Seven steps to sofa heaven

Abbey Koplovitz, interior designer, relaxes on her Treadwell sofa from the Lillian August Collection at Drexel Heritage. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

When book publicist Emily Miles Terry set out to buy a new sofa, she had little idea she was about to embark on a multiyear odyssey. The Brookline resident and coauthor of "Nesting: It's a Chick Thing," initially thought she'd made the right call, purchasing a comfy, oversized couch.

"But as soon as it arrived, our family began calling it the 'green monster,' " she said, "because it was big and shapeless and seemed to have this strange ability to creep forward across our tight living-room space."

The couch is the most ulcer-inducing of furniture purchases. Get it right, and you've found the linchpin to your living room. Muck it up, and you're looking at a decade of buyer's remorse, slipcover experiments, room rearrangements, and an ever-evolving speech about why a purple chaise lounge does so go with everything.

"People tend to fall in love with a sofa as an object without considering if it will work in concert with the other objects in their space," said Melissa Mizell, an interior designer at architecture firm Gensler and a senior lecturer at the California College of the Arts.

But with patience and planning, the perfect sofa can be found. So without further ado - but with profuse apologies to Miles Davis - we present the seven steps to sofa heaven.

Stop, drop, and think
"Before you even start, do a lot of soul-searching. That means pulling images from magazines and catalogs and really paying attention to your overall space," Mizell said. Decide what the sofa's primary mission will be - de facto dining-room table? napping cot? overnight guest bed? - and catalog the other objects in your room to determine what'll coordinate.

Measure by measure
"I think the most common - and the most serious - mistake is bad judgment in scale," said Mimi Love, principal at architecture and planning firm Utile Inc. and the coauthor, with Chris Grimley, of "Color, Space, and Style: All the Details Interior Designers Need to Know But Can Never Find." "Sofas tend to look smaller in the showroom than they do in people's houses." She suggests drawing a floor plan of your space and cutting out properly scaled pieces of paper "furniture" to play with arrangement and scale, or creating a mock sofa out of boxes or other solid objects to see how it will fit in a room. And avoid later heartbreak by measuring the dimensions of all relevant entryways: front door, inside door frames, stairwell entryway, and elevator entrance.

Quality control
When conducting field research, leave your self-consciousness at home. "I think the worst thing you can do is not lay on it," said Jill Goldberg, owner of furnishings store Hudson in the South End. "My products are there for people to live on." Plop into it, lie across it, and bring a companion so you can see how the sofa sits with two people. Factors to consider: the slope and tightness of the back and arms, the depth of the seat, the height of the frame (do your feet reach the floor?), and the cushion fillings (high-density foam surrounded by down offers the ideal squishiness-to-firmness ratio). If you're in the market for a daybed or sleeper sofa, pull out the bed for further testing. In terms of construction, aim for an eight-way hand-tied spring system, which allows for a more flexible sit, and look for a durable hardwood frame that is screwed or doweled, rather than stapled, together.

Go with a classic
Until Forever 21 starts producing a furniture line, sofas will remain long-term investment pieces, so it's best to err on the side of timelessness. "I stick by the idea that unless you really know your style, go with neutrals on big pieces," said Goldberg. "It sounds a little boring, but you're investing a lot of money into a good quality piece, so try to be smart about it. Caution is the name of the game." Go for classic, symmetrical structures and neutral colors, and save the trend purchases for flourishes like throw pillows.

The fabrics of our lives
When it comes to choosing upholstery, self-knowledge is all. "The key is buying fabric that is useful for your lifestyle," said Goldberg. Cats? Avoid nubby fabrics like chenille. Kids? Resist high-end upholsteries like damask or jacquard, and look for removable pillow covers that can be washed or sent out to the dry cleaners. A tendency to spill red wine? Go for a darker, patterned fabric that hides stains, or consider kinder fabrics like leather, microfiber, or even mohair.

Green is good
Many eco-conscious sofa choices exist. Mizell suggests a visit to Treehugger.com to research sustainable furniture lines. Otherwise, ask customer reps about the source of the wood used in a sofa, as well as any coatings such as Teflon that may envelope the fabric. "Exercise your voice as a consumer," said Mizell, who serves as the regional leader of Gensler's sustainable design task force.

