Sofa shopping confusion

After six years of living with a sofa shopping mistake we've decided to look for another living room couch. The big old brown leather one, chosen for our previous house and for its dirt hiding capacity, is still very practical for the dogs. But it's supremely uncomfortable and totally dominates the living room of this house. I've finally admitted that I hate it.

So for the past week we've been visiting furniture showrooms and looking for a replacement. And we've discovered a few things along the way. We started out knowing what we don't want (ugly, uncomfortable) but we didn't really know what we wanted. The comfort part has been a revelation. It turns out that our old sofa was too big for us, and was probably designed for tall Texans rather than people like us on the shorter side of the spectrum. We've come up with a golden ratio of seat height to seat depth that works for us. We're looking for sofas with a seat height under 18" and a depth under 22" and it's amazing how that quickly eliminates about 75% of what's on the floor.

Thankfully, we also like the look of the lower styles. And we've found some that we like. But this is where the confusion sets in. What color? What fabric? What length? Do we want a sofa and a matching love seat or will that look too contrived? What about a sectional? How will it look in our room? Should we get one that goes with our rug or think about getting a different rug? Do we want a contemporary look or a retro look or mid-century modern to go with our 1960 house? I said I didn't want leather again because I found it cold and slippery rather than cozy. But now we've found a lighter colored leather that might work. Or should we go for microfiber which everyone says is supremely practical? Oh the agony of it all!


Anyway, today we're heading out to Langford to look again a couple of sofas we liked and perhaps we'll make a choice. But then again, maybe we'll decide to live with the old one for a while longer--'cuz it's really not all that bad.