Ever since we bought our first house seven years ago, we have been living with a two-seater sofa.
Now that we are a family of five, that tiny two-seater sofa was really starting to become too small.
However, we liked the light and uncluttered feel that living with smaller sofas brought. We were wary about upsetting the balance of our living room with a sizeable new sofa that could potentially take over the room and become the first, and biggest, thing you notice about the space.
DFS French Connection Zinc
Enter the DFS French Connection Zinc. I have had my eye on this DFS sofa for a couple of years, admiring it whenever it cropped up on my instagram feed. The DFS French connection Zinc Sofa also happened to tick all of our boxes for a family sofa.
Although the French Connection DFS sofa is a large sofa, it gives off a very slim appearance. The arms are slender, it’s not a hefty sofa, the zinc sofa feels light and balanced. The clean lines and slender legs of the DFS French Connection Zinc sofa really help to emphasise the space and flow in the room. Being able to see the floor underneath makes a huge different to how open the room feels.
Considering that we pretty much picked the largest width possible, we were really happy to find that our zinc doesn’t dominate the room. Instead, it compliments it really rather well.
There are a wide range of fabric options for the French Connection Zinc, including some very luxurious and on-trend velvets. We opted for the durable, family friendly grey combination fabric.
Originally, we had been pining after a deep green velvet to fit with our botanical theme. But in the end, we decided that a statement sofa like that would probably work better in a smaller size, and we really wanted as large a sofa as possible to give us growing room and space to sprawl.
Fabric sofas seemed like the safest choice for a young family. Choosing between fabrics was the toughest choice of this whole project! If you pop into your local DFS store, they have a whole book of fabric swatches to choose from – which means you can really make a French Connection DFS sofa your own.
With our plant stepladder, and my MONTI vases above the fireplace, our living room quickly started resembling a small botanical garden.
We quite liked the calming atmosphere our mini jungle added, and so we decided to expand on our botanical styling even further.
I find that the permanence of hanging prints on the wall actually scares me away from doing it, and as a result many of our walls are rather bare. This was my first time creating any sort of wall feature, and I had a lot of fun planning it.
I sketched out a couple of options on paper first. I wanted something that would frame the sofa and balance that side of the room so that our large sofa wasn’t the one and only focus.
I didn’t want it to look too neat and symmetrical either, hence opting to put the picture shelf slightly off-centre.
I think me and picture shelves are going to get on well – I love that I can change up the look any time I want without creating more holes in the walls, and that I can also use it to display plants and trinkets.
The botanical prints are all from Desenio. The concrete plant pot is from Geo Fleur, and the air plant is from MONTI. The copper pineapple is from Oliver Bonas, we usually store lighters for candles and other small bits and bobs in there.
The cushion covers are from H&M, bought last year. I am considering swapping them out for some palm leaf covers, but can’t decide if that is taking it a step too far with the botanical theming – what do you think?
I think the French Connection DFS sofa is one of the best high street sofas out there for a clean modern look that won’t break the bank and is also super comfortable and durable.
2023 Update:
We have now had our French Connection DFS sofa for over five years, and it is still used every day as our main living room sofa.
Being a family of 6, we have definitely put the DFS French Connection Zinc sofa through it’s paces (and a house move!). But our zinc sofa has held up incredibly well – it has kept it’s shape, and the legs are still solid.
We haven’t been particularly precious about the upkeep of our DFS zinc sofa, but it still looks in as good condition as it does when we first got it. We are very pleased with the longevity the DFS French Connection sofa has given us so far.
Can you put DFS French Connection sofa covers in the washing machine?
DFS advise that you don’t machine wash the french connection zinc covers. However, with four children, there have been times when we’ve had to put our zinc sofa covers in the washing machine. And times when we’ve had to give them a very good hand wash in the bath.
Our french connection fabric covers have always survived a machine wash on a low setting and scrub up pretty well afterwards. I cannot vouch for the velvet covers, though, as we don’t have experience of those.
In conclusion, it’s not recommended to machine wash DFS french connection cushion covers, but at a pinch, it can be done.
Where are French Connection DFS sofas made?
DFS French Connection sofas are made in the UK, handcrafted in Derbyshire.
Can you remove the legs from the DFS French Connection Zinc sofa?
The legs of the DFS French Connection sofa are removable for easier access into small entryways.
Our French Connection Zinc was provided by DFS for the purpose of this feature.
7 comments
Oh I LOVE how you’ve styled the space! The sofa is beautiful, and like you say the legs really add to the simple design. x
I have massive sofa envy. It’s looking gorgeous. I don’t think the palm cushions would be too far at all! x
I say go for it with the cushions! Love the sofa – I’m in a few facebook groups and communities where it comes up time and time again as a recommendation, and I can see why. It looks so spacious too!
Hi there, what a fantastic room! I’m also looking at buying this sofa. I have 3 children too 🙂 I quite fancy the cuddler armchair to go with it but unsure which colour combination to get if choosing grey for the main 3 seater . Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Ooh that’s a tough decision! I think it depends on the colour scheme in your room. And whether you need a very kid-friendly fabric. I love the look of some of the velvet fabrics.
Hi. We have just bought tte green version of the zinc sofa and we are disappointed that it’s so stiff in comparison to the one we sat in in the dfs store. The seat cushions we expect red to be firm but the fabric is so hard especially the back cushions and little side cushions. The top edge of the back cushions is not smooth like the one in the shop it’s wrinkled and because there is no give in the fabric I can’t smooth it out. Disappointed
Hopefully DFS can offer you a solution. I don’t find ours too hard, but it is firm, not like a super squishy sofa.