Up the ante
Ah yes, the crux of the couch-shopping dilemma: cost. One of the most common mistakes consumers make, said Mizell, is "not being prepared to spend enough money and sacrificing quality as a result." Be prepared to spend a couple thousand dollars on a new high-quality sofa. If your budget is tighter, consider shopping for showroom samples or putting the word out to designer acquaintances who get discounts - or friends who frequently remodel. Craigslist can also be a good resource if you have a high-quality make in mind but can't swing the costs. Plan on spending months or even a year locating the perfect sofa. "It's like finding a girlfriend or a boyfriend," Mizell said. "You need to exercise a little bit of caution."

Oh, as for Emily Miles Terry and her family: They ended up going to Jordan's and finding a soft, mouse-brown sectional. She admits it's a little big for their living room, but it's comfortable. And because they bought it during the Jordan's Red Sox World Series promotion last year, they ended up getting it free. There's a deal that's hard to beat.

A glossary of sofa terms

2. Scatter back A sofa that has more back pillows than seat cushions.

3. Button-tufted Fabric-covered buttons sewn into the upholstered back or seat of a sofa.

4. Tight back A sofa with no back pillows at all, but rather a cushioned frame.

5. Charles of London A classic rolled and pleated arm style, also called English traditional.

6. Kick-pleat, box pleat, dressmaker Three major types of pleated skirts seen on the bases of upholstered sofas.

7. Blendown A cushioning system in which a combination of down and feathers are wrapped around foam.

8. Plinth base A sofa frame that is flush with the floor rather than elevated on legs.

9. Seat deck When a sofa spring system is topped with padding for extra comfort.

10. Bun feet Short, wooden, rotund legs seen on many antiques and antique replicas.

11. Eight-way hand-tied A high-quality spring system in which the coils are tied side to side, front to back and diagonally to allow a greater range of movement.

12. Kiln-dried A wood-drying method that prevents moisture from warping a sofa frame.

HOT SEATS: What kinds of sofas do local style mavens have in their homes? We asked.

HEATHER WELLS Principal, architectural interiors firm Heather G. Wells Ltd. in Boston and Chicago: "I have a 3 1/2-year-old Jean-Michel Frank-style sofa from Mattaliano. It's very classic, very comfortable. It's a tight back, which I like because it stays really tidy. It's my favorite sofa - I suggest it to a lot of my clients."

SCOTT WALKER Co-owner, with wife Simone Alpen, eco-boutique Greenward, in Cambridge: "We have an L-shaped gray couch from Bo Concept. You design it yourself, so we were able to create the couch that fit our room and was just what we wanted. I don't know if it's especially eco-friendly, but we bought one that would last."

PAMELA WATTS Owner, mid-century modern furniture store Reside, in Cambridge: "I have a really wonderful 1950s couch, all-teak frame with very streamlined, charcoal gray cushions. It's one of the prettiest couches I've ever seen. So many times I've been tempted to bring it into the store, because it would sell in a heartbeat, for a lot more than I paid for it! But I'm keeping it, because I love it."

GRADON TRIPP Founder, designboston.blog spot.com: "I currently have a 7 1/2-foot cream-colored sofa. It has two seat cushions and three back cushions. I'm not sure the brand, as it was bought second-hand on Craigslist. It is very comfortable."

CHRISTOPHER NORFLEET Modern store group specialist, CSN Stores Inc.: "I currently own the See-Saw sofa from CB2. It turns into a full-size bed, and I purchased it online. I live in a studio and also needed something that could double as a bed. The color is taupe, a good neutral that is incredibly versatile. The material is ultrasuede, so it's easy to keep clean."

ABBEY KOPLOVITZ Principal, AbbeyK, in Cambridge: "I have the Treadwell sofa from the Lillian August Collection at Drexel Heritage. It's not a sofa that I've ever sold to a customer, but it's properly made and it's got a tight back. It just sits like a dream, and it has rolled arms, which are really good if you like to lie down on a sofa." - MEAGHAN AGNEW