It appears that the tags are still on the couch. If at all possible, I really would consider returning the couch, and going with a more neutral color. You stated that you think the sofa is too light. I would go with your instinct, and perhaps get the sofa in a darker, more neutral fabric.

It kinda sucks when you buy a pricier piece of furniture, like a sofa, with the expectation that it's going to look great in your space; but then you start having second thoughts once you actually see it in place. Been there several times, even with a sofa or two, which I couldn't return because I purchased them at a Crate and Barrel outlet. But I was able to work with it by neutralizing the wall color, etc.

If you have to keep the sofa, perhaps you can change the wall color. I don't know if it's the photo, but the walls look lavender, so this blue/lavender theme, in the walls, the art, the sofa, and the lamp bases, is a bit too much, in my opinion.

I really love the shape and color of the couch and the lamps, but I agree that you need some earthiness to warm it up. If you can't return the couch, I think nice brown chairs, intermingled with colorful throw pillows on the couch and chairs to tie in the brown and the blue. (I know it's trendy, but the brown/blue combo has become my absolute favorite.) We have this combo in our LR (beige couches and walls, teal/brown pillows and teal drapes). We love it - very calming and friendly. I'm also adding in some apple green, which is delightful with the teal and brown.

If you chose the custom fabric you obviously at one point liked it so don't throw in the towel just yet! :) I think the lamps may be too "matchy matchy" with the sofa. Perhaps you can get different ones. Maybe in a metallic finish or a brown or even cream. I would suggest trying a color palette of cream and dark chocolate throw pillows, dark chocolate chairs, a rug that has some pattern to it but pulls in those three colors and even some punches of orange would look nice with the blue.

Good luck! The couch is nice. I like it because its not something you see everyday!

The sofa looks amazingly comfortable...I'd keep it and just relocate the lamps and the art above to another area..to keep the whole scene from looking too matchy. A dark rug in front, maybe some silver industrial/office type lamps on the sides and a couple of dark menswear inspired pillows and that blue will calm down quite a bit. Chairs in steel gray or choc. brown would look great..even all together I think.

Move the lamps and paint the walls an earthy color. Check out Devine Paints. They're colors are spectacular.

http://www.devinecolor.com/

Among my friends, I am probably the WORST at not liking to return things. Some of my friends honestly, really, truly, consider the purchase of anything from a nailclipper to an entire apartment as merely a "rough draft" and completely returnable/reversible/re-visitable at any point that they have a change of heart.

Me? I hate returning things, and once I have something, I'll either give it away re-cycle it or just consider myself stuck with it, that it's really made me think so long and hard about things before I buy them, so that I won't need to do that.

So, returning a couch would be the perfect nightmare for me to return.

However... a couch is entirely TOO big of a thing to let yourself be stuck with if you don't like it, because it's not like it was in your apartment when you moved in and you just can't face throwing it out yet, since it has some life left in it.

It has it's WHOLE life ahead of it to taunt you and make you beat yourself up about, and/or force you to make your peace with it, which is not a good thing to have to unless you really DO have to!

Some people would say thought you don't even have to get the new one at the same store -- if you're the particular flavor of hedonist as I am, which is that I like pleasantness in as many transactions in my life as humanly possible, you'll probably want to get your "final draft" at the same store.

So, I say go right back to the store, pick out a more neutral color that you KNOW you could live with, so that when they pick it up, they can just bring in a new one, and preferably one that's a similar price or perhaps even higher price.

But seriously? I think that something that can get dirty like a couch is probably going to have heartbreak ahead when it's that light of a color as that.

By the way... IF you keep that couch -- just because that couch is blue and those lamps are blue, doesn't mean they should be in the same room in that particular way. To be honest, I would probably paint those lamps that dark espresso wood color that's popular these days if I were keeping that sofa, and acknowledge both of those colors elsewhere, like in a rug.

Lots of times you can't return furniture without taking a hefty loss...that's my understanding at least.

