My living room (and most of my house) is knotty pine.
I need a new couch, and want a leather one. I found a place where I can get a black leather couch, plus loveseat and tables, for a really good price.
I can also get a brown leather one, no loveseat or tables, for about the same price.
I have no concept of style or taste. I am open to opinions. I personally think the black leather couch would look nice in the living room.
Aside: if you hate knotty pine (as many people, especially women it seems, do) or you hate leather couches, maybe start a new thread on that topic, as I would prefer not to redo the walls.
Aside #2 (and highjacking my own OP) actually I have a friend (female of course) who insists I paint the knotty pine white…
I’ve been looking at a dark green leather sofa at Ikea, but I’ll just hang out on the floor until I buy a house. Being a bachelour, I don’t really care if the furniture matches the walls. If a woman wants to change it, she’ll have to marry me!
There is nothing wrong with leather in a knotty pine room. However, I think that brown leather would be much more stylish and appropriate. Black leather = “modern style design” while brown leather can go with lots of masculine themes like the yours.
The house I grew up in had a wood themed,western style living room and we bought a brown leather couch and it looked great in it. Black just would not have done it. Also, brown leather tends to age hansomely as it gets scuff marks and such while black just wears.
I agree with Shagnasty that the brown would look better. I don’t see why you couldn’t compromise though and put some type of blanket or throws on the black couch and loveseat. I think it would be difficult to do on leather without it looking tacky, but I’ve seen it done. If the tables look modern too, I think I’d just skip the compromise (and better deal) and go with the brown.
I think the black would be just fine. And don’t touch those walls !! I HATE to see beautiful wood painted over. Some accents such as cichlidiot mentioned could be changed over the years as your tastes change.
The black should be fine with the walls. I would choose it over brown, if only to avoid the hunting lodge look.
You didn’t say what the tables are made of, but I think heavy chrome (or brass) and glass will work with this combo. Finished wood tables with an orange hue or mahogany stain may look strange if the walls are the typical yellow of most knotty pine. If this is the case, you might opt to take the sofa/loveseat and leave the tables.
As for painting those walls? This female says no way. I once lived in an apartment with well sealed knotty pine on every vertical surface in the kitchen. That room was a breeze to keep clean.
Dark colors make a room “look” small - knotty pine is bad enough, but unless the room is friggin’ HUGE, don’t even think of black - there is a reason it’s cheaper.
People seem pretty split. People who propose brown seem to feel more strongly about it.
The room is actually pretty small, so the points made that black makes the room smaller scare me a little bit.
As for the tables, I can pick from a pretty big selection of tables, wooden, glass/chrome, etc. I was thinking if I went with the black couch that glass/chrome would be better, but I wonder if the room will then somehow create a weird tension between the “modern black sofa with glass tables” against the “rustic knotty pine”. Like a weird Feng Shui thing.
If I were still married, this question would have been answered, without discussion. I’d save my debating chips and use them for things electronic and loud.
I may not have been clear in stating that I’m a bit more interested in hearing from the female perspective. Most guys I know don’t give a crap, an opinion I would normally share.
I 'll wait here a bit longer to see if the weekday dopers can sway me.
I can ad some info on how leather looks when it ages. My father has a brown leather sofa that he and his wife bought new about 25 years ago. The leather has aged beautifully and it looks better today than it did new. You have to keep the leather clean and conditioned or it will crack and scuff. My sister has a very dark green leather couch. She complains constantly how hard it is to keep clean and she is always touching up the finish with a bottle of leather dye. I would personally stick with a more natural color myself.
Another woman checking in. I vote for the black couch.
Now, I also like brown leather furniture. I agree very much with the posters who pointed out that brown leather ages beautifully.
However, in a knotty pine room (I have nothing against knotty pine, btw), the addition of a brown leather couch would result in too much “earthiness” for my taste. Unless you are going to go all out with a Western/rustic type theme, I would find the brownness of the room overwhelming. It is also hard to match browns, so if you were to add other pieces and accents over the years, you generally end up with “a whole bunch of browns.”
For some reason, the black leather couch in the knotty pine room reminds me, in a nice way, of the Great Northern (the hotel in Twin Peaks).
I think black also works better in the long term if it ever ends up in another room that is not knotty pine.
We have dark green natuzzi leather couches and they are not hard to keep clean. We’ve had them for 5 years and they look fine, so our experience was different from that of racer72’s sister.
At any rate, you asked about women liking leather. I don’t. Or at least, I didn’t. I think they look chunky and blocky (this is more a matter of design than material). But when we were furnishing our house, we knew leather would be better with our dog (hair, slobber, and eye goobers all being a fixture with basset hounds). And now that we have a kid, I can say I would never procreate without leather furniture. It doesn’t matter what the kid spills on it or pukes on it–it just wipes off.
knotty pine? if it is genuine wood don’t paint it, if it is a faux wall laminate, I wouldn’t heitate to paint it, well at least one wall, the one behind the couch.
I like the earthy red suggestion. Also, you said it was a small room, so if you go with the brown couch, you might just add a chair in place of the loveseat, and the place won’t look as cramped (more room for electronics (!)). Are the two couches the same? If the brown one is higher quality, that’s another thing to consider. I think a high quality brown couch will be more classic and timeless than a pair of black couches. Black couches are usually a fairly modern design, anyway. I don’t think it will look like a ski lodge with the brown couch unless you’re planning on setting it off with knotty pine tables and a bearskin rug.