Chesterfield Sofa Guide

The sofa has been around for a long time, over two thousand years in fact. Yes that thing you are lounging on now has its ancestry dating back to the ancient Romans and Greeks. Through the years it has gone by many names; the chesterfield, the settee, divan, sofa, and my favorite…. the couch. This piece of furniture is so comfortable that it has even transformed a nation. We are now a nation of couch potatoes. Seeing how we are a nation of couch potatoes how do we decide which of these couches are worthy of our time? Let’s break down the choices.

One of the most important considerations for any couch potato is what type of material do I want to spend my days lounging upon? Leather is beautiful and luxurious and would seem to be an obvious choice, but if you live in a very hot and humid area this might not be extremely comfortable. So what would another high end option be? Microfiber! Yes microfiber is a wonderful invention. It has the look and feel of suede but it is synthetic so it resists moisture and stains. A wonderful choice. The only real drawback here is if you have a fire. The microfiber is going to burn more easily than leather and it gives off a toxic smoke when it does burn. You could also choose to go with any number of cloth fabrics to get just about any texture and color that your heart desires.

Now that we have decided what fabric we want to touch, we should decide how we prefer to lounge. Personally I like to recline with my arms on big fluffy armrests. My leather loveseat reclines to a nearly prone position and has storage under one of the arms for my remotes, a couple of magazines and whatever else I think I need to keep handy. You may prefer to go fully prone lying across the seats with your head resting on an armrest as a pillow and so would require a full sofa rather than a loveseat.

Keeping our lounging preferences in mind then we can examine the available types of sofas. There are quite a few actually. The loveseat is designed to seat two people and modern loveseats often incorporate a center console with storage, much like the seating arrangement in a car. The traditional sofa of course is designed to seat 3 or more in a straight line fashion. A sectional sofa is typically made up of 2 to 5 pieces that attach to each other and usually include having two pieces that join at a ninety degree angle. A chaise lounge is a long couch with only one armrest. The canapé is an ornamental three seater. An ottoman is generally considered a footstool. There is even a style of sofa known as a fainting couch which is distinguished by being backless or at least very low backed. And then of course there are a number of different sofa beds which as we all know are not very comfortable either as a sofa or as a bed.