Erin Cochran

There’s a moment every fall when the air gets a little chill to it, the days get a bit shorter, and we all start longing for a cozy spot to hibernate in. If your current sofa is a bit of a disappointment in this department, here are some tips to help you find its comfy replacement.

A sofa is one of the hardest-working furniture pieces in your home. It’s where you relax each evening, take a nap on a Saturday afternoon, host football parties, watch movies, snuggle up with your honey, and have your best conversations. It’s worth choosing well, so here’s how I walk clients through it:

1. Start with how you actually live
Before you look at a single fabric swatch, ask yourself: Who uses this sofa? Kids, pets, a movie-night crowd, or a quiet reader? All of the above?? Do you lounge and stretch out, or sit upright with your coffee? The answer to this question will help you pick the style and fabric of your new piece.  (For fabric, we almost exclusively recommend performance fabrics for durability so that you don’t have to worry about how things will hold up with all that use!)

2. Measure twice (then measure your doorways)
A cozy feel is created with a conversation area. Make sure your sofa is positioned close enough to the other seating pieces so that you can comfortably chat with other people sitting in the room. Map out the space with painter’s tape on the floor, and leave room to walk around the space comfortably. Make sure to also measure every doorway, stairwell, and tight turn on the way in to ensure it can be delivered once it is made!

3. How will it sit? 
What piece of furniture in your house is your favorite place to sit? If you use that as your guide it will tell you a lot…

• Seat depth: Measure your from the front of the back cushion to the edge of the seat cushion on your current favorite chair or sofa. A 23″ seat depth is what I find is comfortable for most people. Deeper seats (24-26″ deep) are great for curling up, while shallower ones (20-22″ deep) are easier to get out of, but often feel more like you are sitting on a parlor sofa rather than kicking back and relaxing. 
• Seat firmness: Do you like a more squishy, relaxed feel that you sink into? Or maybe you prefer firmer cushions with more to them? Your favorite chair or sofa will help you to figure this out as well.
• Arm style and height: Arm shape really influences how wide your seating area will be, so it is important to consider. A narrow track arm has a sleek look, and gives you a lot of room in the seat, but sometimes doesn’t have as much padding to lean on. A rolled sock arm (the oversized version of this was so popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s) will give you lots of padding and a big area to rest your head or arm, but will eat up a lot of real estate in the length of the sofa, without giving you as much seating.  

4. Look under the upholstery
Unfortunately there are a lot of great looking sofas out there that are not well-built under all that pretty fabric. Make sure to do some research on the frame (kiln-dried hardwood is the gold standard), the joinery, the suspension, and the material the cushions are made of. These are the things that will become saggy after just a little bit of use if the piece is poorly made…not to mention it won’t be as comfortable to sit on as well. 

5. Think of it as an investment
A well-made sofa should serve you for a long time, so it’s worth stretching your budget toward quality construction rather than having to replace it after just a few years. Ideally it will last for 15-25 years in your home, so cost-per-use ends up being so low for the expenditure. 

If you have been considering replacing your sofa, or reworking your living or family room, let us know if we can help.  There are A LOT of things to consider when choosing these important pieces…

For 10 years we have worked with an amazing, third generation, family-owned company that manufactures superior hand-built upholstery pieces right in North Carolina. We can help you figure out exactly the right size, style, and comfort for your pieces, so you can cozy up on them for years to come!

This summer we have been busy completing some amazing projects–as well as savoring all the wonderful things that this season has to offer…

This month, I wanted to share a summer scrapbook of sorts — a little snapshot into what happens after your Revealing Redesign project is complete.

Because that’s why we’re in this business in the first place: so your house becomes the home that supports the way you really want to live:

A foundation for all the enjoyment, the making of memories,  & the living well, that can now happen within your four walls.

MAYBE–When you bought the house, it looked like a 1980’s furniture store: 

But then, this summer it has blossomed into a collection of rooms rich with color and texture that make you feel content, relax into your time at home, and is now the perfect setting to entertain those friends you have been dreaming of having over…

OR maybe that blank wall in your oversized family room filled you with dread and disappointment…

But now is full of the personality, coziness & comfort you had been longing for, so curling up with a good book or snuggling on the couch together to watch a movie just makes sense. 

Or perhaps, at the end of the day you came into a bedroom that you found “embarrassing”–that further drained you after a long day: 

But now, your bedroom is a delight to relax and spend time in…rejuvenating you each evening and energizing you at the start of every day.

