Grey Sofa

Some interior design blogs say a gray sofa is boring or unoriginal. However, ask any interior designer about their take on the ever-popular trend for gray sofas and they are sure to instantly disagree. Indeed, a gray sofa has more decorative potential than any other piece of furniture in your home. Think of a gray sofa as a blank canvas with an infinite number of possible decor combinations.

In fact, gray sofas can be the best option for a home with any design style as they mix well with all kinds of color schemes, are timeless, and much easier to keep clean than an all white sofa. What are the best ways to style a gray sofa? Here’s what senior Décor Aid designers have to say about tips for styling a gray sofa.

pillow

The first step in decorating your couch should always be with pillows. And with a gray couch, we recommend a layer of high-gloss pillows and another layer of pillows with a matt fabric.

Opt for high-gloss pillows that reflect the colors found elsewhere in the room, as we did with this luxurious, temporary redesign. And add a central pillow that will act as the central point.

Litters

As the warmer seasons come, choose thin and finely knitted patterned and printed blankets to revive the mood and energize a room. And when the weather turns cold, pile up and comfort yourself to keep yourself warm and cozy.

Inexpensive blankets can easily be swapped out as the seasons and trends change. So try unexpected combinations and see what sticks. Choose a color or material that contrasts with the fabric of your sofa, like we did in this light-filled skyscraper.

coffee table

With any interior design scheme, it is important to consider the shape and contour of your furniture. So if you have a square sofa, consider a coffee table with some curvature.

In this SoHo duplex, we upholstered a stone-shaped coffee table from the Phillips collection to balance out the angular elements of the room. And if you have limited space to work, there is nothing like coffee tables with a glass top that help you avoid visually bulky alternatives while being easy to use.

End tables

Styling a gray sofa is all about creating visually striking contrasts. That’s why we outfitted the velvet sofa in this mid-century palace with matching wooden end tables for visual texture.

As with bedside tables, place matching pieces on either side of your sofa and put out a few coasters while you’re at it.

baskets

So that your sofa doesn’t look random, you should put everything together with a few baskets. En leu from side tables, we placed bamboo baskets on either side of the leather sofas in this chic Union Square loft.

art

Works of art are an essential part of any living room. When styling a gray sofa, make sure that your accessories reference the colors of your artwork. In this luxury San Francisco apartment, notice how the pillows reflect the colors in the client’s artwork.

lighting

Lighting is an essential part of your living room, and you should have at least one source specifically designed for your gray sofa. In this family room on the Upper West Side, we placed two lamps on either side of this gray sofa: a larger lamp for basic lighting and a table lamp for reading.

This also helps you avoid using exclusively clinical and cold ceiling lighting while creating a compelling and inviting lighting scheme.

plants

When styling your couch, remember to include some vertical design elements to contrast the horizontal layout of your couch. One way to do this is to flank your couch with tall plants.

On this pre-war bachelorette party, we placed two plants on either side of this gray sofa and drew the eye to a tasteful gallery wall. Another option is to bring in large-scale, room-defining botanical artwork to truly make a memorable statement when you haven’t been given a natural green thumb.

Area rug

Rugs are a great way to add the texture or pattern you need to your space. To create a uniform space, consider using a rug with colors that are included elsewhere in your design.

Pro tip: when laying out your living room, place your couch on the edge of your rug like we did in this chic TriBeCa loft.

Unexpected color

Add a sense of the unexpected by bringing pampering pops of color into even the smallest of doses. While around 95% of the project shown above thrives in various shades of gray, an equally subtle, muted pink chair has been added as an alluring element to make the living room even more memorable and unique.

A lively mix

For this eclectic Brooklyn single family home, our interior designer used the plum gray sofa pictured above as a starting point to harmonize a litany of the various elements and features our clients had in mind.

As you can see, it works to tie everything together in a brilliant way that no other colored couch could. Imagine the visual sound you would feel if the sofa were fiery red, or how lost it would look in the room if it were pure white.

Get playful

Who said a gray sofa is all business and not play? As with this single family home in Old Greenwich, CT, use a gray sofa to counter playful elements like the children’s toys housed in this playroom.

Your gray sofa will do double duty as an anchor for all the different elements you like to play with and will be able to withstand stains much better than a lighter color sofa ever could.

Stick to symmetry

Since gray creates a sense of balanced strength, go up a notch and adjust to be completely symmetrical with your furniture layout for a calming, uniformed feel.

This way, it will be much easier for you to decorate your gray sofa than it will have to compete with it. The key here is finding ways in which you can incorporate visual interest without being distracting. Again, the strength of pillows and prints comes into play, as without them the space shown above would leave an undeniable chill.

Keep it simple

Strike a chord with your stylish gray sofa by keeping the rest of the room decorated simply and with a light hand to keep track of everything while stimulating.

For the project featured above, our interior designer mirrored the rigid lines of the gray sofa with pillows that showed vertical interest, and furniture and accessories that followed. The key here was to balance the rigor of the construction with abstract elements like the watercolor hanging over the gray sofa and various accessories.

Go tonal

Since a gray sofa is a standard feature in any minimalist home, enhance its spartan feel with a range of hues that are spread out to create a soothing impression of warm minimalism.

To emphasize the distinctly gray orientation of our project in San Francisco, our interior designer emphasized the living rooms in gray by placing deep gray-blue canvases behind the TV as a stimulating backdrop full of energy and spirit.

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