Know How: How to combine upholstered furniture

Here at Arlo & Jacob, we’re fans of breaking the rules and doing things your own way. If you like to mix and match your living room furniture, we have a whole range of styles that work brilliantly together to create an eclectic combination of pieces, for a look that is completely tailored to you. Discover our various sofa and chair designs, and with over 120 fabrics, plus designer options, the possibilities are almost endless!

Shapes

Picking shapes and silhouettes that work together is the key to mixing upholstered furniture. There’s no need to settle for a matchy-matchy three-piece suite if that’s not your style when there are so many designs on offer. For instance, if you like softer shapes choose subtly curved furniture with rounded tops and arms, or pieces with plump cushions and removable covers, for a more relaxed look. Modern styles might have more angular lines, so choose pieces that reflect this element of the design. For example, for a touch of mid-century simplicity, we think our Earnshaw range works splendidly with our Jemima rocking chair. Alternatively, if you’re looking for more traditional shapes, our Helena, with its rounded arms looks beautiful paired with our buttoned Grantley occasional chair.

Fabrics

Combining upholstered furniture is all about complementary fabrics. Picking a base colour is the ideal place to start; whether you highlight your favourite piece of artwork, accent a colour from a pre-existing print or clash/match with your wall colour. Once you’ve decided on the main colour, choose a palette of complementary fabrics. A stripe and a floral can look wonderful paired together, as do patterned and plain fabrics when they share similar tones. Play around with multiple swatches until you find the right mix.

Order your eight free swatch samples here.

You may have an antique piece that you love, or has been handed down to you by family that you don’t want to get rid of, but doesn’t go with your new sofa or armchair choice. Getting it reupholstered is a sure-fire way of bringing it up-to-date and re-working it into your interior scheme. Pick a complementary fabric and give it a new lease of life.

Did you know you can buy our fabrics by the metre? So if we have a fabric that you love, get in touch.

If you struggle to choose fabrics that you think go together, we’ve put together an array of Fabric Collections that are ideal for narrowing down your choice. Order your favourite collection and it will come with eight complementary fabric swatches, plus a selection of product cards with designs that can be paired together for a curated look.

Order one of our fabric collections to see the fabric styles and pieces that go together.