4 Seater sofas

Choosing the right 4 seater sofa

A four-seater sofa is usually chosen by width, and width is the thing that varies the least. The Olivia is 225cm, the Eliza 230cm, the Long Island and George both 235cm, so whichever you pick, the wall behind it is doing much the same job. Depth is where these six separate, and depth is the measurement that comes out of the walkway rather than off the wall. The George reaches 92cm into the room, and the Olivia 110cm, and those 18cm are the difference between a sofa you edge past and one you walk past comfortably.

So the honest first question is what the sofa has to do. The Olivia is the deepest and sits lowest of the six, built to be sunk into for an evening rather than perched on. The George is the opposite instinct: shallow, upright and formal, tailored with traditional pin tucks and standing on turned oak legs and brass castors, and the most upright of the six. The Long Island sits between them, its loose covers falling to the
floor in the way it has done since our founders brought the design back from the American East Coast.

The Eliza spends its depth differently again. At 105cm overall it is no deeper than the Long Island, but its seat runs to 72cm under a low 40cm back, so more of the sofa is somewhere to lie down. It is also the one designed to stand clear of a wall, on an exposed oak rail with removable turned legs. Inside the arms, the seat measures 206cm on the Long Island and 205cm on the George, with 180cm on the Eliza and Olivia.

Straight or L-shape at four seats

Four seats can be set in a line or wrapped around a corner, and the two ask for the room in different ways. A straight four-seater commits one line of the floor. The Long Island 4 Seater L Shape Corner Sofa commits two: it is narrower across the front at 220cm, but its return runs 260cm down the adjoining wall.

That makes the straight sofa the more adaptable piece and the L-shape the more decisive one. A straight four-seater can be floated on a rug, turned towards a different focal point, or paired with an armchair opposite and moved again next year. An L-shape settles a layout in one move, which is rather the point of it, and it is the better answer when the corner is the only sensible place for the seating to go. If that is the route you are weighing up, our corner sofas collection covers configuration and which way round to order in full.

How our 4 seater sofas are made

On most of these sofas, the frame vanishes under the upholstery, and the joinery only has to be strong.
On the Eliza it does not, and that changes how the sofa is put together. Every frame starts as kiln-dried tulipwood, with birch plywood used on the Olivia, the George, and both Elizas. Traditional reinforced halving joints run through the Long Island, the Olivia, the George and the L-shape corner. The Eliza is joined rail to leg with mortise and tenon instead, because its oak rail stays on show, its turned legs lift off, and its Natural Oak legs are protected with IsoGuard®, our penetrative timber treatment.

Either way, the comfort is engineered out of sight: serpentine springs under the seat on the Long Island, the Olivia and the L-shaped corner, sinuous back springs behind them on the George, and cushions that are foam-cored and feather-wrapped, with fibre through the blend on all but the George. The frame and springs are guaranteed for life, with three years on the fabric and cushion inners.