This fabric looks somewhat similar to my sofa...though I guess mine is more of a green color. I think the tables and lamps are accentuating the blue which is making it seem more overpowering than it is. I like their rust idea....and I think doing different shades of neutrals would work--in my apartment, I have a brown rug, gold/brass accents, and off-white. Can you paint? I think having a darker color on the walls would help. Maybe find a rug that is a print but has the color of your sofa and other warmer colors....just some ideas! Good luck!

I actually like that sofa. The fabric looks like Chenille (did I spell that right?). I'd keep it unless you absolutely hate it and get some nice accent chairs in yellow or neutral oatmeal/beige shades. They would complement and not compete w the sofa's colour.

If you were really adventurous I think a similar tone of green would work for other pieces of furniture as well. A pea green I mean, not forest or emerald.

I hate to say it but I think the brown and blue combo is played out. And it is too predictable.

I would paint the walls a brown, tan or kaki color. This being a custom order, it may not be returnable? I really think it can work with the right paint color and art work. I would switch out the sunflower for a beautiful large scale blw photograph photo that is frames beautifully....
Working with color is just a matter of confidence and contrast with your choices.

I have a blue couch by the way....

I mocked up an image for you...just need to figure out how to get it to you to view...

I posted it to my profile as my default pic,
it's small, but you get the idea.

Couches can tend to visually dominate the room (because they're usually the biggest piece of furniture.) So if you don't like it, return it. Feeling blah about it today could be 'big couch resentment' in two years.

Also, i think that colour is too light and too limiting and too pastel-y. Darker blue or a more neutral colour would be better. Or, if you keep it, you need to accept it and build your room around this colour. Hiding it won't work!

Chocolate Brown walls. Beige shag wool. Silver lamps (move those other lamps somewhere else).

Yes, keep the couch, it's terrific. Yes, lose the matchy lamps. And yes, go with an earthy tan or khaki as suggested. Farrow & Ball has a brilliant range of tans you may want to explore. Although it looks like a straight-up tan, F&B's "Biscuit" actually has a detectable olive undertone that might compliment your couch nicely. Send us an update when you're done!

p.s. Lose the end tables too. (sorry!)

Hang the paintings lower. Remove the crap from under your tables.

I was thinking of shifting the lamps to the other side of the room, and then taking the color scheme to a steel grey/navy blue/lighter blue/tan/cream. I know lots of colors, but it keeps your floors and the couch and adds some pinache to it. Think pinstripes and stainless steel with softer fabrics for the comfiness needed in a living room.

And I would change the wall color, right now it's too close to the couch color that it doesn't let the couch speak. Take it to either a rich deep color or the same color as the floors.

Love the couch. not a fan of the side tables in that set up though.... the wood tone is off against the beautiful blue, and the dark blue tabletop doesn't quite work. I think the lamps and couch will work if you get some new side tables - maybe black, or white marble, or modern glass/ss. The teal green painting doesn't work on that wall, stuck in the corner next to a vibrant blue and yellow painting. Do not get any more chairs in the blue/green family.

Something in a sandy taupe color (i know it is light) would be good. Of course, there's always that trendy dark brown - robin's egg blue combination which is popular now, but is so cliche.
You could also go with overall palette of gray white blue for a serene minimalist look.

michael9246 -- Nice job.

John,

Take a look at this quick Photoshopped redesign. If I were you I would replace those end tables with solid wood (hand-rubbed) end tables in walnut.

What do you think of these colors?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72524617@N00/2111023506/

Micheal9246,

Great minds think alike! Your redesign is beautiful and you've kept the blue lamps too! Nice job.

:) Vanessa

John, I'm sure you are probably a great and wonderful guy but that sofa, however, is not!

The shape of the sofa is VERY nice but that fabric!?!? It's offensive to the eyes.

I say abort, abort!! Chuck it down the bin and bring me a knitting needle!!!

(send it back while you still can)

Much agreed, michael9246-nice work! Also, very thoughtful. What about taking michaels idea and replacing the lamps...chrome or glass?

