Arlington Handyman: How to Choose the Best Seating for Your Living Room

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Value City Furniture, but as always, all opinions are my own.

There are so many factors to consider when shopping for living room furniture, and I know sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to decide what to buy. Sometimes it can be daunting even figuring out where to start. When we moved into our home two years ago, the layout posed a little bit of a challenge since our sunroom is attached to our family room, and we needed to be able to access it easily. I know that every room poses its own unique challenges, so I thought it might be helpful to walk you through how to choose the best seating for your living room, with my thoughts on what steps to take as you plan your room.

1. Analyze Your Space

First, consider logistics. Maybe you love that ginormous oversized sofa you saw at the store, but will it even fit through your door? Think about how much space you have in the room too, and keep that top of mind when deciding on the scale of your furniture. Think about your room layout and how the seating will be arranged. Maybe you have a tiny apartment, in which case a settee or petite sofa might work best.

Decide what seating combination will work best for your space. Maybe you have the perfect room to accommodate a sectional, or maybe a sofa and love seat would work better. At our house, we opted for a sofa and arm chair, along with two accent chairs. We have a bit of an awkward layout since we need to be able to walk through the room to get to the sun room and storage room, and then we have our fireplace wall and TV wall to consider too.

2. Determine Your Design Style

There are so many styles out there, so I recommend taking a look at all of them and narrowing down which ones you’re most attracted to. You might be immediately drawn to one style, or you might be more like me and love multiple styles and need to narrow down which direction to go.

Some examples of design styles are:

Art Deco
Rustic Chic
Eclectic
Modern
Traditional

For our family room, we chose a classic but modern style with track arms, similar in shape to the Conner Track Arm Sofa from Value City Furniture.

3. Consider Color Options

Do you want to choose bold colors for your seating, and decorate the room around it? Or would you prefer neutral seating that gives you the option of adding pops of color with pillows and accessories? We opted for neutral seating at our house, and I love that they act as a blank slate to decorate around. I’m able to change things up whenever I get tired of a certain look or color palette (which, let’s face it, is quite often). Pillows are way easier to switch out than an entire sofa or chair, so that’s just something to consider.

The Robertson Collection from Value City Furniture is a great neutral option to consider.

If you’re looking for color, consider the Bailey Blue Living Room Collection.

4. Choose an Upholstery That Fits Your Life

There are so many choices when it comes to furniture upholstery. For example, I love the white linen sofa I have in my mom cave, but I would never choose that particular color or fabric for a highly-trafficked area of our home. The kids don’t hang out in my mom cave much, so I felt that it was safe in there. Since I have young kids, my priority for our family room seating was to choose something durable and easy to clean. I was told that polyester-based fabrics are best for this purpose, and since we have kids, that was number one on our list of things to consider. For you, that may not be the case, but maybe you like to entertain often, or maybe you have pets. All of these things should factor in to your upholstery choices.

Ultimately, Value City Furniture makes the entire furniture shopping experience easy. They have a huge selection and their furniture is a great value. I’ve mentioned it before, but when Chris and I first got married and were just starting out in our first home, Value City Furniture was our “go to” source for affordable furniture. They have stylish pieces that allow you to create a pretty home without spending a ton of money. Just because you may not have a huge budget, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a home you love.

What are your top priorities when shopping for living room seating? Comment below and let me know!

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