How I Selected My Pottery Barn Sofa

If you can believe it though, despite really hating that sofa for years, Doug wasn’t excited about spending the money on a new one. Once I had honed in on what I was looking for, I took him shopping and seat testing to make sure we were on the same page. We tried shopping at several local stores and even went to a sales event south of Nashville, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on the purchase. 

It had to be light colored for Coco, it had to not have loose pillows on the back (loose pillows look great in the store but in reality, when someone sits on the couch, they are going to toss a few of those. So, going around and picking up pillows all the time was a major no-no).

I was drawn to a light colored neutral sofa with classic lines. I wanted it to be a staple piece that I could change the look of the room with pillows and throws. What I was looking for was exactly the Pottery Barn style. I wasn’t crazy about the Pottery Barn price tag and you see, I needed two sofas for our large living room.

We also needed new chairs so this was going to be a big purchase. We had been saving up though so we were ready to take the leap. We also wanted something light colored so our cat’s fur wouldn’t be everywhere. On our old sofa, there were tufts of it everywhere and we had to use a lint roller or vacuum several times a week. 

I got on the phone with my sister and talked my way through it. She convinced me that if I wanted a Pottery Barn sofa then the only way to get that look was to get it from Pottery Barn. So I started researching online and we took us a little trip to Nashville to check out what Pottery Barn had to offer. If you’ve ever shopped at Pottery Barn then you know that everything they have is beautiful. So it just really came down to personal preference on what sofa we’d pick.

I had done a little research online before we went in person so I was able to narrow it down to 3 different lines of sofas: The Carmel, the Big Sur and the York.

I wanted to have deep seating, the sofa had to be at least 95” in length. I wanted performance fabric for sure. I had to be very careful about the pillow formation. No pokey fussy pillows on the back. Our living room is fairly large so we needed large furniture. It’s normally just the two of us but I wanted our whole family to have a nice place to sit when they visit. We love movies so I wanted us all to be able to get comfy on these sofas and watch a movie together.

Once we were at the store, we sat on each one of the sofas that I liked and narrowed it down to the York grand sofa. What we ended up with is the York slope arm grand sofa from Pottery Barn. It is a classic design that looks a little more traditional, but the sloped arms let you know that this is not your grandma’s couch.  

Once you pick a sofa, there are more options. I got to choose between a square arm and a rounded arm. I had a rounded arm last time so I knew I wanted to go square. So, then I had to decide between a square flat arm or a square sloped arm. I decided to go with the square sloped arm because it just has a little softer, more traditional look.

We also got to choose if we wanted one bench seat cushion, two or three seat cushions. I really liked the two cushion option. The bench cushion made me a little nervous because of the other couches we had tested. I will say though, that these cushions are so heavy duty that I don’t think the bench cushion would flip up on the end. We also got to choose the back cushion formation, again with one, two or three. I choose two because that was what the display model in the store had and I really liked the way it sat, the way it looked and it was super comfy.

The next big decision was the fabric choice and whether I wanted upholstered or slip covered. We both decided in the store that we liked the more tailored look of the upholstered version and the PB rep assured us that if we chose a performance fabric we could still wash the cushions like the slip covered version.

So, the next big decision was the fabric, and you can read all about the grueling tests that I put those fabric samples through here.  

We’ve had the sofas for a little over six months now and we absolutely love them! We’ve had a few little spills and they clean up like a dream. All we have to do is fluff the back and lumbar pillows every week or so and I like to flip the seat cushions at least once a month. For the fabric tests I ran before buying these sofas, check it out here. I’m also happy to report that Coco’s hair doesn’t really stick to this fabric like it did our other couches. We are super happy with our selections! These couches are fabulous and I expect to enjoy them for years to come!