The Full Spectrum: Coloured Chesterfields

 

When most people think of Chesterfield sofas, they probably think of them in dark brown leather, perhaps a little worn and faded by years of use. It’s true that a sofa like that is an absolute classic, and can look wonderful in any room, traditional or contemporary. However, that is far from being the only option for this comfortable and elegant style of sofa.

Colours and patterns

Chesterfields in bright and unusual leathers such as pink, purple, red or green are popular statement pieces. Interior designers love the mixing of bright, modern colour with a sofa design that’s more commonly associated with quiet gentleman’s clubs and Victorian homes. In a modern home, the bright colour keeps the contemporary flavour while the classic sofa style creates variety and a nice link with the past. Equally, in a more traditional room, the bright colour stands out and gives the room personality but without seeming as jarring and out of place as an entirely modern sofa.

If bright colours aren’t your thing, there are still options available aside from traditional brown. Grey chesterfield sofas are available in leather or fabric and are a great choice for their versatility in almost any room. With the option to have them blend almost unnoticeably into a clean, uncluttered space, or to be brightened up with a variety of throws and cushions, they have the advantage of going with almost any colour scheme or materials.

Of course, you aren’t just limited to choosing a colour. Chesterfields are also available with a variety of upholstery textures and patterns. Crushed velvet, for example, gives a rich and slightly decadent look that harks back both to the 70s and 80s but also to the earliest origins of the Chesterfield sofa in the 18th Century. Meanwhile wool allows for patterns including the popular tartan for a country house or hunting lodge look that works particularly well in more muted, traditionally furnished rooms.

How to pick a colour

There are several ways to choose a sofa colour that works for your room, but it’s important to get it right as a sofa is usually one of the most expensive items in the room and something you will want to keep for a long time.

One option, perhaps the easiest, is to go for a fairly neutral sofa colour that can fit into most rooms, even if you change the decoration of the room in a few years, and can easily be livened up with cushions or throws. This is one reason why cream, light brown and especially grey Chesterfields work incredibly well.

If you’re keen to go for a bolder colour, however, another approach is to keep the room itself fairly neutral and allow the sofa to act as the main block of colour in the room, with other smaller items such as prints or a small rug chosen to spread the colour around and balance the room. If you do want to match or compliment the sofa with larger pieces, especially rugs, curtains or even a feature wall, it’s important to colour-match carefully and to consider how the sofa might look after a few years of fading.

Whatever choices you make, it can be hard to really tell how the room will look until everything is in. Anything you can do to make this process easier is worth taking time over, whether that is bringing curtain fabric samples into the sofa shop, or buying a cheap sheet in a similar colour to the sofa you want so you can drape it over your current sofa and get an idea for how that big block of colour will affect the feel of the room.