Do you look at the back of your furniture? You maybe should. Many times it is the first thing you see walking through the front door. This may be a little thing you forget to think about when you are shopping for new furniture. You may be so focused on the fit, scale, design and color that you forget to think how the layout is in your room and what will be seen first. A good designer will talk about placement of pieces and direct you to ideas that will work better. Items and solutions are made that will look correct 360degress around the piece.
Go ahead and Google furniture. All the choices that come up will show you the front of the furniture. Not the back. The thought may not even cross your mind to look at the back of the sofa, sectional or chair.
The back of a piece may be important if it is sitting out in your room and when you come into the space the first thing you might see is the back of your sofa or sectional! The evil crack or saggy fabric needed for the movement of the piece.
It drives me crazy when I go into a home of a client and they tell me they paid mucho dollars for this sectional they are showing off and the connection piece is in the wrong place. Instead of it being hidden on the wall side, it is directly in front of my eyes for everyone to see. Why? Simple choices on which items or pieces to select will fix this problem. Then you will not feel the need to cover the "cracks" with a sofa table or something else that may not be needed, because it was actually ordered correctly!
It is important to just consider the back when you are purchasing new pieces. Say, you had a stationary sofa, which will have one piece of material across it's back, but then you switch to a reclining sofa. Now, the back is in three pieces, because the ends of the sofa open and close with the movement of the recliner. This may not be as appealing to you because there will be some gaps and loose material which allows the reclining seat to move! One gap may be slightly larger than the other due to have the fabric or leather is pulled. You may see the needed gap more if the furniture is in front of a window too. It is good to remember the look is not as neat as the sofa you had before! Looks great from the front, but the back is a different story. If this piece can go against a wall would be best visual.
Same issue with sectionals, because sectionals are usually made up of several pieces, they are not going to fit together perfectly because there is padding and fabric on each piece pulled differently, and then they are pushed together. Even the best companies sometimes can not get a visually seamless connection. That will be some gaps, so placement of the connection pieces is important to consider!
Stationary sofas with one piece of fabric across the back can have their own problems. If made poorly or if abused maybe by children(young or old) could have saggy back fabric where the fabric was pushed or pulled and become loose. They can also have poorly crafted tackstrip or support frame that is seen through the fabric. It is something to be aware of. A $399 sofa may not look as nice as a $999 sofa especially on the back side.
Chairs are not usually a problem, except you should remember that a reclining chair will not have perfectly tight material because that back and seat need to move. These types of pieces probably look better from the front side, and keep the back towards a wall or corner if possible.
Some recliners may look like a chair when sitting, but are able to be opened to reclining position like magic. This style of recliner is ideal when the recliner back has to be in the main walkthrough and visual path.
To hide the cracks/ gaps on a sofa back, you could use an accent cabinet or sofa table to draw your eyes away from the back. The seams would not be as visible, because there is something decorative there to look at! If you have a chair, maybe sitting it on a slight angle will throw the view off some! Try to have it so you just don’t walk straight into the back!
We talk about the importance layout in your space at Tri City Furniture! We don’t want you to be disappointed after you get your new furniture
Come in and talk to any of my Designers at Tri City Furniture. We will help make your space great. We all have our gifts and talents. Putting a room together is not hard for us, but we have been trained, know what to look for, know what questions to ask and know what is available to our clients. We stay away from the junk furniture, because we want you to still like us 6 months, 6 year or 26 years from now. It is possible to have quality furniture that looks great for years.