I look forward to sharing more photos and details of these special rooms with you in the near future. But for now — since summer is a great time for dreaming — I encourage you to ask yourself:

What is possible for my house?

Maybe by next summer, you’ll be savoring the season in a whole new way, too — living your life well, supported by a home that’s finally redesigned for you and how you long to live your life.

When you think of the word “home,” I hope it brings up thoughts of comfort, ease, and enjoyment.

But I know that with the complications of life, all too often our houses become sources of frustration and disappointment instead.

Figuring out how to turn things around — so there can be peace and beauty within our four walls — can feel impossible.

Our clients called us when they knew it was time for a refresh. They hoped it might be possible, even when it didn’t really seem so at the time. With three small, very active kids, their own parents who also needed help from time to time, and very busy work schedules, a room that was simply “pretty” felt like a luxury out of reach.

Here is how the living room and sunroom looked when we first saw them:

Our goal was to create rooms that could actually live with them — ones that welcomed spilled juice and impromptu pillow forts just as easily as it welcomed guests.

Where there had been a tired, stained couch, toys everywhere, a sunporch that felt more like an afterthought than a room….

Now, we have:

• Two cozy, livable spaces with performance fabric seating that looks soft but shrugs off spills.
• Real storage, so toys have a home that isn’t the floor.
• A sunporch reimagined as an easy, sunny extension of the living room — not a leftover space.

I believe we all crave rooms that feel warm, intuitive, personal, and deeply supportive…

Here’s to homes that help us savor life– and deal with the spilled milk that comes with it from time to time!

Hello Friends!

My favorite projects often aren’t the ones that start with a blank slate — but rather are the houses that have frustrating & puzzling spaces that need to be thoughtfully reconsidered. For some clients, that means redrawing floor plans, moving walls, and reshaping interiors so that your home doesn’t just look better — it lives better.

This process is something we call ‘Spatial Remapping’ — rethinking which rooms do what, how spaces connect, and how your home’s layout can be reconfigured to match the way you really want to live in your house.  It is one of the most transformative things we do, and most clients never knew to ask for it.

The kitchen we are highlighting this month is a perfect example of that, and I love how it turned out… hope you enjoy seeing the results too!

A Kitchen Redesigned For A Growing Family

On paper, this kitchen had everything it needed. Plenty of square footage, counter space, and cabinets for a family of four– a young professional couple with two school-aged boys, and one hilarious & gregarious golden retriever.

But in practice? It was frustrating to be in, inefficient to cook in, and disconnected from the rest of the home (not to mention, the finishes were a bit dated for sure…).

The room had been last renovated in the ’80s or ’90s — and it showed. Circulation paths worked against the family rather than with them. Storage was plentiful but poorly thought out. And the kitchen felt like a room you moved through rather than one you gathered in.

And, the large dining room just next door felt like a dark, orphaned space that was cut off from all that was going on in the kitchen itself. 

We collaborated with our clients to learn what they wanted in their new kitchen and then reworked the space on paper from the ground up, seeing how we could create more light and better flow with the surrounding spaces in the house… 

Now a Spot to Gather

Once the layout was recreated, and after guiding our clients through all the selections needed for the big renovation, the construction phase of the job was artfully and expertly executed by DMB Contracting.

Today a full wall of paned windows invites natural light deep into the room, bouncing off clean white finishes that make the space feel open and alive. The expansive new island has become the natural heart of the kitchen — a place where the boys land after school, and where the extended family & friends gather when our clients entertain. 

Tucked into the corner is a cozy banquette, the perfect spot to look out at the back yard and sip your morning coffee.

Additionally, the relationship with the large adjacent dining room was reworked so that the two rooms connect more naturally, sharing natural light and lengthened sightlines– so that the whole downstairs lives larger and feels more inviting. 

It’s the kind of kitchen that makes ordinary moments feel a little more joyful. Which, in the end, is exactly what it was designed to do.CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL GALLERY OF IMAGES

WE WORKED WITH DMB CONTRACTING TO CREATE THIS BEAUTIFUL KITCHEN – VISIT THEIR WEBSITE HERE

Hello Friends!
I am sure with the days getting longer and warmer, you are like me–dreaming of the summer ahead.

This past year, I was honored to work with a long-time client to create a special space for their summer home in Maine…

One of the most meaningful parts of what I do is designing spaces where families come together — where memories are made, traditions are kept, and creating a place where everyone feels genuinely at home. This issue’s project is one that I am especially proud of, and I’m so glad to share it with you.