The Sofa Saga

For the last 7 months, I have felt a bit like Goldilocks, searching for that "just right" sofa bed.

Easier said than done.

My first choice was Karlstad in Lindo Biege as not only was it easy on the budget, but also ticked all the boxes.

...And there were a fair few boxes to be ticked.

I wanted a sofa with wide, low proportions and clean lines. I wanted a sofa in a neutral colour with thin arms...but not TOO thin arms. I wanted it to have a structured shape, but at the same time I wanted soft enveloping cushions. Oh, and it HAD to have a bed in it. And a partridge in a pear tree.

With the exception of the partridge in the pear tree, Karlstad had it all.

via Ikea

I thought it needed just a quick leg upgrade, and bish bash bosh, job done.

I walked around for days, smug in the knowledge that I had found my perfect, inexpensive, sofa bed. My bubble was swiftly burst upon realising that the sofa bed only came in one size, and that that size was about 15cm too wide for our space.

In the months that followed, I threw my toys out of the pram on more than one occasion, as I crossed sofa after sofa off of my already small list of options.

Lawrens Sofa

Otto Sofa

Harry Sofa

You can now see just how apt the Goldilocks comparison is.

Finally, I decided to pop into Sofa Workshop and see what they had on the shop floor, as sometimes looking online can be misleading. Luck was on my side in the form of the beauty below.

Behold, Brandon:

Brandon Sofa

Brandon was the exact shape I was looking for, and was available with dark legs (though the legs are slightly shorter than shown, to accommodate the bed inside). We chose an oatmeal coloured linen fabric for upholstery and saved about £200 in the sales.

I wasn't crazy about the pillows (I would have preferred if they had piping along the seams like "Harry" above), but the store staff were very helpful and arranged for me to have extra fabric delivered along with the sofa, so that I could have custom pillows made. I feel that the linear shape of this sofa is begging for bolster pillows and I'm looking forward to transforming it to something that looks a little more like this:

via Easy Living

I'm now officially counting down the weeks until we move - only 5 more to go!