SHOPPING FOR SECTIONALS

We've been trying to chose a couch for our living room since we moved into our new house. Because our living/dining room is the only living space in the house we knew the new sofa would have to work hard for us and we didn't want to make the wrong choice. We spent more than a seemly amount of our spare time sitting, laying and eyeballing display sofas trying to find an elusive combination of comfiness, good looks and durability. The ratio of time spent sofa shopping to time spent doing anything else was kind of ridic but we finally found one and I'm super nervous-excited!

Our old sofa is the now discontinued Ekiskog from Ikea. We bought it just after we were married in blekinge white and it has treated us really well. The white covers were great as long as we washed them regularly, it was really comfy and deep enough for movie night spooning or to double as a single guest bed. We considered getting a new cover from Bemz or Comfort Works but when we brought it over to the house it looked a bit lost and out of proportion in our long skinny living room.

(we had already removed the covers so it looks a bit sad and beat up in this photo)

We fell in love with the idea of a big sectional that incorporated a chaise and would span from the door to the window. We wanted it to be low maintenance (we loved the look of the white covers of the old sofa but we wanted something that would look cleaner for longer and wouldn't need washing as often), crazy comfy and flexible - something that we could move around the room if we ever decided to switch up the furniture arrangement or change the layout one day - and it had to be around our budget of £1000.

Our first stop was Ikea - Kindface really liked the Kivik but I wasn't sold. We looked at some made to order websites but we were too scared to buy anything we hadn't seen and sat on in real life. After checking out a few sofa shops in our area and not seeing anything that we liked we walked into Next and loved almost every sofa they had on display. They were all so cozy - very NAC - and although they were above what we wanted to pay we were pretty sure we could stretch the budget enough to cover the cost. We decided on the Stratus II in the charcoal tweedy weave fabric (it was much less brown in person, more like a warm dark grey). But then I checked out some review sites - the reviews were almost unanimously really really bad. I wept a little into my keyboard and the sofa saga continued.

We went back to Ikea to check out the Kivik but the Karlstad and the Soderhamn were both catching my eye. We tried out all 3 models in the store and spent a few weeks reading reviews and blogs and searching Pinterest for different ways to style them.

For anyone else considering one of these Ikea sectionals here is what we found:

The Kivik was the first option we considered. It was really comfy and quite firm but the back felt a little low and the seat a little narrow. I loved the The low arm rests though, they were really nice to rest your head on if you were laying down and they were perfect for perching on - great for extra seats at parties. The chaise was detachable so that was a big check in the flexibility column. It has been blogged about here, here and here and has some good reviews here and here. I thought it looked really nice when I searched on Pinterest (I love this and this) but in person it didn't blow me away - I definitely didn't hate it but I felt like it might look a little squat in our room.

The Karlstad was the one that I liked the aesthetics of the most - it's sleek and mid-century and looks so so good with metal legs. It's all over Pinterest (I especially love it here), it's been blogged about here and here and has good reviews on this site and this one. For me it was the least cozy - I couldn't imagine cozying up on it for an all night New Girl marathon - but the armrests were the perfect height for leaning on when I curled up in the corner. The lady in the store said the chaise wasn't able to stand alone if we wanted to remove it so that made it less flexible than the others.

The Soderhamn was the last sofa we noticed (we looked at sofas at our local Ikea 10 or 15 times over the last year) I think because the thin seat cushions didn't look comfy...but, oh my gosh, they are! For me this one was by far the most comfortable - really deep and squishy. The super modern look worried me a little - I didn't know how it would work with other furniture and decor in the house - and I couldn't find any images on Pinterest of it that I really liked (but I do love this room with a similar style couch). It's newer than either the Kivik or the Karlstad so I couldn't find many reviews or blogs that featured one (this one and this one were the only ones I could find). It had some major pluses in the practicality column though - the seat cushions are zipped in place and the back cushions are loose - so no slipping or drooping - it's deep enough to double as a singe guest bed and the chaise was fully detachable.

The Soderhamn was the winner - hands down for Kindface but still with a little reservation from me (but I was sold when Misha and Eva flopped on to it and started chatting and playing like they were at home - watching kids get cozy could sell me anything). We ordered it in svanby grey - every time we looked at fabric for any of the sofas the sales assistants told us it was the most durable cover they sell and they hardly ever have to change it on the display models (svanby grey is not available in the US but we also really loved the replosa beige - it's a really nice, neutral, textured greige that the lady said would wear really well). We planned to buy a 3 seater with a chaise but we preferred the look of a 3 seater with an extra section and a footstool (the chaise has a shorter foot section that looked less balanced to us). It means that we'll be able to move the footstool from side to side without having to unbolt anything so it's going to be even more flexible. For the sections we chose (a 3 seat section, a corner section, a footstool and an armrest) we paid £1170 and because the cover is made to order we had to pay the £35 delivery charge. It came in over our budget so we saved for a couple of months until we had the extra money.

I'll have updates and pictures as soon as it's arrived and assembled and it's been christened with pizza and ice-cream and movies...10 Things I Hate About You anyone?