Decorating Tips | Designing With Ottomans

From coordinated footstools to coffee table alternatives, the ottoman serves in both form and function to the living room. Discover our guide to designing with ottomans—with designer tips on pairing the right ottoman size for your sofa to the many flexible uses an ottoman can add within a space.

Pictured above: The Warren Sofa in Oatmeal Performance Tweed

Ottomans can be the subtle workhorse of the room. Designers often use them as tools to add three main functions to a room: to serve as a versatile footstool, as an alternative to a coffee table, or for additional seating capacity within a space.

Versatile Footstool: Incorporating ottomans within your seating arrangement offers flexibility to move within the needs of the space. Many choose to float one or more ottomans in place of a built-in chaise configuration to allow for your footrest to accommodate any seat on the sofa—left, right, or middle.  

Coffee Table Alternative: For a more casual look and feel, designers offer an ottoman in place of a traditional coffee table piece. Style your ottoman with large trays for a place to display conversation-starting coffee table books or as a landing zone for beverages to extend the versatility of your piece.

Seating Capacity: Adding ottomans to your living room can expand your capacity for seating and allow for styling versatility within any space.

Pictured above: The Jones Modular Sofa in Bone Performance Textured Linen with two Luxury Ottomans to float within the space. Also shown: The Bond Chair in Camel Tuscan Leather and The Mott Stool in Ivory Shearling.

Choosing the ideal ottoman for your space can vary depending the size of your room, the size of your sofa, and the sectional configuration you choose. Often, the same rules for designing with coffee tables apply when you are designing with ottomans:

• The size of your ottoman or coffee table should generally be 2/3rds of the width of your sofa or sectional.
• Allow 14" - 18" of space between your ottoman or coffee table and your sofa. This allows for plenty of space to pass through, but still keeps the ottoman or coffee table within reach while sitting.

Our ottoman assortment is perfectly curated to suit the style and function of each seating collection. Overall, we offer four ottoman shapes, with sizing and availability depending on collection:

Choosing the ideal ottoman size is guided by the size of your sofa or sectional. Use the guide below for choosing the ottoman size to best pair with your sofa or sectional configuration:

Sofas under 90" width:

• For use as a footstool or chaise-style alternative, The Standard Ottoman is meant for one person and is ideal as a versatile add-on to your sofa.
• For use a coffee table alternative, we recommend going a size larger and choosing a Square Ottoman. This allows for more space to style with a tray and throw blanket, for easy use within the space.

Sofas larger than 95" width:

• For use as a footstool or chaise-style alternative, The Square Ottoman offers a larger footprint to match the scale of larger seating configurations.
• For use a coffee table alternative, we recommend our Coffee Table Ottoman, which offers a traditional coffee table size footprint for use within larger configurations.

Large Sectional seating:

• The Luxury Ottoman offers a larger scale, ideal for expansive sectional seating configurations. It can rotated vertically for a chaise-style footrest extension, or placed horizontally within the space as a coffee table alternative.
• For an alternative with even more flexibility, we recommend placing two Square Ottomans to float within the space to accommodate expansive sectional configurations.

Pictured above: The Dune 119" Chaise Sectional in Creme Performance Linen with two Standard Ottomans to float within the space.

Depending on the look and feel of your room, you can design with ottomans in a few different capacities. For a traditional style, we offer matching ottomans within each sofa and sectional collection. These ottomans are handcrafted using the same premium materials and cushion construction as the sofa and sectional piece, for a seamless matching set.

Pictured above: The Jones Modular Sofa in Bone Performance Textured Linen with two Luxury Ottomans

Alternatively, ottomans can be a great place to bring in additional textures and color to a space. To achieve the look, adding The Bowery Coffee Table Ottoman or a pair of Mott Stools to your space adds interest, character, and versatile function to the room.

Pictured above: The Jones Modular Sofa in Bone Performance Textured Linen with two Luxury Ottomans to float within the space.

Pictured above: The Bowery Coffee Table Ottoman in Nickel Performance Chenille and Whitewash finish with The Jones Modular in Heather Grey Merino.

The unique appeal of a modular piece lies within its ability to build a configuration that perfectly suits the size and needs of your space. You can choose from our preselected configurations or customize piece-by-piece using our Build Your Own Jones experience. A modular allows you to build elements for conversation areas, chaise lounge setups, and add ottomans to float within the space where needed. You can even build Luxury Ottomans within your Jones Modular configuration, which adds visual interest and variation to the piece, giving a laid-back feel that invites you to lounge. Each modular piece of The Jones can easily be attached together or reconfigured in your home for endless versatility.

Discover the three modular layouts our Designers love to use, in our guide to Living Room Layouts with The Jones Modular. 

Pictured above: The Jones Modular in Heather Grey Merino 

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