It is the spot that invites to nestle within its confines, shutting out the maddening crowd. You read here. You scroll through Instagram. You sit here, just thinking, enjoying a cup of coffee or a cold glass of white wine at the end of the busy day. Where is this? Your favourite armchair of course.
Choosing the perfect armchair is a combination of getting the right shape and size of armchair, as well as choosing a style that satisfies your personal choice. Here’s what you need to consider.
Get the right size
There are two ways of looking at this: you may want a bigger/wider/taller armchair to cocoon you in but you don’t want it to look lost or to swamp the space you have available. And so before you order your must-have leather armchair to go with your reclaimed wood coffee table, we need to be practical – and that means getting the tape measure out to decide if your chosen armchair will fit into the space. Don’t forget, you’ll need a small gap around the edge of the armchair so that it looks balanced and part of the room and not something you have shoe-horned in at the last minute.
To match or not to match, that is the question
In the living room, there is a certain stylistic elegance that people enjoy about armchairs matching the sofa. Bringing symmetry and cohesion to the living room, an obvious stylistic link – same shape, fabric, style and colour – between armchairs and the sofa makes sense.
But an armchair that is different in style, texture and colour to the sofa is no bad thing. But you’ll need a connection between your chosen armchair and the sofa. It could be colour, for example, pattern, material or shape. A brown leather armchair, for example, with a similar but not the exact same style as your brown leather sofa will complement it beautifully.
Get style savvy
Adding an armchair to any room will be a stylistic choice – your own personal likes as well as ensuring it picks out the key elements of your chosen interior design style. For example, the industrial style with a hint of 1920s glamour combines the beauty and sartorial elegance of deep shades with sumptuous materials like velvet, and the golden hue of gold or brass metals.
Glamour should never be underdone and so you could introduce an armchair in a different colour and shape into your living room but fuses effortlessly with your sofa because it has all the style elements. A bit like adding jewel-coloured fabric armchairs alongside your fabric, velvet sofa. But in a traditional style, such as the farmhouse or rustic interior design, a wingback armchair wouldn’t be out of place or the leather and fabric armchair combination that is one of our most popular chairs.
Frame it
We talk about framing furniture a lot in our blogs and we do so because it is important. It makes the difference between a collection of items in a room and a room full of style and connections.
Once you have made your choice of armchair, you need to give it supporting players. It could be a rug, for example, acting as a platform for your small armchair and small side table. Or you could use a slim bookcase instead of a side table, with a pretty lamp to illuminate the armchair. Create a relaxing atmosphere with scented candles or a diffuser.
Sit in it
There is no compensation for trying the armchair out for size and comfort. We have many in our studio – why not pop along to try out an armchair or two?