Baker Pasha sofa has the most elegant look, out of them all. Two first ones are a bit bulky to my taste; as for the second Baker, I like Tuxedo shape less(mostly because at some point I will lay down on the sofa, lol, and I find it much cozier with rounded arms)

As for the fabrics-very hard to answer without knowing what look and feel you're going for, and what the other fabrics are(if you already have them)

The Pasha back wouldn't be high enough for me or DH. We're tall and need a taller back and deeper seat to be comfortable. I'm also not a fan of loose cushions for the back. They get sloppy looking over time IMO. Are the H&M Belting sofa's cushions loose? It was my favorite of the four if those are fixed. I do prefer a rolled arm though.

Do you have kids? And if so, what age? That's another consideration for fabric.

I prefer the hancock & moore restoration sofa myself. Its simple but classic. The Baker sofas backs look too low.

If this sofa will be used everyday such as in a family / great room, then I think the fabrics are too light, I would want something you would not need to be super careful to use. Something in the chenille category (of carolina chair) like the ones labeled Seattle that have a little texture to them seem like a better idea if it would get lots of use.

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

In terms of my use case, it's predominantly a place for me to relax (hence the comfort requirement) and to entertain every now and then. It will be in the living/family/great room (the one room) so I'm assuming it'll get a good amount of use. While there's no kids, I am hoping it'll have a decent amount of durability.

I was actually thinking of choosing something that wasn't too high in the back, given the placement in the room as I worry it'll make it look smaller. Realistically it may not be too much of an issue.

As for fabrics, that's a very good point about the lighter colours/material. They sent me some of the Chenille fabrics but I found them a but too rough. My old roommate had a couch from Costco that I think was microfiber, which I'm assuming is the same as microdenier? I loved lying down on that as it was nice and soft.

For colours.. .any other colours you could recommend that aren't so light but still brighten up the room?

Baker Manhattan is my favorite of the ones you selected. It reminds me a bit of this sofa of ours.

As for sitting in a sofa before buying it - Sharon Stone would not buy a sofa from us until we delivered our floor sample to her house, where she kept it overnight. We've not done this for other clients, however. Our truck driver was thrilled to make the delivery, but that was 20+ years ago.

Talk about customer service :)

I like the first H&M best from your list. However, these H&M's are nice as well.

Lena

Thanks for all the feedback so far everybody. This is making is harder and harder (all the good input... so in a good way!)

Right now I'm liking the restoration soda. I'm thinking about how I could add some nailheads to give a bit of character like the manhattan. If I did go with something like that, where/how would you recommend putting the nailheads? Similar pattern to the manhattan?

dojey, I love your choices for the couches. We bought a light colored fabric couch 4 years ago.

Do you have pets?

What I didn't realize when I bought mine is how the tiny hairs from my 2 cats would thread themselves into the fabric of the couch.

Just some fyi to consider when you pick the fabric.

In hindsight, I wish I had gone with either a smoother fabric or leather (they're declawed!)

I might skip the nailheads for character. My older high-endy ottoman that we purchased from a very nice home off of Craigslist has the original nailhead trim, and some have come loose or come off. Scary if little ones are around!

Is it a large room and what is on the floor? Before making a choice, you need to consider both. What other items will you have in the room. Balance and scale are important. I'm leaning towards Restoration as it's so versatile so that it could work with almost any direction you want to go with the room.

My preference out of what you've posted is the H&M Restoration. But it's got both a high seat AND a low back. These 2 features would make it uncomfortable for me.

I'm currently in the market for a couch, and I find low seats are key for me. I'm not very tall, and I've owned couches in the past where my feet would be dangling off the front. Lower allows you to sink down into it, giving a feeling of coziness, IMO.

My husband prefers a taller back, but I'm with you in that a taller sofa looks significantly bigger when it's not up against a wall. So the lower seat gives you the opportunity to have a lower sofa, visually, while having the back proportionally taller to support the shoulders of an above average height person. The couch I've settled on has a 17" seat height, and 35" back height. If the seat were 19", the back would be 2" lower for my husband.

