A New Sectional for Our Family Room (Ikea Farlov Sectional review)

Hello! It is a snowy day here in NJ, just the sort of day to spend by the fire in our family room. We added a new piece of furniture to our family room in early January and we have been so busy enjoying it that I forgot to blog about it! Our old Ikea sofa was 14 years old and was looking tired after serving our family well for many years.

We decided that, this time around, a big sectional would be the best choice for our family of 5 (plus 2 goldens). We shopped around at the usual spots - Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and Ikea. We narrowed the selections to only those with slipcovers because those have worked so well for us in the past. For the price and value, we just couldn't pass up the Farlov sectional from Ikea. It is a generous size for our family room - which is about 24x24. We brought our kids with us to Ikea to get opinions on the Ektorp vs. Farlov sectional and as it turns out, the Ektorp wasn't an option for us. My guys dwarfed that thing. But the Farlov was the perfect fit for us.

Because we have 2 spoiled pups who are welcome on the furniture, we decided to go with the beige colored cover. Ikea calls it Flodafors beige and it just so happens to be a perfect shade to camouflage the dog hair that covers every surface in our home. I have found that any shade of off white or beige is MUCH more forgiving than white when dealing with slipcovers in a busy household. I didn't even consider the white slipcover for our family. I haven't washed these yet but I will update when I do. These covers are machine washable and I have lots of experience with Ikea slipcovers so I don't anticipate running into any trouble with these. I shared more about the other Ikea furniture we live with in this post.

I did a bunch of research on this sofa before we bought it and most of the cons were things we felt we could live with. The main complaint I read is that the fabric feels a bit rough, which is true - but I have to say it still feels comfy enough for us and seems durable. I will be curious to see if Ikea comes out with a new fabric next year. The great thing with Ikea is a new slipcover is just a 15 minute drive away. Also, with online vendors like Comfort Works (I got a slipcover for our last Ikea sofa from them), it leaves so many options open for the future. I love that - because I obviously I change things up quite frequently.

Another thing reviewers mentioned was that the cushions felt hard but we haven't found that to be true. In fact, it just seems to be getting more comfortable with use. The corner is hands down the favorite spot for adults, kids and dogs alike.

This sectional now anchors the television watching section of our family room. The sectional came with a bunch of matching throw pillows and then I added a few more neutral pillows in a variety of textures from my collection.

In my next post, I will share more about how it fits in with the rest of our Winter Family Room.

 Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon. :)

Looking for more Ikea inspiration? Here are a few more of our favorite finds & hacks from Ikea:

Kitchen Billy Bookshelves

Coffee Table

Slipcovered Ikea Chairs