10 years ago, my husband and I got married- we were young, 22 and needed to furnish our entire house. I worked for a furniture company and had some money saved so we used my discount and filled our home with quality furniture- it was such a blessing. So, for 10 years we’ve had this sofa:
before
We loved that sofa to pieces- literally. As you can see, it started to get lumpy and saggy. Worst than that, it had big holes in it. The other side of all three cushions had holes bigger than my fist and the corner of the cushion had a big tear (thanks to the throw blanket for hiding it). Needless to say, it was time for a new sofa. Here is what we took into consideration:
use
Let’s be honest, we mostly use our sofa to watch TV on at night. It was important that we could lay on our new sofa. I also wanted a gorgeous sofa since I have the blog.
style
Above, you can see that we had a very traditional sofa. I wanted something more transitional that would look good with our new pink chair. Clean lines sounded nice to me!
size
Our previous sofa fit nicely in our house. We took measurements of the maximum and minimum sofa size we wanted and took them with use when we went sofa shopping.
scale
For scale, we considered the size of the room. The overall living room is bigger, but where we watch TV is a smaller corner. Additionally, we considered our scale- my husband and I are both shorter so we wanted a standard depth sofa that we’d sit in comfortably. If you’re taller, you might wanted to look at deeper sofas.
material
I knew that leather was the way we would go with this sofa. For starters, it just gets better with age. Plus, it is so good for dogs and kids.
cost
For the past two years we have had some money in our bank account for a sofa. I have a savings account called “home” so when I want to save up for something big, I transfer money into that account and when we hit our goal, we go for it!
To sum it up, I wanted a beautiful sofa that worked for dogs, kids, and that was comfy and that my husband and I both agreed on. Can you see why we were looking for two years?!? Essentially, I wanted the holy grail of sofas. Haha! Well, the sofa arrived last Monday and I’ve been dying to share it with you! Are you ready to see what we selected?
after
This is the Paladin sofa from Down East Home and isn’t it gorgeous?! It really warms up our living room, which I love.
flange edge
The leather is finished with a flange edge. A flange is a piece of fabric that extends beyond the seam, giving the cushion extra detail and I think it helps with the clean lines. Plus, isn’t good design all in the details?!
plinth base
The sofa has a plinth base- that’s the wood running across the base. In architecture, a plinth is the base of a column. Plinth bases are common on Mid Century Modern sofas and the add to the warmth and strong look of it.
leather
Let’s talk about the leather- because this was important to me. My parents had a leather sofa and where they sat on it everyday, the finish came off and looked terrible. I didn’t want that.The leather on the Paladin is 100% full grain leather. This is the highest quality grade of leather money can buy. It comes from the top layer of the hide and includes all of the natural grain. It is more expensive for manufacturers to buy and more difficult for them to work with.
The leather is also not corrected- so you will see imperfections from the actual cow. Things like stretch marks. I love having this extra character on my sofa! It’s super subtle, but it adds texture and personality to the sofa since each panel is unique.
As I mentioned, comfort was a big deal for our family! And this sofa is super comfy- yes it passes the watching TV test! This sofa has thinner arms than our last sofa, so while they are the same width there is even more laying down space, which is so nice.
coils
This sofa is manufactured really well- with pocketed coils. This means that the coils are individually encased in fabric pockets. Here’s the benefits to pocketed coils- great comfort, it wears and keeps the shape longer, and you don’t hear squeaks from the coils.
foam
What is inside of the cushion is important! There is a poly 1″ fiber cover- it is a softer grade foam since it is what you feel first. Next is a 2.2 high density resilient foam. In the middle of the foam are the pocketed spring coils.
As you can see, I sat in the store and asked a ton of questions! I actually spoke to one of Down East’s furniture buyers- Bruce and he had so much good information for me! I took notes so I could give you guys a full report #nerdalert. Hopefully this is helpful to you if you are in the market for a new sofa! Asking what is inside pf the sofa is so important!
how to style a sofa 
Lastly, I wanted to share some tips on how to style your sofa:
- start with a cozy throw blanket. Bonus points if it has nice texture!
- add in your base pillows. Go nice and big! These are 28″ and are big enough to provide lots of comfort. I love how the pink plays off the masculine sofa.
- add in an accent pillow. I love pattern and this floral pillow pulls in the color of the sofa and base pillows
- last, put in a smaller accent pillow. This furry one finishes off the look with some softness
shop the look
Paladin sofa / coffee table / pink chair (no longer available) / chunky knit throw blanket (no longer available) / pink accent pillows / floral pillow (no longer available) / furry pillow (no longer available) / pink ukulele / square tray / brass swans / magnifying glass (no longer available) / Grand Budapest Hotel book / Wes Anderson book / In The Pink book / Styled book / Absolutely Beautiful Things book / Design Sponge At Home book / black and pink water color wall art (no longer available) / triangle wall art (no longer available) / leaf wall art (no longer available) / palm wall art (no longer available) /tree wall art (no longer available) /mountain wall art / brass ram (no longer available) /
Thanks you so much for reading! Here’s hoping this helps you if you’re shopping for a sofa or just making the one you own look pretty.
The sofa was gifted from Down East. Thanks Down East for making my dreams come true and my living room so much prettier! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Hi Ashley,
What a brilliant, in depth write up! Thank you very much for sharing all this useful information, there’s so much to learn.
Throughout my life, the only leather sofas I’ve been exposed to are the shiny faux types. Honestly, I’m not much of a fan and tend to prefer fabric styles instead (you’re old grey one would be the kind I’d go for haha).
However, this style looks so much more impressive! And much better quality too. How did you end up coming across it? Where there other contenders, or was this love at first sight for both you and Preston?
Also, good job on doing your research. I think that, especially with real leather, finding out the story and process is important. Plus, the way you have styled it is beautiful! It’s amazing how a throw and a few pillows (and a dog) can change appearance so much.
Thank you for sharing Ashley 🙂
Thanks Emma! Preston and I looked at hundreds of sofas before we saw this one. We had a hard time agreeing and nothing was the perfect fit until this one. And you have to experience good leather! This one has such a soft, warm feel to it.
I’m glad that you both stuck it out until you found the perfect one! After a while of searching, I’m sure it can get tempting to compromise for the sake of the search being over (not not having a sofa with holes in haha).
I think I might have to pretend I’m in the market for a new sofa, just to go round the shops and sample some good leather ones haha! I think I’ll be hard pressed to come across one as lovely as yours, What a find it is!