3 Tips For Styling A Dark Sofa

I love our sofa! It's the Kivik from Ikea and we've had it for a few years now. It's my favorite. We upgraded from the beloved Ektorp (still love that one, too!) but we really needed more space to spread out.  The shape of the Kivik fit our space better too! 

I also LOVE the removable and washable covers. I will admit it's a pain to remove the covers on this style. But, they are removable and washable which is a must-have for any sofa we purchase. Recently we decided to purchase a new cover. Our dog, Toby, is old and smelly and he's got a particular fondness for rubbing against the sides of the sofa and they were just getting worn down and dingy. We had a light grey cover and we ended up going with a dark gray cover. And, the first thing I realized when we got it home was how dark it made our space look. The second thing I realized was that none of my throw pillows were going to work anymore. 

So, I sat with the new cover for a few days and then switched some things up and I thought I'd share a few ways on how I styled our dark sofa!

Don't surround it with "matchy" objects.  Don't buy the sofa, chair, and ottoman all from the same collection! Your house will look like a showroom and it won't be a cute vibe. Instead, piece things together. Take some time, shop around, and find pieces that go together without "going" together. PS. This is why we don't currently have a coffee table. Our sofa is a large L-shape and I know that I don't want a matching fabric ottoman but I don't know what I do want. So, we've got a black wooden sofa table behind the sofa and we use that until we find the perfect piece.

Lighten it up! I had off-white and emerald green throw pillows and I quickly realized that the off-white wasn't too cream and the green blended in. I loved the existing pillow inserts so I found white linen covers to replace the green (I did keep the off-white pillows...) and then picked up a few more light colored throw pillows and the sofa fit the space so much better. Mixing in white and off-white pillows gave the sofa enough brightness without looking like the pillows were all too stark white. Our curtains are white and airy but if they had been dark or heavy, I would have changed those as well. 

Add texture. Soft throws, textured throw pillows, styled pieces nearby - like my scalloped ceramic bowl - all add life to the space and balance out the heaviness of the sofa. A chunky jute rug layered with a softer rug, ceramic or the concrete/stucco vases that are all over right now, and large woven baskets can all add texture to your space and make your the room look lived-in and put together.

the sources

white linen pillow covers / black dotted pillow / velvet off-white covers / pillow inserts / textured white pillow, out of stock from Target - similar here / black and cream textured pillow, out of stock from World Market - similar here