Stephanie sent us an email: "I need help finding a sofa/loveseat to go in my combination living room/dining room and to match a custom rug I already have. Here is the twist: My Chicago townhouse recently flooded and, along with most of our other furniture, we lost our lovely red couches. They were a darker red, not the bright ruby red I seem to be able to find everywhere now -- the color was called either Cinnabar or Salsa..."

"Two days before the flood we had purchased a custom cut living room rug to compliment the couches -- since it was not in our house at the time of the flood, we still have the rug and I am hoping for the help of the AT community in selecting the right color. Unfortunately we've been informed that the sofa we had is no longer made, nor have we had any luck finding a similar color sofa in our price range (we would like to stay under $4000 for sofa and loveseat and would love to find a sofa with chaise)."

"Now that our home has been rebuilt, the walls in the dining room/living room are tan (Ralph Lauren Canvas Natural to be precise), we have 10 foot ceilings painted white, plenty of natural light, and the room opens into the kitchen which has a gray slate floor, brown-to-red tone cherry cabinets and black granite, and stainless steel appliances. The dining room furniture will likely be a very dark brown, almost black and the media piers will match the dining room furniture."

"So far, my husband and I like both the Ian and the York at Room and Board and two sales associates have suggested Chocolate Brown/Mahogany for the sofa/loveseat with red throw pillows so that I can retain the red accents I had pre-flood. Will this be too dark? Can that much black and brown co-exist peacefully? I would love any other ideas you can share as I am exhausted from all the work involved with rebuilding the house and can't seem to make another decision! Help!"

Stephanie, we think you're right to be worried about too many blacks and browns weighing down the room. We'd love to see a darker red, like you mentioned. Sarahrae posted a great roundup of red sofas yesterday -- the Digit Paprika fabric from Room & Board might work. Emily and Craig's living room has a color scheme similar to yours (with the Andre Sofa from R&B in Digit Paprika). Room & Board allows you to customize their sofas in almost any of their fabrics -- you could cover the York or the Ian in Digit Paprika or another dark red, although you may have to pay a customization fee.

Other suggestions for Stephanie?