I also like to curl my legs up, so a deeper seat allows me to sit back and have my legs up, crossed. Some people don't like a deep seat, because if you sit on the edge, your back isn't supported. Throw pillows can help that. And who perches on the edge of a relaxing couch?

I like the looks of the sofas justerrilyn has posted, although I can't say if the dimensions are good.

Oooh... more responses.

So a bit more information... I'm just a single guy with no pets or kids, but I do have a roommate. So wear and tear won't be excessive, though depending on how much I like to sofa it may have to deal with permanent imprint marks from me lying on it all the time. I also do host people over occasionally though I wouldn't say all the time.

Here's the layout that I'm planning to make on this thread (and attached the photo). Dimensions aren't exact but I would look at getting the same set for all the sitting pieces on the west (left) side of the photo).

I just got off the phone with Carolinachairs. I told them I liked the restoration sofa and they commented how it's very similar to the Henley they have. Right now she's going to look for some photos about what sort of changes they would look at to have it look more like the restoration sofa:

· round out the top cushions more to make them less angular
· foam core vs foam core + down fill to provide some of the overstuffing look from the restoration sofa

Any other thoughts on things that I should be looking out for?

Some may ask at this point why not buy the restoration since I'm now changing one couch to try to make it look like another. The frank answer is pricing... carolinachairs can do it much cheaper and my hope is with almost the same level of quality (they made at least the checks on kiln-dried hardwood, corner blocks, and 8-way tied springs). Their model is build to order, so a couple of these customizations I'm expecting to be relatively cheap for them to do. And I'll have to double check dimensions to make sure it works well for my space.

I like the Henley way better as is. I almost bought one couch with rounded back cushions, and it was the one thing that actually bugged me about it. It wasn't modern enough for my house.

You may want to look into the 5" cushion as an upgrade to the 4" cushion for carolina chair. I agree the Henley is a classic looking style.

ask them if the foam plus down will be high maintenance. I would not want to be constantly fluffing and rotating.

In addition to checking the dimensions for your space you should look for a sofa with the same dimensions you can try out in the store to make sure they are comfortable for you.

I like the Henley better too. Great suggestions from razamatazzy.

Thanks for the additional input!

@razamatazzy: Thanks for the point of advice. I definitely need to take a look at specific dimensions to see what I like the most. Per the other points, the Henley is actually a 5" cushion as standard (vs their other sofas that use 4"). And the foam plus down will be higher maintenance, probably fluffing and rotating every once in a while but not as bad as their full down that needs it every. single. time (?!?!?!). The pics below is their foam plus down... not sure I actually like it more than standard - may be a bit bulky for my liking.

I did hear back from them and they sent me a couple of photos of rounded cushions. It's not the same sofa that I'd get, but these two represent the type of rounding I'd go for (actually it's not a huge amount). Unfortunately it doesn't look like they can necessarily control the front-to-back rounding.

dojey Did you finally order from Carolinachair? I'm thinking of ordering from them and would like to know if your happy with your purchase. Did they customize it the way you wanted?

I did order from CarolinaChair and have absolutely no reservations about recommending them to others.

Some points that I'd make about this:

· most of my communication was with Cathy, who I found was both knowledgable and super-responsive

· I really do like the couch as it ended up... (I had a minor customization on the height of things as well as the length and both turned out as expected)

· no major concerns about the quality (disclaimer: I'm not super knowledgable on this, only by mostly what I read online)

I did have some concerns which were all addressed both adequately and quickly:

· some of the cushions had what I thought to be a pulled thread... they quickly shipped replacement cushion covers

· two of the feet had small scratches... they quickly shipped replacement feet

I did also ask them to provide a leftover swatch that I can bring with me when I go shopping for other pieces for my house. I'm not sure how they cut cloth but they provided me a generous swatch ^.^

Eugene

(I apologize.. I perpetually have an excuse for not updating my threads till the house is ready enough to take good photos... but in this case I think timing is probably more important than good photos).

Looks very nice. Glad to hear that they provided good service by addressing your concerns. Looks like I'm going to be calling them soon. I'll ask for Cathy too. Thanks for responding so quickly.