apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I answered yes, but I have a very specific kind of pattern in mind - one that is really quite large and does not really repeat. I think that would look divine!

My parents have a beautiful timeless tufted and printed sofa that's navy blue with large white subtle floral. It has never gone out of style.

I agree, you don't want to fight with the existing 'pattern' created by the tufting itself...not too large of too bold- perhaps a muted paisley or smaller floral in monotone colors that give more of an overall texture then a pattern- I think the stripes work on the above sofa because they are linear against a curved 'pattern' created by the tufting...whereas the other sofa shown has a more geometric 'pattern' so an organic print would work!!

Yes, but...

You will need a fabulous upholsterer.

And it needs to be a tight repeat, totally random (like an animal print) or something completely overscaled.

It depends entirely on the pattern, but mostly no.

Large florals and paisleys work - Small ones don't.
Plaids and linear geometrics won't - and frankly, I don't think that stripe works well as the linearity of the pattern is ruined by the tufting.

If you're unsure, take a yard or two of the proposed fabric and tuck & fold it as it would be on the piece of furniture.

One can never go wrong with solids.

Look at this sofa-

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=3312557607801638652&id=66401&parentid=LIVE_UPHOLSTERY&pushId=LIVE_UPHOLSTERY&popId=LIVING&sortProperties=&navCount=1&navAction=jump&fromCategoryPage=true&selectedProductSize=&selectedProductSize1=&color=one

I love it- the colors don't work for my place, but I'm currently scheming to figure out a way to get it.

Yes here as well....but I like it with an irregular print, like an oversized floral or paisley versus a regular print like a stripe. PLUS!!! You can cover the buttons in a solid to make them really pop (but not literally).

I know that this sofa style is NOT AT ALL the same, but it does have button tufting, AND you can try on all kinds of fabrics, just to get some ideas.
http://www.la-z-boy.com/furniture/customize.aspx?pid=2115

Be sure to browse the various color selections. I think that will take you to just red. You can choose other colors too.

Most that I tried looked like crap. However, check out the swirly design in the Black/gray color section, called this:
Fabric Number: K897950
Fabric Name: Wiggington
Fabric Shade: Black
Fabric Clean Code: S

And, oddly, the animal prints look good, in the Gold section, check out leopard (also go back through AT to look at the collection of brown/off-white items, there was a leopard print seat/back).

Remember that you won't see the buttons anymore. They will pretty much disappear into the fabric pattern. And perhaps that is why the ones I saw online were a solid fabric. The buttons and tucks create pattern on their own.

If you did try a printed one, like the swirly black and white, you could do something wild and have red buttons. Or lime green buttons.

On the other hand, you could have a regular solid neutral, an dress up the surrounding space:
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/slideshow/slideShow.jsp?slideid=/templatedata/bhg/slideshow/data/1163610002159.xml

There is plenty of pattern and color in that room. But look, the seating itself is a neutral gray. The pattern comes from the rug, the couple pillows and that FABULOUS idea of using a magnetic board and some fabric scraps and papers.

That means you can probably afford all those retro fabrics, like these:
http://www.eamesfabric.com/index.html

But not to cover the sofa! Scraps, remnants, wrapping paper, posters, and put those up on the wall behind your new sofa. Don't forget thrift stores. If you find a cool print, on a man's old shirt, pick it up and cut out a big square. Ha!

You could have a lot of fun using a black/white/gray base and accenting with color and pattern on walls, floors, pillows, windows.

Yes, it does work, and fabulously.

i.e.,

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=66401&navAction=jump&search=true

I said yes, and I'm not kidding. However, I agree that you have to really be careful about how you design it, and who you have do it.

It could either look amazing or odd.
Like the other posts say, either a really large or really small print would work best.

If you are doing patchwork seams like the white sofa pictured above, you will probably need an extra 4 yards to insure the patterns line up.

If your interested in a tufted sofa or maybe reupholstering your current sofa check out TheSofaCo.Com. We have a plethora of prints and patterns or you can bring in your own.