Intro & my sofa dilemma

Hello!

I found this forum after searching old Gardenweb forums. I have really enjoyed their forums for each phase of our home building project. I've read through some posts here and talked with Duane briefly...looks like this forum could help me through my next home project -- furniture! This forum seems so much easier to use! Yeah!! :) AND excited about better pricing from the Keeping Room too!

DH & I are a 30 something couple building a new home in a historic neighborhood. I've been putting a lot of energy into the house to make it different than your normal new build...somewhat classic & eclectic but with a 1920s Spanish Revival twist. I love Anthropologie, and that type of style is often my inspiration. Our GC says our completion date is mid-August for the new home.

Five years ago, we moved into our current home with a VERY open floor plan. We purchased a HUGE leather sectional at a local furniture store (now out of business). The brand is Distinctions Leather Furniture. DH just loves this sofa. Admittedly, we didn't thoroughly research the workmanship of this brand, but we bought it thinking we would have it 20 years or so. I really don't know how this brand compares to H&M which I am eyeing now. But it seems like it's held up fine so far. We went to several stores and bought the sofa due to the feel of the leather. The salesperson gave us some demos on how the leather could not be ripped and yadee yadda. We have never had any quality issues with the sofa, and it still seems great. But it's just so huge. The new house is not such a wide open floor plan. People who seem to know design, have told me that this sofa will swallow our new living room. It's just your normal looking leather sofa, with some nice stitching...but no real design elements. DH is soooo resistant to give it up. 1) because we paid > $5k for the sofa and there's nothing wrong with it. 2) there's lot of house expenditures that are creeping up. We will try to sell it on the local Craigslist, but I have no idea how much we can get for something like this.

I know that I'm probably being impatient in wanting to start the sofa search now. I have marked the outline of the sofa on the floor to show DH and we have the sofa printed on the plans. It's a giant. It doesn't really fit my Anthro scheme for the new house. I'm so excited to host an event at our new house. I just hate the thought that we will move into this house to figure out that the sofa doesn't belong -- then wait another 2 months for a new one to be delivered.

So my strategy is to show DH all the possibilities of NEW furniture for the living room. If I can find a sofa that he falls in love with, I think he may also agree. AND if the price of everything doesn't make him have a heart attack.

I *think* our room layout may best be served with
1) long sofa, max 128" floating in front of kitchen pass through bar
2) one large upholestered chair or chair-and-a-half positioned facing TV on wall, floating in room next to fireplace
3) a smaller upholestered swivel chair, floating in room next to fireplace closer to TV...near the Office
4) possibly a tufted ottoman that also serves as a coffee table
5) we may need a new rug as well, due to the color schemes.

I would like for the leather to but a medium toned brown -- not too dark, not chocolate, but instead more tan.

I love the tufted back sofas (but have never sat on one) and many other of the H&M styles. DH is 6'2" and since we have more length than width, I think we could use a longer sofa. We do love being able to sit close when watching TV, so preferably something that is wide enough for 2 thin people -- or we could use the ottoman to prop us that way. But the sofa has to meet some style considerations for me, and comfort for DH. It's really him and our Sheltie that will sit on it most.

These are the sofas that I like the styles of most:
Sundance (nice back for floating in the room, but it's so deep occupying more width)
Sloane (my favorite style, but not sure if 6'2" DH can lie down completely)
Ellie (very cute, not sure if it meets the comfort needs for DH)
Kingwood (love the tufted look, but unsure about comfort and depth again)

Any comments / advice / other things to consider are appreciated. Whew, this post was long...just got rollin'. But that's the whole story! Attachments there for further consideration.

One the things you might want to do is lay this all out to scale using the Icovia room planner, which is powerful and easy to use software that you can find on line on some makers websites. This will give you a sense of scale as to what will and won't fit. Here's one attached to Thomasvilles web site:

http://thomasville.icovia.com/icovia.aspx

Your room schematic is really too small on the attachment to see the numbers, sorry. In a room layout like that, you really only have three choices, and working these in a digital room planner will give you an idea of spatial proportion:

A) A sofa floating in the room in front of the fireplace, with a pair of small scale swivel chairs to the left and right of the fireplace between the sofa and fireplace,

B) A pair of Loveseats or small sofas perpendicular to the fireplace and facing one another.

C) A sectional with a short 'loveseat' section, and perhaps one swivel chair on the diagonal across from it.

That's generally all that will work in a room that is open to that degree, with no fixed walls.

Sundance: Probably the best for design "A". As beautiful from the back as it is from the front. Yes, its deep at 46" or so.

Sloane : A very elegant looking sofa with the 'picture frame' back.

Ellie: Skip. Not comfy for laydown.

Kingwood: Another great looking sofa, lay-down comfort is good on it. Large!

Look at Jesscia Charles swivel chairs, they have the best in the business. Sister company to Hancock and Moore:

http://www.jessicacharles.com/catego...?categoryid=SR

That sectional is pretty big... I think after a few weeks of living with it, you might feel it's getting in the way - especially if you're walking from the foyer into the living room and just want to sit down. Having to squeeze in between the fireplace and the sofa doesn't look like fun.

Also - is the TV going to be placed on the wall between the two doors?

Yes, the TV is wired to go on the wall between the two doors. I didn't want the TV over the fireplace (too high & I wanted a different focal point). When DH watches TV, he normally lays flat or turns, so it will be the normal viewing direction that he is already used to.

The room is 19'10" x 15'8", but we really have much less space due to the "pathways" we need around all the edges.

(The fireplace has a flush hearth.)

Thanks for the feedback!