The Landscape Of Our Living Room

Back at the time that we invested in our sectional, we knew that the size of our large sunken living room would be accommodating enough for a secondary seating area; it’s not that we don’t spent plenty of time lounging on the big couch, we sure do, but we view it more “for entertaining,” and all that means is that it’s a big awesome couch near the fireplace without a television plopped in front of it.

The really good thing about the big West Elm sectional in its current orientation is that it makes for prime wall projection; anything and everything from PS3 to DVD and Roku shines up against the big white wall opposite the windows for–what can only be described as: dun dun dun–The Ultimate Entertainment Experience. And because the projection can be seen out of the front windows, for the first few months we used it, our living room literally stopped traffic (the ‘hood seems to be used to our antics, now). We’ve talked about getting a screen installed on the ceiling that we can use to project against, but it would only be so that I could hang some art on that giant blank wall so it doesn’t seem a worthy tradeoff. I love the wall projection enough to live with a gigantic blank white wall, which I think says a lot.

Projection technology isn’t really what I’m getting at here. What I’m here to show you is the cheapest couch ever* that in my mind financially offsets the cost of our big sectional and satisfies our family’s needs for a smaller, more concentrated seating area at which we can snuggle, put our feet up, and watch some quality PBS Kids on a traditional screen.

The Anywhere Convertible Sofa is from Urban Outfitters. I bit the bullet and bought it when there was a 25% off promotion with free shipping and the whole shebang with taxes only rang up for a little over $300, which I think is pretty awesome. I didn’t want to over-invest in furniture that was knowingly going to be jumped on/eaten on/spilled on/peed on, and that price tag fits the bill. If it lasts a decade, I’ll be pleased.

There were a few length limitations that held me back from purchasing similar models, but this loveseat (sized: 54″ long x 24″ deep) has clean lines and identical seat height as the sectional (27″ total height, 17″ low seat height). Those similarities help to make it seem like the two styles are more closely related than you’d know. The charcoal color of the Anywhere Sofa is a little darker than the heather gray of the West Elm Tillary, but they’re both perfectly neutral enough to work in our living room with the stonework and light floors.

The real perk of this couch is that it’s a pull-out foam bed sofa, because our kid loves to have slumber parties in the living room, and if being inexpensive wasn’t good enough, an inexpensive loveseat-turns-bed seems like the totally obvious solution for our children. For what it’s worth, Pete tells me that as a bed for adults it’s pretty damn uncomfortable, but the kids love it. As a couch, it’s firm, but it’s so nice to have arms and a back support that doesn’t fall out from under you that I think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Cody insists it to be his “OMG GIANT DOG BED!” which I am trying hard to forbid… lest it decay in like, 2 weeks.

We put the television up on the wall with the cords running between the joists last fall, and that’s a good anchor in this part of the living room. The coffee table is something some of my friends might recognize–because I took it from our apartment after they moved out and abandoned it–and as a temporary solution it has been fitting. It’s exactly the same width as our giant roll of paper and makes for a great paper-wrapped coloring surface. I’m in the middle of refinishing a different table that will also work well in this small space, but it’s round, so I’m already not convinced that I’ll like it as much as this hand-me-down.

The room is still coming together; as our main living space it is consistently improving to better suit our lifestyle.

*not actually ever, IKEA’s SOLSTA is similar. I checked out SOLSTA recently in person and can attest to it not being too bad in comparison to the Anywhere Sofa. If you’re asking me if one is better than the other, all I can say is… cheap is cheap, both are very lightweight, small, and obviously not heavy investment pieces.