How to buy a sofa

Seven top tips for choosing seating you'll love for a lifetime, plus check out the sofa I dream of owning!

My sofa at home, liberally adorned. Photograph by Emma Harris.

It’s never a surprise to me that very large homes often boast a den as the homeowners’ favourite place of refuge. It fulfils a primal need for a warm, cosy space in which to retire and feel safe. This is the domestic version of the burrow to which an animal retreats to calm itself when it’s no longer in flight or fight mode.

But this state of anxious over-wiredness is also evidenced in humans due to the frenetic pace of modern living. As such we must try to create a new version of that primal den, but openly, in our main living spaces. And this perfect retreat is already to hand – in the form of your sofa.

This is a piece of furniture that should envelop you in comfort and act as a domestic talisman for a more balanced life. It should sport (in my humble opinion) a ridiculous number of cushions and plenty of soft throws, because it should be the equivalent of your wakeful bed. A place to which you will feel compelled to turn before you are exhausted. It will become your secondary point of gathering after your dining table. And you must learn to sit on it like a child, all snuggly with curled-up legs.

As such, in the #happyinside home, sofas are not immaculate and shaped only for an erect posture. Nor are they showpieces with cushions tipped en pointe and punched in the middle like fortune cookies! The #happyinside sofa is deep, soft and comfy.

But how to find such a thing?

Here’s my failsafe guide: seven steps to lounge in style and comfort…