Cushioned life

Few things in a home take up more space, get more use or make a bigger style statement than a sofa.

Too often, though, finding the right one can be a frustrating quest, requiring marathon treks through countless furniture showrooms, where the sofas are never quite what you had in mind.

If it's got the right arms, it's got the wrong cushions. If the size is correct, the legs aren't. This one is too soft. That one is too deep.

But what if you could skip the search and conceive the sofa of your dreams? What if you could get a near-custom piece at retail prices?

You can, thanks to the increasingly flexible offerings of some manufacturers.

Norwalk Furniture's Variations program, introduced last year, aims to emulate the kind of custom options long available only to the wealthier among us and their decorators at to-the-trade design centers.

Variations features four sofa frames, all with a choice of several arm shapes and back and seat styles. There are down, spring/down and standard cushioning options, as well as a chance to select the sofa's base, which could be an exposed leg, a traditional skirt or a more contemporary wood base. Wood legs and bases come in eight finishes.

"We now have the ability to create a designer look," says Mark Little, owner of a Norwalk the Furniture Idea store.

Prices start at about $1,100 for a well-made 90-inch sofa -- an entry point that lets customers pick from a limited group of mostly solid-color upholstery fabrics. (You can also provide your own fabric to use on any of the Variations frames.)

Choosing from Norwalk's wider collection of more than 1,300 fabrics, Little says, boosts the average price of a Variations sofa to about $2,000 -- about what you'd pay for some Pottery Barn catalog sofas.

"With Variations, you're getting exactly what you want," says Little, who is an interior designer. "With our Estate frame, you can have 200 different configurations. You have four different arm styles. You can get your cushions three over three, or two over two. You can get them attached or loose, or you can get scatter-back cushions. I can do that sofa for an entire neighborhood and it will look different in every house."

Lee Industries also is emphasizing consumer choice. The company's custom-upholstered sofas start at about $1,800 for pieces that feature eight-way, hand-tied springs (a mark of quality in the furniture industry that's getting harder and harder to find).

"With Lee, there are so many different versions of each style," says Doug Reinke, owner of Philadelphia-area home-furnishings shop Host, which offers a selection of 500 fabrics. Most sofas, for example, are available in both full- and apartment-sized.

"That's been really popular," Reinke says. "In some older homes, you have smaller rooms, and the oversize furniture just doesn't fit."

Cushions and back configurations also can be changed according to taste.

One deep-enough-to-nap-on Lee frame that Reinke shows clad in kiwi linen in his store and on his Web site (www.hostinteriors.com) can shift from a strictly traditional English roll-arm look, with a tight back and turned legs on brass casters, to a square-back version with tapered modern legs and three-over-three cushions.

"You can even buy it upholstered and get an extra slipcover to use in the summer," says Reinke, adding that Lee has been delivering pieces in six to eight weeks.

Taking advantage of all these options requires some ability to visualize.

Norwalk has brochures outlining all the Variations, and the company's clever Web site (www.norwalkfurniture.com) allows you to see how changing a box-border welt cushion for a single-welt cushion affects a sofa's look. You can even try applying different fabrics to various parts of the sofa to get that funky "collage" look currently popular. But you'll see only a few examples of actual Variations program sofas on the Norwalk showroom floor.

Ditto the Lee Industries pieces at tiny Host, where Reinke keeps a small selection of sofas and chairs on display. With them, and with the aid of a thick company catalog full of photographs, he helps customers compare various arm and cushion styles, test out seat depths, and compare the feel of a spring/down cushion to that of a standard cushion.

Both stores advise shoppers to measure their rooms and bring in floor plans, or even photos. That's because scale is key to buying the right sofa, Little says. You don't want to put a behemoth in a small room, or a diminutive piece in a mammoth space.

Making the right cushion choices is also important. People with back problems may prefer the firmness of a standard polyester-foam cushion. Others might love the feeling of sinking into down. Or you could combine a firm seat with a down back.

Beware, though, Little warns: Saggy down cushions require regular plumping to look their best.

Other things to consider: The ideal seat depth for you might not be the best for the rest of your family, so bring everyone along, if you can, when selecting a sofa. Practical matters can also steer style decisions. Exposed wood legs, for example, can give a sofa an airy, less substantial feel than a skirt, but a skirt can hide boxes, games, or that dining-table leaf.

A sleek modern sofa with a tight back and seat might look great, but families with young children, or those who entertain frequently, might do better with a sofa with loose back and seat cushions that can be flipped to hide stains.

Those with durability issues might also want to opt for tough upholstery fabrics such as the Sunbrella line, which has come a long way from its boat-cushion origins and is now available in everything from bold damasks to batik-look prints to weaves as soft as chenille, for both indoor and outdoor use.

And what about color and pattern on a sofa? Is this the place to make the big statement, or to play it safe?

"A lot of people are afraid of the shelf life of a sofa," Reinke says. "They worry whether they're going to like it eight years from now. They have a fear of commitment."

His advice: "If you're in transition, or you think you will be moving in five years, don't get too specific with your sofa fabric. I tell people to pick a nice neutral and punch things up with your throw pillows."