Perhaps one of the most important furniture for our new home is the living room’s sofa set. Where family gathers, where we watch our favourite Netflix show, and where conversation with friends happen! In our previous place, we had a L-shaped fabric sofa, and while it lasted us for a good 5 years, a fabric sofa can be hard to maintain as it does get stained easily and the colours did not hold well overtime with the usual yellowing of fabric materials. 
 
Leather or Fabric? 
The first step in deciding which sofa to get for our new place is simple, to decide between a leather or a fabric sofa. Both has it pros and cons, a quick online search and you will get a good sense of what to expect. From durability, costs, availability of options, ease of maintenance, and ultimately, to match with the interior decor you are going for. 

Noting the various pros and cons for both options, the main concerns for a leather sofa includes the most obvious higher cost, and the seemingly more limited colour options associated with leather sofa. 
 
Having said the above, leather sofa is definitely more durable and easier to maintain than a fabric sofa. Design wise, as we are going for a Japandi look for our new place, the leather sofa will help provide a more sophisticated look to complete the house. Further, we are also looking to place our existing massage chair in the living room in the new place, choosing a matching leather sofa will complete the overall look and feel better. 
 
Shopping for Leather Sofa 
From saving photos on Pinterest, to getting inspirations from various Instagram accounts, we definitely have a good sense of what we want. The tough part will be to find the ideal sofa from the various retailers in Singapore – you can refer to our next article on a full reference list of our go-to furniture and other household accessories retailers in Singapore. 

Whilst shopping, we also started learning more about leather sofa and the various options to it. Top or Full Grain Leather sofas will refer to the usage of the said leather across the entire sofa, whereas most leather sofas in the market are either Full Leather of Half Leather. The former will see top grain leather on all seating area, with split leather used for the sides and back of the sofas. The Half Leather will see the split leather being replaced with synthetic leather, or also known as PU. These variations allow for homeowners to afford a leather sofa, as most Full Grain Leather Sofa can be rather costly. 

That said, there is more to leather sofas as there are various types of leather in the market too. Broadly speaking, you can group them into Aniline, Semi-Aniline and Protected. Aniline is the highest grade of leather, the least treated form of leather retaining the soft touch and natural characteristics of leather. On the other end, Protected Leather is more treated with it being more durable and resistant to stains. Depending on your situation, if you need to cater for family, pets and where you are placing your sofa, get the sofa that fits your lifestyle best. 
 
Choosing on the final design 
This should not defer much between individuals, as we will generally end up shortlisting a couple of designs we like from various brands. For us, we were looking for a small 2 or 2.5 seater leather sofa with a slim profile on the sides as we preferred a cleaner look. After much deliberation over a couple of key decision matrixes including pricing, reputation and quality of the brands, right fit with the overall design of the house, and most importantly, being able to customise the colour and type of leather for the sofa. Most furniture retailers do not offer much options as they only retail a fixed specification, although if fits what you want anyway, great! 

For us, we shortlisted HomesToLife’s Wright Sofa and went with the Pecan Brown leather which is part of the brand’s Signature Leather collection. Admittedly, most of us do not buy sofa often, though the salesperson at HomesToLife was extremely helpful in guiding and introducing us to the various types of leather, the suitability of the leather for our lifestyle, and even matching them with the interior decor of our house. This was amongst one of the key reasons for us to go ahead with HomesToLife. 

In addition to the sofa, we also complete the living room look with the Tower Ottoman in the same leather. Having been used to a L-shaped sofa previously, this is something we wanted to ensure comfort in the new place. 

To our surprise, HomesToLife actually carries other products beyond their mainstay offerings, Sofa. Luckily for myself, as our new house follows a Japandi design theme, we found the perfect coffee table for the living room here as well! The Arhus Set comes complete in Ash Veneer finishings and pairs very well with the Wright Sofa. Coming in a set of 2, the smaller Arhus table hides into the larger table if you are looking to save some space. 

Delivery Updates 
If you are in the midst of buying new furniture, or looking to renovate your place any time soon, just note that the ongoing global supply chain disruptions are impacting the lead time for your furniture orders too. We ordered most of our furniture with 3 to 5 months of lead time buffer in mind ahead of our planned move-in date. 
 
Upon your order, HomesToLife will look to arrange with you an expected delivery date. Fret not, should there be any delay, the customer service will contact you. Feel free to contact your salesperson directly too, just as we did since we wanted some certainty of timelines! A reminder was sent to me couple of days prior to the delivery, which was a nice touch. 
 
Final Look & Feel 
When’s there nothing more to say, I shall let the photos do the talking! 

For more of HomesToLife, do head to their website or visit one of their many showroom locations islandwide! 

This article is written in partnership with HomesToLife, though all opinions expressed are our own.