Do you want to do something a bit different when you next re-vamp your living room? Do you like the idea of borrowing ideas from far-flung places to add character and style to your main room? You could redecorate the entire room, of course, or buy co-ordinating furniture and accessories, but if you overdo it your living room can end up looking like some kind of theme-park (without the rides, obviously).
An easy way to give your living room some exotic style is simply to buy a sofa that reflects the style of seating available in the country of your choice. Sofas are, of course, the main focal point of a living room and aside from your bed it is also probably the piece of furniture you use most often. It’s important, therefore, to buy a sofa that you find comfortable as much as you like its appearance.
Many countries in Western Europe have similar seating options to ours here in the UK – big, squashy sofas, small sofas that are as comfortable as they are compact, leather sofas, fabric sofas, the list goes on. Perhaps the most rapidly-spreading seating trend comes from the Scandinavians who like a lot of pale wood and simple, modern designs, as are being sold by the truckload across much of the rest of Europe in those famous Scandinavian furniture shops that are simultaneously loved and loathed by most of their customers.
If you want to try something from further afield, then have a look at Japan. Whilst many households in Japan have Western-style furniture out of choice, others have traditional Japanese-style furnishings that some of us in the UK like to imitate. For example, the Japanese often have wooden or tiled floors, or ‘tatami’ floors (which are made up of tatami straw mats that are easy to damage if you don’t look after them properly). In a traditional Japanese living room, they have an alcove in one of the walls that is used to display a scroll hanging from the wall and either a flower arrangement or vase. Rather than use doors, these traditional rooms use sliding walls and paper screens.
In traditional Japanese-style houses their floors are used to sit upon and are often raised, heated and cushioned to make this more comfortable. Sofas and chairs are not used very much, though special pillows are often used to sit upon for eating at low tables.
Another country you might want to inspire your décor is India, where dark, traditional, highly carved pieces of furniture are commonplace. True Indian furniture is hand-made by craftsmen and finished with beeswax to give it a glossy sheen that brings out the beauty of the hardwoods used. Sofas in India are nothing like sofas in the UK – they tend to be hardwood, carved seats of varying size that have silk-upholstered padding. They are not as comfortable to sit upon as sofas that we are familiar with in the UK but are undoubtedly very beautiful. Again, as in Japan, people in India do not sit on their chairs or sofas for as long or as frequently as do we in the UK.
Get inspired and start thinking about what style of sofa would complement your living room.
Sofas and Stuff know a lot about beautiful, high quality, comfortable British sofas that last as long as you want them to. More importantly we want you to benefit from our expertise and know how.
