Lyndhurst Garden House

Lyndhurst Garden House
Lyndhurst Garden House

Saturday, June 18, 2016

New Loveseat

The living room layout is changing.  First, last month, I removed the keyboard and keyboard table (and endless associated stuff) from the back left (north) of the room.  That permitted me to move the existing couch (actually, a large loveseat from the 1950's recovered in the 1980's) to the back of the room.  During the last movie party two guests watched the movie from opposite ends of the couch.  Previously the moving was barely watchable from the farthest end of the couch.

But my friend still strongly wanted the couch moved to face the screen (and stereo, etc).  I argued that would not work, as I figured out years ago.  The existing loveseat is not as wide as the existing space, but would leave a useless 18 inches in the corner.  And then a chair couldn't be placed along the opposite wall for 50 inches or more, because of the deepness of the old sofa, and a bit of extra margin.  That would mean the ONLY possible seating along the side wall would be a single chair.  Now 3 and sometimes 5 people can sit along the side wall (up to 4 in couch and one in a side chair) along the north wall, facing as many as 4 people on the inside wall and 2 in the center, for a lively discussion.

So, moving the couch to the back wall facing the screen would destroy the discussion layout, and not provide much for video other (the new side chair would be unuseable for video), just the 3-4 in back, whereas a proper arrangement as I'm achieving will permit 6 or so.

I first researched reduced size loveseats to go on the back wall, permitting the couch to remain on the side wall but jogged out by the bookcase, which conveniently jogs it out for sofa positioning.  Even at comfy1.com, who produces non-oversized furniture, just the basics, 50 inch wide loveseat is the smallest of 3 options.  That would not work, 47 inches is stretching it even.

47 inches is what I ended up getting, in a deep comfortable looking Carmen armless loveseat from Pier1 (discontinued and disappeared from website after I ordered mine).  Measuring 47 inches wide, it just reaches the maximum that will work for me.  The standard Carmen is 63 inches wide, a standard loveseat width.  This is just that, minus the large rounded arms, 8 inches on each side.

Either an armless or a 1-armed loveseat might work, as suggested in an article at Houzz, to fit a loveseat in limited space.  I spent most of my research time looking for one armed loveseat, seeing that to be the perfect compromise.  I came very close to ordering the Carolina Accents model CA5005-DDNL from Mackenzie.  It had a lot going for it.  A one-arm loveseat makes huge sense, since sitter #1 will be the only one mostly, then number 2 will be leaing on #1, and so on.  People described the Mackenzie as being suitable for 1 large adult and two smaller children.  But at a maximum width of 45, and 6 or more lost to the arm, it has barely 40 inches of width.  And it was only 29 inches deep, whereas even the space minimizing furniture of comfy1 is 33 inches deep (and most big box furniture 36 to 40 or more).  It partly achieved this by limited height back, only 28 inches heigh.  So this looks more like "occasional" furniture, much like the "accents" name, for occassionally having a chat with neighbors or kids, not for 6 hours of discussion and movie.

That was why I chose the Carmen, it looked suitable for extended sitting of at least two normal sized people.  I experimented sitting in the middle of the couch for a sense of the "armless" feel...and I think it feels OK.  It may even be an advantage, in this limited space room, in being able to pivot out of the chair.  And finally it allows pulling up a chair on the door side during movie time, making for at least 3 integrated back wall seats, plus the side wall couch in which one can sit slighly diagonally...exactly as one would do in a sectional sofa...but better in my view.

This combination of armless loveseat and sofa actually seems like an inherently adaptable idea, similar to the sectional sofa but better in a way in permitting more normal seating in a limited space.  During discussion, the person at the end of the existing sofa sits square back in their seat, as in a normal sofa, and not like in a sectional.  Only during movie watching does the person turn to an angle, just as at all the other sofa seats, but it's still quite tolerable up the the far end of the sofa.

The other huge advantage of the Carmen over the Carolina Accents was in the fact that the Carmen had actual removeable cushions.  I decided that's an essential advantage, since cushions can be turned or replaced easily.  Without removeable cushions, once the top gets stained or damaged, out goes the entire sofa as repair probably costs more, and is far more inconvenient, than replacement.

Now it turns out I found a review of the Carmen (or possibly more...it appeared in several different forms and places) where the cushions collapsed.  That person actually got their money back from Pier1.  So I figured it probably doesn't happen often, and anyway, hopefully one can just replace the cushion foam.  Now I wonder if the cushions have zippers, making foam replacement or "professional cleaning" easy.  Replacing the cushion foam would be a sort of upgrade one might chose to do on day one anyway.  So I didn't consider this problem or potential problem to be definitive and didn't cancel my order.  At worst I'd have to get zippers added to the cushions, and then new foam.

I got a discount price about 50% off list which is rare at pier1.  I think they never managed to put this item into any serious marketing, it just sat there, and then Pier1 decided to discontinue this item.

That made it a tiny fraction of a US made 50 inch (too wide) loveseat from comfy1.  I wonder about what the extra cost would be to make the comfy1 one armed and narrower.

I did learn, however, about the importance of having removeable cushions at the comfy1 site.



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