ago
Olychick, we have been thinking about a sectional using the medium corner piece. Sometimes two grand children want to be right next to me on the couch for a story and the corner seems nice for that.

But I've also got some concerns about it. People often prefer the arm seats and with the corner one has two arm seats instead of 4 with the separate couch and love seat. Also, the separate pieces give a bit more flexibility - sometimes for a party we have pushed the couch against the wall to make the floor space more open and with the sectional that will be hard to do. (But we have the living room and dining room so it isn't like space is cramped overall.)

We stopped by the furniture store and got swatches of all the colors that looked at all like they might work. Here are pictures of them on the wood floor next to the rug. The colors on the swatches seem about right but the rug looks darker than it is.

Here is the 7x9' rug in the room - the colors look darker when you view it from one side than when viewed from the other so it is photographed both ways.:

Here is the 6x8' rug that we could swap from another room:

Both have pretty much the same colors, but the smaller one has more of the darker ones.

We also are trying to decide between a couple of styles of couch:

or
jerseygirl_1
11 years ago
Nice lines to that sofa. If the celera blue is as navy as it looks, I like it the best. I also like the gray pearl and the 1st sofa posted above. If the sofa is expensive, pick a color that won't date itself and you won't tire of.

It's OK to mix warm and cool colors, I do it all the time and my home is very inviting. You just have to pull it togther with the right art and accessories. Since you have patterned rugs, think about using a glass cocktail table.