Many of you don’t know this about me, but I did a brief stint in the big world of furniture. After graduating college and still having little to no idea exactly what I wanted to do with my time, but knowing I wanted to make some money, I found myself selling recliners for Berkline. Yah, I know, not only does it sound insane, but it was insane. And I sucked at it. I’m just not a salesperson. I’m forever grateful for the opportunity though, it afforded me a lot of wonderful things and memories. I bring this up because the little knowledge that I do possess about the furniture market definitely applies to me now as the owner of an interior design business.

After being surrounded by furniture my whole life (haha) and working in the biz ever so briefly, I have definitely settled in at 41 on some of my favorite things, and the first on that list is a good sectional. I want to walk you through the variety of sizes and prices, the fabrics, colors and patterns and of course, the availability.

Prep Work

Sectionals are as plentiful as blackberries (Shakespeare, y’all) and I promise you can find one to fit your space, big or small. But it is super important to know what your space is actually able to accommodate before shopping. Take some measurements of your room and consider how you want it to be set up. If a sectional is what you're after, you may need to change the orientation of the focal point in the room (ugh, the t.v.) and take measurements from there. Other considerations include walkways, doorways (including the swing of the door, if it goes into your space), and of course, other furniture. I would also recommend taking these measurements and a rough sketch of your room with you while you shop - the professionals on the floor should be able to help you along the way.

When it comes to shopping for a sectional all of the measurements matter, not just the measurement of your space. For example, your room might accommodate 110”+ along the back but need a shorter section on the return, or vice versa. This is why sectionals can fit in literally every type of space, the measurement availability is endless. And for me, a super important measurement, and as it turns out a difficult to find measurement, is the seat back height. Our living room has really high ceilings and our TV is mounted above our fireplace, having furniture with a 17” seat back is not ideal for comfortable viewing and relaxing (in all of my shopping around, it was so hard to come by a seat back higher than 20”).

You will also want to consider how the actual piece of furniture is configured and structured. Is it a standard corner sectional with right-hand or left-hand facing options? Wedge corner or bumper? U-shape, or modular? Figure these things out before shopping.

Best on a Budget

Now that you know how big, or how small you need to be, let’s talk money. There are a lot of home furnishings that you can buy on a budget, and certainly, you can buy a sectional on a budget if you need to. My personal opinion about furniture budgets is relative to the amount of time you will be sitting on it, lots of time, more money and vice versa. As with many purchases for your home, furniture should be on the list of investments, not divestments.

The sofa + chaise combination is typically the best compromise when it comes to wanting to lay full out but not pay full out. FYI, I don’t really consider it a sectional though, so there’s my two cents. There are a lot of great things about this style, for example, most of them can easily switch from right side to left side facing without much muscle, and there is usually a storage or sleeper option available, and customizing the fabric is easily done for most brands/manufacturers.

But, if you want to lay out and you’re ok shelling out a little bit more dough, here are some traditionally shaped options for you, there is a range of size and options for customization available here as well.

Touchy-Feely

This is my favorite part, the upholstery of it all. The options are basically endless and obviously cover the range of color, pattern, form and function. For me, personally, I have to consider a couple of things when shopping for furniture and more specifically upholstery: kids, pets and my husband - all the mess-maker that make up my home. When I’m looking around, I am looking at performance fabric availability - something hard to stain and easy to clean.

The most popular types of performance fabric are leather, microfiber and a less-known type, olefin. One of the best things about choosing a performance fabric, aside from the (you guessed it) performance, is the cost - generally speaking it is not more expensive to buy smart fabric. Shocking, I know.

It's what's inside that really matters.

While space, price, functionality and form all really matter, we can all agree that it is what’s on the inside that really matters… The construction of your furniture is what will determine how it will last in the long haul, the more you check off of this list, the better off you will be:

• Made in the USA

• Hardwood frames

• Eight-way hand-tied springs

• Double-doweled and blocked joints on your corners

• Metal connectors to interlock section to section