How to Style with Your Brown Sofa

People’s first reaction to the idea of a brown sofa might be that it’s a bit too boring or even drab, but they’re well worth giving a second thought to, so we’d encourage you to reconsider. A practical colour that doesn’t easily show up dirt easily and tends to work well with a wide range of existing furniture, brown can also be a surprisingly elegant choice that lends itself to all sorts of different design styles and interiors.

Fabric & Leather Brown Sofas

Brown is an obvious choice for a leather sofa, being a natural colour for leather. Whether it’s a light tan or a deep almost reddish brown, there’s an unfussy elegance to brown leather that brighter or less natural-looking dyed leathers lack.

Jude Medium Sofa in Linen Look Chocolate

Equally, brown fabric can work brilliantly, and it doesn’t have to be the sort of 80s brown velvet that you may have first imagined when you read the title of this article. Think, instead, of anything from a light tan Harris tweed to a durable polyester weave in dark espresso brown. Although of course, if you do fancy that retro look, rich brown velvet is still an option.

What colour palettes go with a brown sofa?

Brown is a surprisingly versatile colour to decorate around; much more so than other seemingly neutral colours like black or white, and perhaps even a close second to tan.

Wiltshire Leather Range

A darker brown sofa can work well as the darkest element in the room, surrounded by white or pale walls, light accents, and soft furnishings in colours like pale yellow, sky blue or light green. It’s best to keep most elements in the room as light as possible to avoid the whole colour scheme becoming too heavy, but a rug that picks out the colour of the sofa as well as one of the lighter shades can help to tie everything together.

Natalia 3 Seater Sofa in 20RB Leather

Another option is to go with a rich brown sofa as the main colour and warm the rest of the room with dark reds, wood and mustard yellow. Cream or tan on large but secondary spaces like ceilings, window surrounds or doors can help to provide a bit of contrast and stop the whole room from becoming too overwhelming.

Connaught Grand Sofas in Clyde Chestnut (L1) 

Or, you can embrace a brown colour scheme altogether and do the whole room in brown and tan, with variety and contrast created with different shades, textures and materials. Red and tan cushions on a dark brown sofa, for example, or a light wooden table on a dark brown rug.

Natalia Leather Range

Whatever look you are going for, a brown sofa gives you a huge number of options, and even the ability to easily change and adapt your interior design style over time without having to change the sofa. A flexible, neutral colour, having a brown sofa doesn’t tie you in to a particular colour scheme in the long term, so you have endless ways to style your home.