Nearly every family home has a settee or sofa and they now come in all shapes, sizes and prices. Sofa beds arepopular, because the sofa doubles as a bed, and saves space. There are a range of sofa-beds available from cheaper models, to bespoke items, great for the flat or house where space is at a premium, and great for the children if or when they have sleepovers.

Planning Your Sofa  

You need to plan your furniture layout. The amount of furniture including sofas, chairs and settees that you will need will depend on your home circumstances and budget. Home furniture is an essential element that makes your home living space functional. Without it the sofas and chairs your home will not be comfortable and your home will not be liveable in. An interior designer may be able to help you, but these are expensive, and with some thought you can probably do most of the design yourself. You need to think about your existing sofa, do I keep it, get it re-upholstered, or do I dispose of the old sofa or settee? Does my sofa fit in with the existing furniture or do I need to replace it ? Any new sofa should of course confirm to all relevant national fire regulations and safety regulations. Corner sofas fit neatly into the corner of a room, and are great when valuable space that would otherwise wouldn’t get used is short. There are some great leather sofas on the market and leather is easier to clean than fabric, although most leather sofas will need some occasional leather care products applied. Fabric sofas are popular too and can come in one piece or in sections

Custom Made Sofas 

The quality of custom made furniture can be much higher than that of catalogue furniture. Local craftsmen, employing time-honoured techniques making furniture by hand can produce high quality custom sofas. The joinery and other details will probably be superior. There is no limit to the types and combinations of materials that can be used, unlike catalogue furniture, which usually allows only a few wood species, standard laminates, and a small range of colours. Custom furniture can often be a good value, with prices that may be competitive with higher end catalogue furniture, depending upon the complexity of the design and the materials used. The challenge with custom sofas and other custom furniture occurs when replacements or additional pieces are required. New items that are not identical to the original sofa will require professional design drawings. The cost of producing a few custom sofa pieces may be more than when they were part of a large order. Typically custom sofa manufacturers are small firms, and may be less stable than the larger companies and it may be necessary to find another sofa manufacturer if the original one is no longer in business. Catalogue sofas on the other hand are generally available for as long as the manufacturer is in business, so it is easy to simply order another sofa that will match. There is usually a consistent level of quality of construction and finishing with a given sofa manufacturer, and typically, samples can be reviewed before ordering, either via individual samples or visiting a similar installation. There is also a fairly broad range of sofa styles to fit most budgets, ranging from low to very high end.  A sectional sofa made up from multiple sections and usually includes at least two pieces that join at an angle of 90 degrees or slightly greater. Chesterfield deep buttoned sofas with arms and back of the same height, and usually made from leather are popular in the UK.

Performance and Materials

There are many points to consider when selecting sofas with safety, functionality and durability being the main ones. The range of materials that can be used in furniture, particularly custom furniture, is practically limitless. Sofas can be converted into to a bed. Because of lack of space it is often necessary to combine the functions of two items of furniture so sofa beds are now popular. The couch or sofa is used during the daytime as a sofa and at night as a bed for sleeping on. A convertible couch or sofa bed should ideally be simple to operate and light to move around and manufactured in a lightweight construction without the need for any complex mechanisms. The sofa bed should be simple to operate for substantial space saving without any sacrifice in comfort.