*This is a sponsored post*

At the end of last year, Sofa.com got in touch with me to see if I would like a new sofa for our living room and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We bought our old one when we lived in a house with a much larger living room and a huge open brick fireplace, so it was very large, brown and beige (but also very comfortable).

We’d been on a long journey with this sofa, it had moved 5 times with us in 3 years and had all sorts of stains on it, mainly from having babies and toddlers throughout its time with us. It didn’t fit in our current living room, so was living two separate lives and it was time to turf it out and get a new one!

Visiting the sofa.com store

I was like a kid in a sweet shop when Sofa.com asked me to take a look at their online store and choose a new one for the living room. Ever since I’d joined Instagram, I had totally lusted over the fabulous green velvet sofas that were always so popular. I sent away for a couple of green velvet samples, including Jade, Cedar, Deep Turquoise, Evergreen and Neptune and settled on the Jade as it had a beautiful dark forest green colour to it.

It was then just a case of finding the right style for our living room. I also love the button backed style, they have a wonderful vintage feel about them, so I managed to narrow it down to the Humphrey, Patrick, Oscar and Mabel.

Choosing the size

When we had a look at the sizes online, I got my trusty tape measure out as we knew we wanted the biggest one to fit in the smallest living room known to man (aka our living room). In the end, we decided to go with the Mabel as this gave us enough room to fit a 3-seater in and still be able to get in the door!

Choosing a new sofa 

With our Jade Mabel sofa in place and no one allowed to sit on it apart from me, we then started to think about replacing the other one in the living room that now looked a little old and battered compared to our new sofa. Sofa.com kindly came to the rescue and were looking for people to work with to showcase their new Spring/Summer range and the fabulous new collaboration with the very talented Lucy Tiffney, who’s work I have admired for a long time! It was very important I got my hands on some of her cushions 🙂

Fabric Samples

The new range includes the Dahlia which draws on the traditional , but extremely comfy for family use and the Rupert with its deep seats and removable slip covers with matching cushions, which is perfect for families with pets or small children.

Again, I sent off for fabric samples, but this time it wasn’t so easy. I thought getting another green velvet sofa would be a bit much, as we also had a green wall in the living room. I started thinking about other colours that would easily compliment the Jade and put it to the vote on my stories on Instagram.

Visiting the Store

Thankfully, this time sofa.com asked me to visit their showroom in Guildford as I was really struggling to find the perfect colour to match the Mabel sofa. After running a poll on my stories and receiving all the fabric samples in the post, I was veering towards the Butterscotch Cotton Matt Velvet fabric. We have sunflower tiles on our fireplace hearth and I thought this fabric would compliment them beautifully. I also liked the idea of having green and yellow statement sofas in the living room.

I popped along to the Show Room a couple of weeks later, not knowing what to expect. I was greeted warmly by Arianna, one of the personal shopping assistants to help me with my decision. Before we started, they asked if I wanted a hot drink or water and took me to their bar to make me a latte and offer me a biscuit! Exceptional service already and that was even before I started looking.

They also have a fabulous little area just for children, so if you take them along, you needn’t worry. They can put a DVD on for the kids and I loved the use of colour in this little corner, showcasing their sofas with removable covers!

Looking at all the fabrics in the showroom

Whilst I sat drinking my coffee, we chatted about what I was looking for and the ideas I already had for our next sofa. They have all their fabrics available in the showroom for you to look at and what I thought was a genius idea, they had extra large fabric samples which meant you could drape the fabric over a sofa and really get a feel for the colour, texture and how it looks in different lights.

As I already had a sofa in Jade, Arianna found the Jade fabric so that she could throw it over a sofa and then we could start adding different coloured fabrics to see what worked. Starting with the butterscotch…

Mixing the different fabrics to get the perfect combination

Once Arianna draped the butterscotch material over another chair next to the Jade fabric, I knew it wouldn’t work. I love my Jade velvet sofa and it is quite a statement piece in our living room, but I felt the butterscotch stole it’s thunder a little and I needed something that complimented it. I absolutely fell in love with the Lucy Tiffney material and cushions and that’s when I realised, I needed pink in my life!

We added a few different pink materials to the chair, including Orchid, Bubblegum and Lychee and the Orchid was by far my favourite. It looked fabulous with the Lucy Tiffney cushions and is a perfectly quieter partner for my Jade sofa.

Like a kid in a sweet shop

With my decision made, I then had a quick wonder around the rest of the show room and loved looking at all their different ranges, including their beds upstairs. They had put together so many wonderful combinations of their fabrics and it gave me so much inspiration, to the point where I was considering changing the colour scheme in my living room altogether!

Our new Orchid Izzy

With the order placed, it took 6 weeks for our new sofa to be delivered and to say I’m extremely pleased with it is an understatement. It fits perfectly into our small living room, the colour is a wonderful contrast to the green velvet and it is extremely comfortable. I really enjoyed my visit to the showroom and would highly recommend sofa.com for finding your dream sofa!

Mel x

All written, styled and photographed (apart from the sofa.com stock sofa photos) by Melanie Boyden. *This is a gifted collaboration with sofa.com and all views are my own. I will only work with brands that I know will fit with my style and that I trust and love.