A Modular Sofa for Our Small Space

Performance Testers, on the new Modular Solae Sofa in our 600 square foot apartment.

When we bought our 1 bedroom apartment over 9 years ago we chose it based on a few reasons that any realtor or property investor would tell you are terrible reasons to buy a home. 1) It had a white modern kitchen 2) It had a Nelson Bubble Lamp in the dining room 3) It fit our giant sectional we had just bought. You do not buy an apartment because it fits your couch!! It obviously all worked out and we love our apartment and neighborhood and that sectional has been a gift to us, making our small space extra cozy over the years. Needless to say, when I decided it was time to upgrade, our new couch had some pretty big shoes to fill, or rather it needed to serve us on many levels, comfort, style, and flexibility. I can’t remember if I learned about Article from Cup of Jo or Wit and Delight but I remember all my favourite bloggers were writing about them and had their furniture in their beautiful homes. I saw an online furniture company without any storefronts that was shaking up the furniture industry. I also love that they are Canadian and based in Vancouver.

I knew I wanted something modern and custom feeling to fill our space. I come from the school of thought that a smaller space benefits from a bigger couch as it becomes the most used area in the house. While a small apartment-sized couch would look nice in our home, functionality is much more important to us. Our couch needs to hold all our family members and even some extra friends when we have people over. I’m really pleased with this modular sectional from Article because I feel like I didn’t have to compromise on aesthetics to get maximum comfort and seating. I chose the new Article Solae couch and hand picked out the pieces I wanted to fill this corner of our home with as much couch as possible. I chose all the pieces with backs for comfort (Trevor’s request) and I kept both ends open (no arms) so that people could perch on the end or access a side table. Here are the pieces I chose Centre Chair, Corner, Chaise, Ottoman. I went with grey (I know, shocking) because I thought it would age well and not show stains as much as a lighter colour while still complimenting the rest of our existing space. I was bit nervous ordering a couch online so I ordered the fabric swatch first and held it up again my furniture and flooring to be sure it would work. Having the swatch eased my mind.

Article Modular Sofa in our Small Apartment.

The ottoman was actually Trevor’s idea. I was on the fence about it as it stretches into the space where our Wall Bed comes down. Every night we have to move the ottoman a couple of feet into the living room to pull the bed down. The ottoman is light and easy to move and he was right to add it ( see Trevor, it’s in writing you were right). It adds more seating and flexibility to the space. For example, when we have more people over we can pull the ottoman apart for extra seating facing the couch. And the other night we put the ottoman against the side chair basically creating a giant couch bed and watched movies on our projector, it was pretty magical and exactly how I always imagined us using the living room. Our old couch’s placement made it so that we couldn’t place the projector far enough away from the wall bed to take advantage of the larger screen size. Now that we have this elongated L-shaped sofa we can use the projector to its full extent. Also, we sometimes have overnight guests and the flexible ottoman will allow us to make a bed for them. No one really stays more than a night (because we already have 4 people living in 600 square feet!!) but it’s nice that we have the option in a pinch.

A couple other style notes about this couch that sold me on it was that it went to the floor (it has small feet for a bit of air flow). We have a tendency to store things under our couch and then forget they are there. Not having this option anymore is a good thing for us. Secondly, I loooove that the couch has no removable cushions. Our old couch was dismantled on a daily basis to make a pile of pillows to jump on. This was cute the first 20 times but had become tiresome re-assembling the couch multiple times a day or making the kids do it (a battle of course). Now we only have a couple throw pillows that are easily placed back on the couch. Our space feels tidier and that makes me VERY happy. Oh and did I mention it’s super comfy? Squishy yet firm in the best way.

Confirmed it is comfy. Big Couch, Small Space.

I asked Theo what he thought about the new couch and he said it’s not so good for jumping on but that it’s really awesome for running across and he loves it. Mae nodded in agreement as she does for most things he says.

Thanks for letting me share about our new couch. As always living small with kids is more about what you don’t allow into your space and how you use your surrounding city to support your lifestyle. But the furniture choices we make have a big impact on our comfort. I was even a little nervous to share, as the most asked question ever from the blog or instagram is where we got our old couch! I’m thrilled with this modern update that has opened up our living space and simplified it. I’m looking forward to sharing what else we learn about it as we live with it.

Running on the new Article couch. Big Couch, Small Space.

This post is in partnership with Article, a Vancouver-based online Furniture company I have long been a fan of. Thanks Article for your support of this blog!