Functional Furniture For Hard To Reach Places - Futons

Finding the right furniture for the right space can sometimes be a challenge. Especially when your furniture needs to double as both seating and sleeping. Complicating matters may be the fact that getting furniture into a particular space is near impossible. Tight corners, winding stairways and low overhangs prevent most furniture from ever making it into the room. Many rooms go without furniture for these very reasons. Your room doesn’t have to.

Back in the 1980’s, there were several innovative furniture designers who came up with the idea of furniture that could double as both a sofa and bed but didn’t have to be and bulky like conventional sofa sleepers. There was a real opportunity at creating functional furniture that could also be comfortable and serve dual purposes in the home. The idea was simple, a frame that could fold from a sofa position down into a bed and back again. Several designers reached different ideas on how to make this happen but all of these ideas would lead to the creation of a furniture category that would be called futon furniture.

Futons conjure up all sorts of visual images with different folks. Some might be that small tri-fold looking frame sitting low on the ground with a mattress draped over it. Other images may include a sofa looking wooden frame with a colorful fabric covering and matching pillows shown with it. Futons have always been available in a variety of designs and styles that definitely cater to the individual tastes of the person.

I think the underlying goal of the futon was to create a piece of furniture that could function on many levels which would explain the many innovations over the years. These included reclining features, built in drink holders, magazine racks and many others. These design aspects came about from input from people just like you and me who wished that maybe there was more storage in the arms or the ability to kick back and relax while watching tv. Maybe even wanting frames that were easier to operate that would lead to the creation of designs that allowed from easier front operation of the futon frame.

The success of the futon came from a need to find furniture that was easy to move and could go quite literally anywhere. Since futon frames came in parts they could be carried in piece by piece and assembled in the room. Basements or rooms that weren’t accessible for other types of furniture could now have sofas, loveseats and chairs in a variety of futon furniture styles. They also used made use of a wide variety of futon coverings that could be selected by you and me in the color of our choosing or pattern. Mattresses would also evolve from simple cotton batting into innerspring models and high density foams. These would lead to more comfortable pieces and brought futon furniture away from the simple designs of 30 years ago into modern furniture designs.

Today futons still offer a great alternative to finding furniture for those hard to reach places. With the many advances in frame designs, mattresses and the available fabric covering offerings it’s easy to see how futon furniture may be the answer for the that basement or room which has been bare of furniture for so long but can find new life with the addition of futon furniture.