Living room furniture is possibly the most important room in your home for which you will buy furniture. While the kitchen is often described as the heart of the home, the living room is where you entertain and can enjoy watching a movie or game on television or sit by the fire. You can purchase a couch, loveseats, chairs, recliners, ottomans, tables and bookshelves, plus a wide array of accompaniments for sitting pieces and tables.
So where do you start? Below are a few tips for buying living room furniture.
- Consider the size of your living room. Measuring the space you have to fit in your furniture is a good first step. You’ll want to get the total area first – the length and width of the room – and then allow for walking passage through the furniture so that it flows easily into the next room. You may also want to think about the size of the furniture that needs to get in the front door, up stairs, or through doorways. Convertible couches are typically larger and heavier than traditional types.
- Look at your color. If you have existing carpet, rugs, drapes, or other existing living room furniture in the room, you’ll want to take that into account so that your new living room furniture matches well. Some furniture stores have you order the furniture so that you are able to take a swatch of the fabric with you to see how it looks with your existing color. Of course, you can always paint a room if you’re going for a new look anyway. You can even take photos of what you have now on a digital camera or phone to bring with you when you are buying new living room furniture.
- Modern or traditional? With so many styles of furniture, it can be a challenge to decide what style of furniture to go with. Modern style is usually described as clean lines, with solid colors, glass and metal, traditional can take a wide range from colorful prints and plaids and lots of wood, and country can be leathers and woods with brass accents. That doesn’t mean that modern and traditional don’t feature leather or that country doesn’t have glass, but those are the typical features.
- The number of pieces. When you’re buying living room furniture, you don’t want to overdo it. Start with a couch and possibly a loveseat and a side chair, as well as a living room table and a side table. Your sofa should possibly be the first piece you buy since it is the largest for the room and the other pieces will complement it. You may still have a television, bookshelves and lamps to purchase, and by buying the primary piece first, you can build on that.
- Comfort is important too. Test your chairs and sofa to make sure they are comfortable. Make yourself at home when buying living room furniture.
One last tip is to shop a lot. When buying living room furniture, just make sure to go to several furniture stores to decide. Look at big warehouse stores and smaller boutiques. When you have a better idea of what is available, you can make a much better decision of what is right for your home.