Country Cottage Sofas
Buy the best country cottage sofas selected and recommended by interior designers. By Caroline Patterson.
As if they were plucked out of a Jane Austen novel, these beautiful and classic country cottage sofas harken to a home on the prairie, or a farm, where life is simple, but love abounds. Introduce one or more of these provincial furniture pieces and take yourself back to a more basic time when clothes were homemade, and vegetables were picked from your own garden.
Country Cottage Sofas
Buying Guide
Caroline Patterson
Interior Design Expert
Caroline is a young, New York-based interior designer and home decor writer, obsessed with textiles and designer furniture. Backed with rigorous training from a prestigious design school, as well as a profound understanding of material quality and fabric care, she offers spot-on advice on how to furnish your place with reliable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing pieces.
Country cottage sofas bring thoughts of the days when gentry owned country estates, or when an overstuffed sofa was the prized centerpiece of a parlor. Often covered with Chintz, a floral print fabric, these puffy sofas with their roll top arms and high backs, were a place where couples could sit or a reader could lounge with a good book. Those purposes still hold true. The fabric coverings have branched out and can include neutral tone beiges through bright checks.
Country cottage sofas can be part of your shabby chic decorating. Whether you buy your sofa new or pick up one from a flea market and recover it, the fabric colors can lend themselves to almost any décor. In muted beige and tan, they can serve as a backdrop for bright cushions and knit throws. The print or check covers can lend a bright spot among muted colors. They go well with dark wood furnishings, vases of dried flower arrangements and painted tray wall hangings.
One charming decorating idea is to slipcover or upholster your sofa with a Scottish tartan print, and coordinate it with a bold, tartan rug. Placed before a fireplace – real or electric – this can bring back thoughts of hunting lodges and country gentlemen. No need to decorate with heads of wild animals, although mounted trophies are an option. This goes equally well with school prizes and ribbons or pictures of horses and hounds.
Team your country cottage sofa with matching overstuffed chairs or even a recliner that are slipcovered with the same or with a complementary pattern or color. Add soft throws, plush, knit or crochet work well, a storage footstool or an adjustable height coffee table to round out convenience. Your sofa doesn’t have to be the stiff, starchy furnishing that was found in parlors. Instead, it can be a warm, inviting place that suggests curling up with a good book or even playing a game on your computer. You can make that “fireplace” your media screen, rather than a single purpose heater, especially if your home has central heating and cooling.
Your sofa can be the focus of a living room or drawing room space that is your special spot for getting away from the cares of the world. Muted prints work well for this, or even checked gingham for that country touch. Add a vase of flowers or even a windowsill of potted plants for a little freshness, and set up an embroidery frame. You could go so far as to ban electronics from this space, making it a gracious area for meditation or quiet thought.
Country cottage sofas are versatile furniture pieces. Only your imagination limits your use of them in any chosen décor. They are comfortable for one, cozy for two, and can even be an inviting part of a family room or den. The high backs and scrolled arms make an inviting area to lounge.