Sofa vs Loveseat: What You Give Up With the Smaller One

The same sofa at two widths

Set side by side, the two KIVIK pieces differ only where you would expect. Same series, same cover, same construction:

Overall depth decides how far the piece reaches into the room, and it is the same on both. Seat depth and seat height decide how it feels to sit on, and they are the same too. On this pair you are choosing a width and nothing else.

What the extra 15 3/4 inches of seat gets you

About the width of one more person, which is why the two names exist. Whether you need it depends on how often three people sit down at once.

If that happens a couple of times a year, the loveseat gives you back a foot and a quarter of wall for a chair, a lamp or a bookcase, and sitting on it feels exactly the same. If it happens most evenings, the sofa costs fifty dollars more on this pair and the room has to find fifteen inches somewhere.

A loveseat does not help a room that is tight from front to back. It is exactly as deep as the sofa, so it takes the same floor between the wall and the coffee table, and that measurement is usually the one that makes a room feel crowded.

Where the line between them is

No standards body defines a loveseat, and one catalog shows how loosely the names are used: IKEA calls the 74 3/4-inch KIVIK a loveseat and the 78-inch SODERHAMN a sofa, four inches apart. A single width cut-off would put one of those two in the wrong group.

So, read the overall width and the seat width off the product page, and treat "loveseat" and "sofa" as a way to browse rather than as a size.

A bigger name can come with a smaller seat

SODERHAMN is a sofa whose seat is 18 7/8 inches deep, against 23 5/8 inches on the KIVIK loveseat: nearly five inches shallower on the piece with the bigger name.

Its other published figures differ too: 78 inches wide by 39 deep, a 73 1/4-inch seat width, a 15 3/4-inch seat height and a 27 1/8-inch backrest, with upholstery foams at 1.2 and 2.2 pounds per cubic foot. KIVIK's seat cushion is high-resilience foam at 2.2 pounds per cubic foot over foam at 2.0.

That makes them suited to different people. SODERHAMN's shorter, lower seat keeps a shorter person's feet on the floor and suits sitting upright; KIVIK's deeper seat suits someone who likes to sit back or tuck their feet up. Compare seat depth and seat height against a chair you already find comfortable, whatever the piece is called.

Which one suits your room

Two kinds of room come up again and again in this decision. When the name is settled, the best loveseats, compared by seat, size and cover narrows it to a model.

The first is a one-person apartment where the living room is also the dining room and the office. One buyer described an 18 by 12 foot space already holding a corner desk, a dining set, a TV console and a coffee table, with one or two visitors now and then, and was weighing a reclining sofa against a reclining loveseat. When a room has four jobs, fifteen inches is usually worth more as floor than as seating.

The second is a family room being furnished from scratch, where the choice is a sectional or a sofa and loveseat set. One household described two dogs and a baby on the way. There the question becomes layout and cover rather than width, and whether a sectional or two separate pieces suits the room covers it.

Either way, measure the route in before the room. Pottery Barn's guidance is that the width has to clear the entryway, and the diagonal depth has to clear it if the piece goes in on end, which is why a loveseat sometimes gets into a building that a sofa cannot. The order to take those measurements in takes about half an hour.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a loveseat instead of a sofa?

Yes, if two people sitting at once covers how the room is used. On the KIVIK pair the loveseat gives 55 1/8 inches of seat against 70 7/8, and everything else about sitting on it is identical, so you give up one person's width and none of the comfort.

What is the difference between a small sofa and a loveseat?

Mostly the name the retailer chose. No standards body defines either, and IKEA's own range has a 74 3/4-inch loveseat and a 78-inch sofa four inches apart. Compare the published overall width and seat width on the two products you are considering.

What is the difference between a chair and a loveseat?

Seat width. A loveseat is built for two people side by side, which on the KIVIK is 55 1/8 inches of seat, while a chair holds one person between its arms. If a listing does not publish a seat width, the overall width and the cushion count will usually tell you which it is.

Which is better, a sectional or a sofa and loveseat?

It depends on whether you want the corner filled or the pieces movable. Two separate pieces can face each other, split between walls or move to another room later; a sectional fills the corner and usually seats more people per foot of wall.

Decide how often three people sit down at once, then read the seat width rather than the category name. For the next two questions, PlushPick has the full set of sofa dimensions by seat count and a comparison of a sofa with a sectional in the same room.