Saturday, July 11, 2009

Stylish and Comfortable Sofa Beds

Sofa beds are fast becoming popular with the modern day individual owning flats, apartments and condos. As a name suggests, it can be transformed into a comfortable bed with ease. The trend has caught up well in metropolitan cities where the need for saving space has led the modern buyer to invest into furniture that can be used for more than one purpose. Markets today, are flooded with excellent quality sofa beds which are not only good on comfort but also easy on your pocket.

Let's take a look at the things that you need to care of before you buy your perfect sofa bed.

Where to Put It?
This is the most important thing to consider before you shelling out that big amount for a possible decade long investment. Depending on the shape and size of your room, you can choose from a variety of options such as the Corner Sofa Bed, The L-Shaped-Sofa Bed, Furniture-Sofa Bed or the Sofa-Bed-Reclining-Chair. You can even put one in the guest room to avoid hassles for those unannounced visits.

The Fabric
Available in a variety of fabrics and colors, it can be customized to match up with the texture and color of your room, curtains etc. Besides various types of fabrics such as the China Fabric, velvet, and hard micro fibers, sofa beds are also available in leather. Leather Sofa Beds are the most popular of all, available in a variety of colors and skins.

The Style
These are available in a variety of styles depending on where you want to place them. Beautiful ones are available for drawing rooms, living rooms and even as a bedside option.

Where to Buy
The business is wide spread. You can either go to your nearest furniture mart to choose a design or get them custom made. But if you are looking for variety and international designs, be sure to look out for the same online. There's a wide variety of Leather Sofa Beds, Furniture Sofa Beds and Corner Sofa Beds available which can be delivered right at your doorstep.

The Price
As a long term investment, a decent sofa bed will be pricey but that does not mean that you should stop looking. The best way to check brands and their prices is to go online. Most companies with online portals are offering great quality at throwaway prices. Almost all of them offer discounts that go as high as 50%.

With all these tips in mind and a bit of market survey, you can confidently go ahead with buying your favorite sofa bed.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Right Choice of Sofa Will Define a Room

In the world of furniture, few things are as functional and stylish in one as a sofa. A good couch can indeed make or break a room in your home: the right aesthetic mix and it's all good; the wrong combination and everything is very, very wrong! Though having a couch is not necessary in most bedrooms, dining rooms or kitchens, this furniture item is an absolute must for any den, living room, TV room, lounge area, and sunroom. Knowing how to properly choose a couch is therefore a pretty important aspect of adequately and aesthetically pleasingly completing a home-in both a decorative and a functional way.

A sofa needs to be an article of furniture that blends in well with the surroundings, and therefore any interior designer (whether someone being contracted to do the job or a home owner himself or herself) needs to really contemplate what complementary colors to work with, which textures and kinds of fabrics would work well in the space in question, and whether to go for something very classic or something more risqué and modern. For example, if a person wants to put a couch in their living room, which is painted in very bright colors and receives lots of light, and is decorated with very modern and bizarre elements, then perhaps it would be best to go with a more modern couch design-bright, smooth fabric, with simple geometric dimensions and no excessively elaborate bordering or woodwork. On the other hand, if the living room were to be a space in a very old, traditional-style home, in a dimly lit area that is painted/wallpapered in more somber, dark colors, then the ideal kind of couch will be different-a more classic style couch, like a canapé or Chesterfield, with elaborate woodwork, darker color tones, with a fabric that has a more interesting, rich texture.

Size is always a big deal when choosing a sofa: space is at a premium in any home, and properly managing space in any given room (especially a room where many people will constantly be reunited) is an important aspect of successful interior design. Along with color coordination, proper management of space is a key facet of a home's feng shui (or lack thereof). In order to avoid serious issues like needing to return a couch because it won't fit where you want it, it is crucial to measure the dimensions of the room you have chosen for it as exactly as possible. Usually, people leave a space behind and on the sides of their sofas in order to improve circulation in a room and to have a space for storing things; keep these passageways in mind when jotting down possible dimensions for your couch. Generally, the couches that are best adapted to being squeezed into a corner without spaces behind or beside it are sectional couches, which often complete a right angle shift (creating the form of an "L"). These are among the most practical and space-efficient of all sofas.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Corner Desk - Pros and Cons

A corner desk is a useful piece of furniture. If you already use one for your office or at home, then you already know what a great option it is. If you don't, but are trying to decide what type of desk to get, then take a look at the pros and cons of a corner desk to help you make a good decision.

I've used all sorts of desks over the years. Probably my favorite one is the corner desk I use now. It works great in my home office. I can freely move my office chair around in the space in front of the desk. This is extremely important to most people, as it is for me. Being able to access not only my keyboard, but also my filing cabinet and printer easily is something facilitated by having a corner desk. A regular rectangular shaped desk tends to get over crowded. So, pro number one is ease of access to office machines and work spaces.

The second pro of using a corner desk is that it is an efficient use of space that otherwise would be wasted. You know how it is. If there is an extra square foot of free space we tend to fill it up with something. Maybe one of those awful fake plants I am sorry to say I have owned way too long. Or some figurine or other useless object will be placed there. I'm not sure why we do that, but we do. Obviously, having the desk in the corner means nothing else can go there.

My corner desk also has vertical space built in above the main work surfaces in the form of shelves. These are really nice. I can't emphasize enough how important it has become to me to be able to place objects up and out of the way. I like to use part of the shelf to keep my extra cds and DVDs, a few basic office supplies, and a few personal items like a picture and plant. On the other part of the shelf I tend to store my external hard drive, digital camera, card reader and flash drive. These things are nice to have close by since they are regularly used, but up and out of the way of my normal working area.

The biggest con to owning and using a corner desk is really only applicable if you are one of those people who just has to have their back to the wall. I don't know if that comes from the old west thing where you always want to have the room and door in front of you at all times or what. You never know when you might have a shoot out I guess, and you want to be prepared for anything. All kidding aside, some people are just more comfortable when they are situated more directly against a wall or in a corner facing out. I, for one, am not one of those people so having a corner desk that forces my chair to be more out in the room with my back to the door doesn't bother me at all.

There are many sorts of desks that come in all shapes and sizes, and any number of these may work great for you. A corner desk is something I have come to prefer over the years because of their ease of use and organization as well as accessibility to everything you need while working. If you are considering a corner desk, I would recommend one without reservation.