Modern houses pile on the bedrooms, one for each kid, a guest suite, and a glorious and generously sized master bedroom. Old houses — like mine — do not. Although one day I might no longer have roommates and gain a guest bedroom, until then, guests are sleeping on my hand-me-down sofa. It’s not ideal. What might make it better though, is a nice new sleeper sofa! It would be so great to be able to just pull out a bed when I need it and tuck it away when I don’t. Since I’ve been hunting for a sofa anyways, I might as well make the leap to the sleeper, right?
Since in my living room, the first thing you see is the back of the sofa, ideally it would have an awesome channel tufting pattern or biscuit tufting or something else to generate interest along the back and sides.
This channel tufted sofa back from Precedent has my heart, but it’s not a sleeper. It made some wheels turn though. If I can find the perfect sofa, maybe I can add a custom upgrade to channel backing.
I considered the Rochester sofa from West Elm for a long while. It’s so pretty and I love it in a green performance velvet! The plinth base is great since pet hair and pet toys can’t get trapped underneath. The only downside? The tufting is on the inside of the sofa, not the exterior. Whomp, whomp, whomp.
It looks truly amazing in a navy velvet in Ashley from the Gold Hive‘s den room though! I love the richness of the sofa color against that deep teal wall layering on each other!
I also couldn’t help but look for an English roll arm, as that sofa style will always have my heart. This one from Pottery Barn is super cute, but doesn’t come in green. It looks stellar in navy, but navy’s not my jam, so I’d probably do a charcoal color instead. But then I’m giving up my life-long dream of a green velvet sofa, so that doesn’t seem right either!
This fun modern sofa from CB2 is so different than most of the sleeper sofa’s I’ve seen out there! I love how contemporary it feels, while still sticking with a skinnier arm (essential in small spaces!) While it’s gorgeous, the low back probably isn’t ideal for my life style.
The sofa Chris Loves Julia designed for Interior Define, the Charly, comes in a sleeper sofa style. It looks gorgeous in their old living room, but stylistically it’s not quite grandma enough for my personal taste!
So after much hunting around, I realized the local furniture store in Portland, Kuhnhausen’s sells the Rowe Furniture lines and Rowe has a great sleeper sofa option that checks off nearly every item on my wish list. Velvet? Check. Grandma style? Check. Sleeper? Check. No more than 86″ and no less than 78″ wide? Check.
The only things it’s not checking off the list are a tufted back and a plinth base. I think I can live without both of those. It’s a huge bonus that I can order it from a local store too! Now I just need to confirm some measurements in my living room, save up some moolah, and pull the trigger! I’m thinking if I can purchase it in November or December, it’ll be the perfect change in the new year!
Land of Laurel 
If John and I get the house we’re in contract for, then we’ll be looking for a sleeper sofa too! Ours is intended for a guest room that will also be functioning as an office. Do you have any recommendations for how we can assess the comfort of the mattress/sleeper part of the sofa?
This is tough! I’d look for something that isn’t entirely foam since that can crush down permanently.
Cool, thanks!
Heello nice blog