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Posted on: December 25, 2008

Strategic Furniture Acquisition

Buying a new sofa doesn't mean you have to buy a whole new family room. Keep your living area stylish and your checkbook afloat with these tips

By Chuck Ross
CTW Features

So you've finally saved up enough for that overstuffed sofa of your dreams - and spent months surfing through showrooms to find it. Delivery day arrives and once all that protective plastic is removed, the new-sofa euphoria is replaced almost instantly with a new sense of despair: Now everything else just looks out of place.

Though you might be tempted to track down your old threadbare reject and return it to its rightful place, there are other options for bringing your living room back into harmony. And, if you haven't yet begun a piece-by-piece redecorating effort, experts say there are ways to update your style over time without living with a mismatched furniture collage in the process.

Keep the big picture in mind

It's expensive to redo a room in one fell swoop - instead, most of us are more able to afford buying furniture a piece at a time. Even if this is the best option for your budget, it still pays to spend some time getting your ideas in order for the entire room before beginning to shop for any single chair or sofa. If you're looking at a long-term process, having a blueprint in place to guide your efforts can limit the potential for expensive mistakes.

"First and foremost, have a clear vision of where you are and where you want to go," says Frank Fontana, designer and host of HGTV's "Design on a Dime." "You should approach every design with a plan."

Fontana suggests that your planning begin with an inventory of what you want to keep and what is ready to go. You may be tempted to gloss over furniture flaws in an effort to economize, so be honest with yourself about what problems are merely cosmetic and which ones pose more serious concerns.

"If structural elements are wrong - the legs are broken or the springs are sprung - it's time to replace the furniture."

Resuscitating favorite pieces with a thorough reupholstering effort certainly is an option, but be prepared to pay a premium of up to 50 percent more than the price of a comparable new piece, cautions Helen Baker, owner of Harwich, Mass.-based Helen Baker Interiors.

"Upholstery is expensive in most parts of the country, because it's really a field that's going by the boards," she says. Vintage pieces may have the "bones" to make the added investment worthwhile, she adds, and some pieces carry a sentimental value that cannot be replaced. Otherwise, though, Baker suggests replacing is probably more affordable than refurbishing.

While you're creating your permanently disabled list, you also can take some time to winnow out furniture and accessories that no longer suit a purpose - or your taste. Fontana has a simple rule for helping clients weed out clutter and clean up their style.

"If you haven't sat on it, put anything on it or used it in six months, you probably don't need it," he says.

With the design in mind, focus on a single piece as a starting point for your makeover. This could be a statement piece, like the sofa, or a less-obvious - but practical - console table or storage unit, Fontana says. It even could be a painting or Oriental rug that fits with the style and color you've got in mind.

"You can always start with a great piece of artwork," he says. "Then you can go on and buy your furniture from there. That's an inexpensive way to bring some inspiration into the room."

Tying it all together

Now comes the part where both long-term planners and spontaneous buyers face the same dilemma: How do you make that new piece fit in while building up the budget for the next upgrade? Those who've thought ahead, of course, have an edge answering this question, because their purchase was made with current furnishings in mind. But even spontaneous buyers can benefit from expert advice.

First, consider the relative size of the piece you're eyeing, compared to the overall dimensions of the room as well as to the other pieces in it. This is a critical step, because there's just not much you can do with a sofa or coffee table that's just too big for the space.

"It's like jamming a size six shoe on someone who wears a 10," Baker says.

Next, consider other style factors that tie the current furnishings together. Even subtle common features can help your design move from piecemeal to perfect.

"Try to match the wood accents to the other wood elements in your furniture," Fontana says. "If that doesn't work, try to match the color tones." And, if all else fails, he suggests that you resort to the wonder ingredient in any design effort: decorative throw pillows. These accent pieces draw in colors and textures from elsewhere in the room "to create the illusion of cohesiveness."

Sometimes, however, even throw pillows can't do the trick. In these cases, Baker suggests an exercise she has many of her clients perform. First, empty the room of everything but the few essential pieces you know you want, such as that new and out-of-place sofa. Then pick and choose from all the rest of your home's furnishings - bedside tables from a guestroom, or the console table from the upstairs hall - to complete a new design. You may find that your former sore thumb looks right at home when matched with options from other locations.

"That's what stagers do," Baker says. "It's seeing your furniture with flexible applications."