sofas

10
Nov
2015

Sofa styles come and go

sofa, karlstad

KARLSTAD 2-seater sofa in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Sofa styles come and go. So also in my livingroom. Presently I have a KARLSTAD sofa from IKEA. A 2-seater (or love-seat as some call them). Presently in its grayish cover. Over summer it was dressed in white.

Before that, I had a MIO sofa called Coffee, that MIO still sell. A 3-seater. That one was way too big for the present livingroom. And I didn’t like its rounded look. I much prefer the straight and simple look that KARLSTAD has. The MIO sofa actually could be ordered with differently styled ends, not all that rounded as the one I then choose.

sofa

The previous sofa. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I gave the MIO sofa away for free when I bought the new, smaller KARLSTAD sofa. First tried to sell it on Blocket.se… None existent market. Too many sofas there. One of my neighbors got it for free (new it costed SEK 10.000…). He later gave it away to his son who lives elsewhere. Nothing wrong with the sofa, except the size of it. A quality sofa…

Now, these more rounded sofas are coming back again.
And Ikea has discontinued the KARLSTAD model.

karlstad

Karlstad discontinued. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

IKEA flagged the discontinuation of KARLSTAD some time during this summer. What I do not understand is why on earth they discontinue a sofa that has been one of their most popular sofas over time…

It is really a pity that they discontinued KARLSTAD. It is a nicelooking, simple sofa. Straight and classy. Much loved by people all over the world. Including me. And it is comfortable to sit in and easy to get up from.

norsborgsofa

Norsborg sofa from Ikea. Photo: Ikea.

IKEA replaced it with a new model called NORSBORG. (Which has a 10 year guarantee, so I guess they will sell it for the next ten years at least… regardless of changing sofa styles…).

I don’t like NORSBORG.
At all.
It is too rounded.
Too big.
Not an elegant form (as I see it).
And not particularly comfortable.
Too soft.

norsborgsofa

Norsborg sofa from Ikea. Photo: Ikea.

One detail on the new sofa NORSBORG is that pocket at the ends of the sofa.
Good idea?
Not really.
After putting away the newspaper into the pocket a couple of times… how dirty will it be? Fun idea, yes, but practical? No. A loose pocket to hang over the sofa end is much more useful. As the one I have in the first picture (also from IKEA and not discontinued). Not for newspapers or books, granted, but for all those remotes you have.

sofa

Norsborg sofa. Photo: Ikea.

The NORSBORG sofa also is not all that comfortable.
It is too soft.
Isn’t soft good?
No. It means it is difficult to get up from it.

norsborgsofa

Norsborg 2-seater. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I think NORSBORG is ugly…
Of course it is personal what you find ugly or not. But…
It is something with the proportions. And the roundedness…

Maybe Gustav, the neighbor cat, would like the roundedness of NORSBORG, but I don’t.

I wonder though how long the IKEA sofa EKTORP will survive… One of the most comfortable sofas IKEA has. When I was sofa-hunting, and bought the MIO sofa, EKTORP didn’t have any grey covers. If they would have had that then (they do now), I would have bought the much smaller and cheaper EKTORP sofa from IKEA instead of the one from MIO. Rounded ends, but much nicer than NORSBORG. The EKTORP 3-seater would also have been too big for this livingroom though and been exchanged.

sofa

Gustav on my KARLSTAD 2-seater sofa. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, livingroom, Thoughts, 4 comments
23
Nov
2014

Colorful sofas…

pink sofa

Colorful sofas make me cringe.
They are hard on the eyes and hard to combine with other things in the rooms.

pink sofaI wouldn’t be able to live with a pink sofa in the living room.
You see them more and more often nowadays. Seems people are longing for color in their interior design. Nothing wrong with that, but on a sofa itself?

orange sofa

An orange sofa (and green carpet and yellow chair…) would make me want to turn the other way and walk out of that room.

orange sofa

The above is more acceptable, but still… an orange sofa? Then the entire room, including carpet, walls, pillows, pictures on the walls, need to be very neutral.

yellow sofa

Then, how about a yellow sofa? Same problem there even though the above picture is quite nice. But that is only because everything else in the room is either grey or black or woodsy. I know yellow sofas are the thing presently in interior design, but that doesn’t make them any easier to live with in the long run. Does it?

yellowsofa_1

They light up the space, yes. But…

yellow sofa

How about a red sofa then?

red sofa

Almost acceptable. Provided everything else in the room is very neutral like in the above picture.

green sofa

How about a green sofa then? No, thanks. Depends on the green color though. There is green and there is green… Some greens are easier to live with than others. And again, depends on which other colors there are in the room.

green sofa

Dark or lightblue sofas are OK as I see it.
The best colors though are grey or white. Goes with anything and everything.  You can change the entire room without having to change the sofa if you have a grey or white sofa. Choose any color of pillows, carpet, pictures on the wall, wallpaper, paint on the walls, lamps etc. They are all fine. Grey or white sofas makes the interior design flexible and is the easiest choice.

beige interior

Some choose a beige-greyish-brown color palette. I find that extremely boring. It is as if whoever choose those colors just wants to be on the safe side and not offend anybody.

josef frank sofa

How about patterned sofas, big flowery things etc.? They can be nice, but most are hideous (at least the ones with flower-patterns) and they too limit the choices for other colors/items for the interior design of your room. Not all patterned sofas are designed by Josef Frank as the above one.

These are just examples. There are more sofa-colors that are difficult to live with in the long run (certain shades of violet for instance).

Just remember that a sofa is a piece of furniture that you will probably live with for many years to come. You have to love that color for all those years and not tire of it. Of course. If you have unlimited means you can switch sofas as often as you like and/or get tired of its color, but most of us are stuck with the sofa we choose for several years before we can buy a new one. The sofa also, of course, needs to be comfortable to sit or slouch in… You don’t buy a sofa just for eye-candy, do you?

All images are borrowed from the internet from picture Google search.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, 1 comment