One upon a time, a friend of mine moved from her own place and in with a friend whose apartment was already furnished. She put many of her things in storage, including her dresser, couch, desk, and more.
My husband and I were living in a two bedroom apartment at the time, using the living room as a dining room/my husband’s study room and the other bedroom as a living room/my study room. This particular room was covered on 3 sides with huge windows, and about as long as the rest of the apartment was wide.
It was an awkward room for furniture. We had the TV on one end (blocking some windows), and our couch ten feet away on the other. It was too far away to sit on to play the PS2 (this was back in the days before wireless controllers, kids), and so we usually ended up dragging our chairs in from the dining table to sit on if we wanted to play video games.
To make an already long story a bit shorter, I offered to keep some of my friend’s furniture in our apartment so that she wouldn’t have to shove it all in the tiny storage unit she had rented. It wasn’t like we didn’t have room for it. One of the pieces of furniture she brought to “store” in our apartment was the most comfortable pieces of furniture in existence: a chaise lounge.
It quickly became my favorite piece of furniture in the apartment.
We put it against the wall within reach of the video game controllers. I could recline while playing FFX, I could relax while reading for class, or I could nap while I was meant to be studying. And even with the addition of the chaise lounge, the room was still comfortable to be in; there was enough room in there that it didn’t feel like the space was stuffed with furniture.
A chaise lounge is so much nicer than a couch for solo sitting purposes. It’s the perfect angle for relaxing, and perfectly comfortable in almost every sitting position. If you’re having a party and there are going to be more than three people looking for a place to sit, a couch is better. Our extra long couch can fit four adults comfortably, as long as those adults don’t also want to recline.
Don’t get me wrong, our couch is totally awesome (and handmade, too, a dual effort of my father in law, who handled the carpentry, and my mother in law, who handled the upholstery). One drawback of it, though, is that it’s all right angles, and a right angle is not necessarily a terribly relaxing position. To cut down on that, we have lots of big, puffy, non-right-angley pillows. Those help with reclining for a while, but I’m always having to change position and wiggle around and wreak violence on the pillows to get them to do what I want them to do. What I want them to do is to act like a chaise lounge.
A couple of months before my husband and I moved away, my friend bought a house, and for some reason she felt that she needed to have furniture in it. “An unfurnished living room is really more comfortable than one with furniture in it,” I lied, in my hopes of keeping my favorite seat. “I’m taking it,” she informed me. “Okay fine,” I relented, deciding to try another method of attack. “How much do you want for it?” She was firm. “I’m taking it.” My final appeal was made as they carried it out of the room: “NOOOoooo...” but she and my husband just laughed at me as I sat disconsolately on the floor where the chaise lounge had been.
Our current living room is stuffed with furniture. There wouldn’t be any room for the most comfortable piece of furniture in existence among the couch, its matching chair, my husband’s desk, his stationary elliptical bike, and the television rigmarole. The only way I can see it working is if we were to completely evict the couch from the living room and put it in the hallway.
It’s hard, when we don’t have any room for it (and therefore don’t need it), for me to see a chaise lounge on sale. I’m sure if anyone needed me to take care of their chaise lounge for a while I could make room for it.
Or if someone finds it in their heart to give me one (no leather, please), I will definitely give them a high five.
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