Are Skirted Sofas Out Of Style? (Find Out Now!)

Styles come and go in a cyclical fashion. We are seeing more than a few trends, particularly from the 1980s, that are making a comeback into popularity. What was once not stylish becomes fashionable again seemingly all the time.

For couches, there is the question of whether or not skirted sofas are still “in.” Skirted sofas are kind of in a middle ground in terms of stylistic popularity. Skirted sofas are not the gaudy, frilly skirts that accompanied couches of old. They serve a very practical purpose for more than one design reason. They are favorable in spaces that feature furniture with a lot of legs, though they do present challenges for cleaning.

There are more than a few different styles of sofa. You can’t really universally define them as there are some qualities that set one style apart from another. The skirt is one of those qualities that help it stand out from the others.

A skirted sofa is a sofa that has a small skirt on it, which acts as a way to hide the legs of the couch or even provide a different visual aesthetic where other “leggy” pieces of furniture are involved. The skirt can have trim on it as well depending on the preferences of the owner and the rest of the room’s aesthetic.

The simple answer is “no.” While some people tend to associate sofa skirts with decades past, that doesn’t mean that they are locked in the past. There are plenty of modern sofa styles that implement skirts into the design.

Not only that, the look and feel of the skirts have changed as well. They now more closely match the modern aesthetic that so many value. All while offering a few benefits that may not necessarily jump off the page when you think about it.

Your big furniture pieces, like a sofa, can either set the tone for the rest of the room or blend right in. Skirted sofas can stand apart from the rest of the furniture in a room in a really positive way. Simply because you can’t see its legs.

If the room that has your sofa also has things like end tables, a coffee table, or other pieces of furniture where the legs are visible, the skirted sofa can stand apart. It not only provides one less “leg” visual to have to contend with, but it gives a distinctly different appeal compared to the rest of the room.

Whereas a sofa without the skirts can kind of blend in with other legged furniture, the skirted sofa can stand out in a positive way. It breaks the room up a bit and keeps it from feeling like everything has legs of contrasting styles.

More and more, bright colors are becoming a focal point in the design of a room. But there is still a need for more subtle colors. Having a neutral-colored skirted sofa is a great way to play off of those bright colors without taking away the attention you would normally put on those colors.

Skirted sofas can be used to break up too much bright coloring. A skirted sofa of the right color could act as the necessary complimentary piece to the rest of the room. The color scheme can even work in a way where it compliments secondary pieces while still acting as the primary.

The biggest downside to skirted sofas is that they can be more difficult to clean. Whereas you can easily get beneath a couch simply standing it on its legs without an obstruction, getting to the under portion can be more difficult with a skirt in place.

Not only that, for those who have pets, fur, pet dander, and other contaminants can collect not only underneath the sofa, but all over the flap as well. When cleaning, make sure that you lift the skirt up so that you can get to all the debris underneath. But it is all too easy to drag those contaminants out and onto the skirt itself.

Like it or not, there is one issue with skirted sofas that is real but not necessarily fair. For most people, thinking about a skirted sofa equates to remembering an elderly relative who had something that looked quite the same.

There are plenty of modern designs out there. The common stigma is that only old and outdated homes have a skirted sofa. But with more and more implementation into modern design, it is just as possible to have a skirted sofa that fits in well with a more modern design aesthetic.

Get that old, outdated trope about skirted sofas out of your head. With the right design and fabric, they can be just as much in style now as they were decades ago. They can provide a compliment to the rest of the room’s design. They can also reduce the number of legs that you see at a given time, and so much more.

If you are looking to create a modern living room design, going with a skirted couch is a great move. That is so long as you choose the proper materials and keep the skirt from getting dirty.