Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016: Beauty of form, function and the deal

I whined in an earlier post about how little natural light I will have in my new home at Vancouver Cohousing. I’ve been particularly unhappy with the prospect of always needing to use electric lighting to be able to read in my living room.

Then a week ago I was inspired by Anna, who has the same layout as my apartment across the courtyard. She’s going to use the bedroom – the brightest room – as her living room. But Anna’s plan to use the tiny storage room for her bed did not appeal to me.

I want to use my bedroom as both a bedroom and living room and last weekend started researching wall beds and sofa beds. My space doesn’t work for a wall bed. I found two manufacturers of high-end sofa beds and zeroed in on American Leather Comfort Sleepers.

Last Sunday, I went to Industrial Revolution on Granville Street and tried one of their floor models of a Comfort Sleeper. It’s very comfortable and designed to be a bed that can be used every night. Instead of saggy springs, there’s a sturdy hardwood platform, and instead of a mattress with coils it’s high-density foam.

The price for a fabric sofa was $4,000, and for leather well above $5,000. I wanted leather, looking ahead to visits from grandchildren with sticky fingers and spilled foods. But it was way out of my price range.

Later that day, I searched Craigslist for “American Leather sofa” and was surprised to see a gorgeous, new-looking Comfort Sleeper in off-white leather for $1,400. It had just been posted that day. Turns out it’s a 2010 model that had hardly been used by the owner, who has been transferred to San Francisco and needed to sell his stuff.

I negotiated the price down to $1,300 and today took delivery of the sofa, which has pride of place in my current living room until I move into cohousing next month. I’m celebrating the beauty of the form and function, and the beauty of the deal.

American Leather photo of a Comfort Sleeper as a bed that can be used every night.