The tape measure lied to me. Well, no, that’s not fair. I measured my second bedroom/home office/multi-use room so many times trying to justify buying a couch that eventually lived there I should have got those lines worn into the carpet.
There was no way a full-size couch was going to fit. It was about eight feet across by ten feet long…if you ignored the radiator jutting out from the wall three whole inches. Okay, so full disclosure, I wanted a couch in there anyway.
After two years of working remotely in that room, sitting at a desk that doubles as my dining room table when I take lunch by myself, I really needed a place to sit that wasn’t my desk chair or my bed. Everyone gets that craving every now and then.
You know the one where you want to sit and read or cuddle with the dog without it feeling like you’re either working or sleeping?
My downstairs living room has chairs. Trust me, I love my downstairs living room and its chairs. But there’s something about having your own comfy spot upstairs, too.
I started looking for couches labelled “bedroom sofas” online. Which sounds super fancy AF. Like something you’d find in a boutique hotel or your rich grandmother’s holiday home.
Turns out most “bedroom sofas” online are actually either glorified benches that I didn’t think could actually support a full human being or normal loveseats with the word “perfectly compact” written all over them. Like, bro, we both know you’re not compact. The couch I got is 52” wide by 28” deep.
Don’t ask me why I know that. I just do. It’s made of charcoal linen- not because I know anything about fabric choices, but because my boyfriend insisted that getting a dark-coloured fabric would hide every stain known to mankind and he’s probably right.
Between cat hair and me drooling toast crumbs all over myself while grading English papers, needing to hide stains was kinda a priority. Finding it was honestly more difficult than buying it. I probably drove by every furniture store within 30 miles of my house and sat on at least a hundred couches looking for the right one.
I bounced on them (because you have to know if they’re the right comfort level), checked how much legroom there was, moved all the cushions around, you name it.had to spend that much money on something I was going to have to live with every day AND fit in my ridiculously small bedroom. I was NOT going to settle. Delivery was another adventure all its own.
If you’ve ever had to get furniture bigger than a chair brought up to your second-floor flat through a flight of stairs that’s barely wide enough for one person to navigate at a time, you know you either need delivery guys with supernatural patience or masterful problem-solving skills. We had the latter. There may or may not be some scuff marks on my wall where we assembled the thing, but hey- I touched up the paint.
The other hurdle was once we actually got it in there without taking the banister off, finding a way to make it look like it wasn’t just blocking every square inch of my bedroom. At first, I set it perpendicular to my bed. Made the room look nice and balanced…and completely threw off any sort of flow the room had going.
So I pushed it about 45 degrees toward the window. Boom. Suddenly there was this little nook of seating that actually looked purposeful instead of “oh I just randomly stuck a couch in my bedroom.” Speaking of sticking the couch in my bedroom, the distance from the couch to my bed is exactly 36 inches.
Don’t judge me, I measured twice. Once felt too close and like you could tell both massive hunks of furniture were bearing down on you. Four feet seemed like too much space.
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Thirty-six inches was just enough to make you feel like you were actually creating a seating area and not wasting space in a room that already felt like it wasted space. Couches don’t come with handy storage ottomans like your living room one does. Which meant I had to find another way to use the space between it and the wall.
Pulled up a couple skinny side tables at Marshall’s that went on sale because the place is closing down (they’re only about a foot wide) to put on either side of the couch. One holds the pile of books I’m pretending to read eventually and the other has a basket under it to stash throw blankets and extra pillows. Nothing matchy-matchy about it at all, but at least stuff isn’t always sitting out on my cushions.
Will I use it? Truthfully I wasn’t sure until it was already living with me for a few months. Sometimes I buy things and they just sit there.
Like that gym membership you take out every January and halfway through February you realise you never use anymore because…life. But this puppy is my morning coffee seat. My nightly reading chair.
It’s where I fold all the laundry while catching up on way too many British dramas. When people come over they automatically gravitate toward that corner to hang out instead of making the room feel strangely office-y with just my bed and desk. Maintenance on it has honestly been pretty low.
I worried the linen fabric wouldn’t hide stains like boyfriend said it would, but it actually kind of does. Lots of things come out if you hit them quick enough. I vacuum off the cushions once a week with the hose attachment and flip/rotate them every couple months so they don’t get stretched out in one direction from where we sit.
I wipe down the wood legs with the rest of my furniture during my quarterly cleaning spree. Not much else to it. Final cost breakdown?
It ended up being around $850 for the whole shebang. Couch was $680. Stinks when you see that price tag in the store, but that’s literally less than two bucks a day for the entire year I’ve owned it so….worth it?
Side tables were $45 a pop from said going out of business sale. Throw pillow and ultra-plush blanket were another $60ish.
Considering I have a complete little sitting area that works with my space and doesn’t just collect dust I use every single day, it’s been money well spent.
Buy again? Sure. Might steer clear of ones with pillows that are quite so fluffy.
These aren’t sagging yet but I know they’re getting there. Next time? I probably would’ve gone for something with just a little bit more cush on the cushions.
I should have measured the height of my room, too. Couch is 32” tall not including pillows, which is totally fine but does block your view out the window if you’re sitting in “your spot” facing away from it. Live and learn.
TL;DR – If you’ve got a small space too, learn from my mistakes. It’s important to measure twice and buy once, y’all.
