This document provides five ideas for decorating around a leather sofa to balance its visual weight and create a balanced room. The first idea is to lighten up the space with pale walls, light accent pillows, and a light coffee table to provide desirable contrast to the dark leather sofa. The second idea is to break up a set of leather furniture by keeping the sofa and placing other pieces elsewhere, supplemented with upholstered chairs. The third idea is to layer the room with various furnishings in different finishes, like bookcases and tables, to take the focus away from a lone leather sofa and balance the space.

1. Decorate All Arou nd Leather Sofa

2. This is a common dilemma, since many people own leather sofas and sectionals,
and pieces upholstered in a traditional dark hide can feel visually heavy in a space.
But I think it’s less about making a room feel more feminine and more about creating
a room that is balanced with clever layering and accessioning since (done right)
leather sofas can be both attractive and comfortable. Here are five ideas I came up
with to decorate around leather sofas.
1.) Lighten Up : A traditional leather sofa is dark by nature so the easiest way to
balance that out is to accent and/or surround it with plenty of light for desirable
contrast. A paler hue on the walls, soft cream or white accent pillows, and/or a light
or white coffee table will accomplish just that!

5. 2) Break It Up: Another way to minimize the visual weight of a set of leather
furniture is to break it up. Keep the sofa and find a place for the other pieces.
Supplement with upholstered chairs for a chic and collected look instead of a
matchy matchy one.

8. 3.) Layer Around It. A leather sofa sitting all by its lonesome will dominate a space if
you let it. So don’t. Take the focus away from leather furniture by layering a room with
other furnishings in different finishes from bookcases to console tables to ottomans
and end tables. This first image is of two leather chairs and not a sofa, but a great
illustration of the technique. Notice how the blue cabinets behind and the striped
fabric on the ottoman in front balance the supple leather furniture set in between.