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Proportion: High Back Sofa Needs

Proportion is so important in decorating. A new higher back sofa caused a need to address the proportion of the furniture in our living room.

Are you familiar with what I call the ‘mushroom effect’ in decorating? You know, when you get one new thing, it affects something else you weren’t expecting to change, but you need to address that, and then that in turn affects something else, and before you know it, it’s kind of like a mushroom cloud exploding with changes.

In a small way, that’s what happened to me when we changed our sofa. I actually never thought I’d change my sofa… it was a Henredon I’ve had for decades. In fact, I had just gotten it reupholstered it a couple years ago when we moved into this house. It was a classic shape and size and truly amazing quality. So why in the world would I replace it???

Here is a peek of the back of the old sofa…

You can see the vintage sofa table in the back of the old sofa. That was a piece I had re-done a few years ago with Mod Podge, (you can see that sofa table re-do here). Point is, the size and weight of the old sofa table with the old sofa were coordinated in proportion to each other.

The reason I replaced the sofa is because our living room is small and there isn’t a ton of space for seating so we have to be super smart and efficient with the seating. To be able to accommodate as much seating and still have reclining or laying space, we opted for a reclining sofa.

I actually found a style that wasn’t one of those monstrous, fat, overstuffed, no style reclining sofas. This new reclining sofa has fairly classic lines and is still a smaller length sofa so it didn’t eat into precious floor space.

The new sofa is however much taller than the old sofa.

From the back it was not the most eye-pleasing wall of leather behind the smaller scale sofa table I had.

From the front…

The higher back sofa hid most of the lamps, so only a portion of the lampshades were peeking above it. Not only did that look kind of silly, it was quite ineffective for offering good lighting to the occupants in the sofa.

The hunt was on…

I felt like Goldilocks… it needed to be a certain height, not too long, not too deep. It would be nice if it offered storage this time. The color and style certainly mattered. Oh and… hopefully something vintage with more character than what a new piece offered.

It took me a while to find just the right sized piece. The size requirements alone greatly limited what was available.

But when I did find it, I knew immediately this was the one!

I was perusing Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace non-stop until I happened upon what turned out to be just the perfect size, offer fantastic storage and was in a beautiful classic style.

See how that extra height changes the proportion so that it isn’t dwarfed next to the much taller sofa?

Having a bit more visual weight in a closed cabinet helps the proportion fit better as well.

Now with the taller cabinet the lamps once again look properly sized for the sofa height.

One final addition to camouflage the not so attractive splits in the back of the sofa, where the individual seats recline, is a lovely chinoiserie fish bowl filled with a philodendron house plant.

The pattern and texture of the plant achieve the desired effect to pull the visual attention to the plant and planter in the foreground.

Replacing the sofa did cause a slight ‘mushroom effect’ but really it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had renovating projects that truly were explosions of change we weren’t expecting!

This was a good change and not a moment too early. If you noticed some of the pictures have Christmas decorations in them. That’s because I started to write this post before Christmas, but my schedule changed when my husband and I rolled in the new year with Covid. Those dual reclining seats sure came in handy as the past few weeks have been filled with us reclining sipping juice with our soups and binge watching ‘Gardener’s World’ by day and ‘Father Brown’ by night, (where would I be without British TV?!). So thankful I’m finally feeling up to having enough energy to write a post!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please feel free to follow and share this blog with your friends, as well as on MeWe, Facebook, Pinterest, Flipboard, Bloglovin, YouTube and Instagram! I appreciate you reading along.

Did you know I now offer decorating and DIY coaching? I can help you with your decorating needs via email, without having to step foot in your home. If you’re interested in more information, visit me at Frame and Frills. I’d love to help you with your project!

Here are some more posts I’ve written about furniture:

Glazed Antique Finish
Painting Concrete with Fusion Mineral Paint
Gold Harlequin Table Redo
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Spring-decoupage-Project
How to Paint Faux Driftwood
Nightstand ReDo
Window with Reverse Paint and Decoupage
MCM Table ReDo
Secretary-Desk-Redo
Boho-Style-Table-Re-do
Paint-and-Decoupage-Chest-ReDo
embossing paste stencil
Christmas table redo
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Vintage-Halloween-Napkin-Decoupage-Plate
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Petite-Bookcase-Makeover
Vintage-Romantic-Style-Cabinet-Re-Do
Coastal-Themed-Desk-Re-Do
old-world-finish-decoupage
How-To-Decoupage-and-Painted-Dresser-ReDo
Milk-Paint-and-Tung-Oil-Benches
Milk Paint Cupboard Frame and Frills SimpleDecoratingTips.com
diy-faux-aged-metallic-finish-1
Iron-Chair-Re-Do
How to Assemble this Boss Drafting Stool VIDEO
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Proportion
DIY Inspiration
Restoration Vintage Medicine Cabinet
How-to-Age-Galvanized-Metal
SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Simple Stool Re-Do
6 Furniture Projects to Inspire You
DIY Vintage Window Shadow Box
Tips on Restoring Antique Hardware
How to DIY Soapstone Restoration
before and after antique dry sink re-do step by step
How I turned this $10 piece of junk into a Masterpiece
How  Why I Made Faux Delft Tiles
How to Create Let it Snow Artwork
Painting Tips
tips to find the right lampshade
How to Make a Pulley Light
Repurposing: Stencil a Vintage Window
sofa table redo before and after
Counter stool makeover and my 1st attempt at chalk paint
Inspiration for Colors
Coastal Cottage Style Table
DIY Directional Arrows
DIY Table with a Coastal Design
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Before and After Retro Cart Re-Do
Creating a Trophy Wall in a Whimsical Library
A Lesson in Identifying Furniture Age
Vintage Umbrella on Door
Before and After Headboard Re-Do
Handpainted Table
DIY Picket Fence Wall Hooks
Creating a New Faux Finish on Antique Tin Tile

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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