I like the idea of adding chrome/mercury lamps.

John,
I liked the colors that Micheal9246 suggested, so I modified the mock-up with his colors while keeping the chrome lamps and adding a suitable end table.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72524617@N00/2111049106/

I agree that the sunflower, lamps, and perhaps the tables need to go somewhere else. The couch is is upstaging them.

It's a beautiful couch with a great texture. The challenge will be to integrate it into a scheme that is also comfy, casual and welcoming. A soft, good quality wool rug would be a first step to anchor it. Transparent glass lamps might work better.

I agree as well that the tables and lamps are too matchy matchy with the couch. You could probably use one of the lamps elsewhere in the room, but the 2 of them will probably be too much anywhere in the room. For a rug I would go with a bold print (with just a touch of blue, olive, or gray) that would draw the eye from the solid blueness of the couch. Or if not in the rug, in some art work above it. Good luck!

Micheal9246, I love what you did. Thanks for keeping the original end tables.

Well, at first I thought the couch was kind of nice and could work. Then after I saw Michael's great mock up I changed my mind. He really did make the best of it, but the couch is still to bright in my opinion. If you can't return it, I think a nice throw to cover most of it might help.

I'm just a regular non-designer person, but I love the couch! Just paint the lamps another color and get new end tables in a dark chocolate brown. Add 4 throw pillows to your couch--two in dark brown and 2 in a neutral accent color (I'm thinking of those organic pillows in oatmeal-color at West Elm) like beige or maybe even pale yellow. Keep the pic above, especially if you go with pale yellow.

Rug should also be natural color. Think of that organic/spa/ocean color scheme that you sometimes see.

I agree with michael9246 - keep the lamps (don't paint!), and don't put them next to the couch. They're going to tie-in with the couch nicely if they're placed elsewhere in the room. michael9246's mock-up is LOVELY. I'd do one mercury and/or chrome table lamp on the near end-table, no lamp on the far end table, and put a more extravagant shade on something like the Samtid Ikea floor lamp.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60061024

Ignore the lighter-color rug comments. You need something to ground everything (lighter hw floors, light-color couch). The chocolate background with lighter colors on top on the michael9246 mock-up rug is perfect w/o reading giant "block of chocolate".

What's bugging me now is the cobalt-blue in the art & the existing end table. Imo, those won't work with the couch and need to be moved away from it.

Orangejuice: if you're asking for a knitting needle, it should be a huge one - so you can find a matching blue yarn and some in the reddish rust color to knit some fabulous pillows with extra-large needles!

If you're going to keep the sofa (it may be worth taking the "furniture return" fee hit - it depends), make the other changes that are being suggested - and then tie them all together with pillows on the sofa. There's a part of me that wanted to write "mohair" for the blue yarn, to play off the texture of the sofa fabric - and maybe add some oatmeal color to it.

I think texture is as much of an issue as color in whatever you do, so play with that too.

Happy obsessing!

Thanks for all the comments. Kind of over-whelming. I'm new here so I don't know if I can respond to anyone individually. I'm also sending updated pics to Janel since the one posted here looks more blue than the couch actually is - the color is called Seafoam and it is more green than blue but it depends on the light in the photos. I lowered the painting behind the couch (many people suggested that) and moved two paintings around because someone said the other one didn't work in that location (although I thought the green in that other painting would work with the green in the couch). The wall behind the couch is off-white - not lavender as someone thought. I'm looking to keep the lamps, tables and paintings. I'm thinking of buying 2 upholstered chairs, a throw and maybe a rug to make this work in the apartment. Also thinking of painting the wall behind the couch. Not sure if the couch being more green than blue will change the comments made here???

i just saw this post on craigslist.. weird

Why wierd? Before I discovered Apartment Therapy, I thought of selling the couch. After posting the ad, I got advice rather than offers so I re-posted to ask for more advice. Than I discovered Apartment Therapy and Janel posted my conundrum and now have more advice than I know what to do with...

return the couch.
Period.