Hello to everybody. It’s me again; your favorite French bulldog from Berlin and Creative Director of Otto von Berlin’s interior design office. Every month, we are thinking about some helpful interior design tips, we’d like to share with you. We have recently been nominated for the “BEST OF INTERIOR” Award 2017, by Callwey and have heard an interesting fact about German interior design. What is the one furniture piece German’s like the most? Any idea? If your first thought was yourself sitting on a comfortable couch then you were right! Here some things you should consider before you purchase a couch.
The most important question you should ask yourself in the beginning is: Where will I place my couch in my space? It is the most essential question, depending on your apartment and your lifestyle. So our advise is: Measure, measure, measure! Depending on that you can start constructing your room. Especially Design Your Home’s handy tool, the 3-D visualization app, allows you very easily to construct your space. Now we continue to some other things to check, before buying the ideal couch.
Big spaces
If you have a big space, you can go with one simple rule: The bigger the couch, the better! Make your couch the centerpiece of your apartment, make it a shelter you cannot wait to come back after a long day at work. But make sure to always calculate some extra space behind the couch and next to it. Let it breath and don’t dismiss it to the next corner of your apartment.
Small spaces
With smaller spaces, you have usually one essential problem: you have little space, hah! Therefore, it is even more essential to choose the right couch design. Choose something that doesn’t swallow up your little apartment. Pick for example a couch with slim arms. It will make it look less obtrusive. On top, a couch with slimmer lines makes it appear, as if it is taking up less space.
Couches for families and pet-lovers
Some of us need a big couch for their big (furry) family. Therefore, corner couches are a good way to work a space ideally and create a lot of sitting space. With a lot of extra cushions, you make sure that your family feels perfectly cozy, each time you share valuable time together. Sit back, put up your feet, snuggle in a corner and forget the world around you. Extra tip: put an additional thought into what kind of couch fabric you will chose. To all those dog-lovers out there, choosing larger weaves won’t play well with our claws…
What is good quality?
One thing we often here, when people are consulting our interior design knowledge is: “But how do I know, if it’s good quality?” With couches, there are some key rules you can follow, when you want to check out the quality of a couch. Stiches for example: the closer and more precisely the pattern is, the better the quality. Search for a long focal point of your desired object and check the stiches!
Another quality factor is the frame. Massive wood or metal, like one of our favorite pieces the Man-Sofa by Norr 11 , are high quality determents for couches. Do not ever purchase a couch with Styrofoam or carton as a frame; they won’t last long. And if all of the criteria above are fulfilled, one last sitting and comfy test will help you chose it – if the couch makes noises, it’s another indicator that its quality isn’t the best.
Sitting height – because nobody wants back problems
When do we remember a couch positively? When we fall in easily and get up just as easy. The perfect couch size is of course dependent of your height, but we have some measuring tips for you as well: a middle sitting height is between 40-45 cm, whilst the sitting length is between 50-60 cm. Extra hint: the deeper the sofa, the more it gets to be a laying couch than a sitting couch.
It’s all about the material
One last thing we advise you to take into consideration is the material of your couch. With cloth couches you have one major advantage by the design market (another word needed) – they come in many designs and tons of colors and are usually cheaper. If you want to purchase a cloth couch, take a look on three key-factors: Resistance to abrasion, Lightfastness and friction resistance. The higher the numbers, the better.
But we wouldn’t be a Berlin interior design office, if we weren’t influenced by our industrial and vintage charme. Therefore, we recommend you to chose a leather couch. It’s my favorite and a timeless classic. Untreated leather is very comfortable in both grip and usage.
Alright, that’s it for now, folks! If you need some additional help, get in touch with us, or check our designs on our Instagram and Facebook channel. See you next month on Otto’s corner!
Your Otto, von Berlin
Photos: Fizz foto:graphy & Urs Kuckertz Photography
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65,99 € (as of November 20, 2024 11:30 GMT +01:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Tags: autumn trends, best design, design, interior design, trends
