Blog of B/A Sofas

Italian fabric Meritalia widened its line of inflatable furniture Stardust adding into it new forms from recently created collection Via Lattea. The distinctive feature of the inflatable furniture Via Lattea is that it shines with soft fluorescent light creating at night and in twilight the exciting atmosphere of mysteriousness and magic. New collection as the entire line Stardast was worked out for Meritalia by the Italian architecture designer and journalist Mario Bellini who became famous owing to his products in the sphere of industrial design and design of office furniture.

The developers call Via Lattea “ravioli of air” as a joke. Actually the armchairs, sofas and pouffes from new collections look like the pieces of sweet airy marshmallow sticks. They are produced of transparent light but dense material made of recycled sacks for sugar and corn and the producers emphasize that the recycling materials favor the economy or resources and saving the environment. The furniture keeps the form owing to the frame of thin steel net inside. The low-voltage diodes which consume little energy and are very effective placed under the upholstery make the illumination – the main special appeal of inflatable furniture. The producers affirm that armchairs and pouffes of Via Lattea series can serve as swimming inflatable furniture and allow making the wonderful party in the water-pool.

Even if you already have the full-fledged bedroom and the comfortable bed with the best mattress, one day you can feel the necessity to buy the additional folding sofa – in store and for your guests.

It is known long ago that the transforming furniture is very comfortable, multifunctional and gives more variations of usage to its owners. The folding sofa is unfolded when it is necessary and replaces the bedroom for guests. But it is not the basic bed of the masters of the house.

The first and main thing: the folding sofa is bought not for guests but for yourself to sit and sleep on it comfortably.

Pay attention that ones sofas are allowed to fold out every day and other will break in half a years because of such load. So depending on the main purpose of the folding sofa and the frequency of usage of its folding mechanism the producers make ones characteristics of it more important than others. Saying with other words the producers do everything that you either sit on the sofa comfortably or sleep on it well but not both functions at the same time. If the function of bed is secondary in the folding sofa, they choose the simpler mechanism for such models: the sofa has the composite sleeping place or is equipped with cheap camp-bed with thin mattress (so called “French” one). The sofa-bed will be several times cheaper than the analogues with thicker mattress or Euro-book.

If you need the spacious sofa for living room pay attention to the corner leather sofa-beds with “Dolphin” mechanisms. In the evening they station a big company and at night somebody of stayed guests (or family couple) will sleep well on it.

The folding sofas are produced not only will double but also with single mattress – it does not take so much place. There is also a model with two independent sleeping places: they can be folded out together or only right or left one.

Theoretically one person can lie along on any three-seated sofa. Therefore the sofa can have no transformation mechanism. The main thing is that the length and depth of the sitting is enough. In this regard the sofa with sittings moving forward on rails is very comfortable.

The freedom for sleeping is offered by the sofa-beds. There can be compositions of non-fixed blocks which can be rebuilt according to your fantasy. The producers also work out the movable-extensive constructions. Joining all modules together you form the normal sleeping place for two people.

Couch and causette, duchesse and recamier are outcomes of French gallant century. The furniture fabrics actively use the heritage of past epochs.

Now nobody except antiquarian and certificated art historians sees the difference between the couch and other mentioned elements. But any of them has its own history, its own construction. Only one distinctive feature unites the sittings: it is supposed to sit on them lengthways, a little obliquely, not stretching the legs completely.

Couch (from French coucher – “sleep”) This is a soft bench with one armrest or chaise longue with fierce head (in some models its position can be changed). Initially couch, which came into fashion at the times of Louis XV, looked like a stove bench with eight legs without any head. Later it got a back and the number of legs decreased to four.

The modern producers often ascribe such models to “day beds”.

Just two elements of soft furniture sprang from the couch – these are recamier and duchesse. But no the sociable!  The sociable has its own unique history of origin.

Duchesse (from French duchesse – duchess). This is a chaise longue with the back of round form which looks like the form of sociable. Afterwards it transformed into “duchesse-breezie” – a spacious armchair with attached pouffe.

Recamier (from French recamier – the surname of famous society lioness who lived in the end of XVIII—middle of XIX century). There is a portrait painting by Jacques Louis David which is kept in the Louvre where madam Recamier is lying on the couch with character outlines. The owner of the most important in Paris salon invited the famous politicians, poets, artists to her house. It is not surprise that her manner to have guests lying quickly spread to all enlightened society. The couch-recamier acquired “armrest”: it served the continuation of the back (situated in the end of the bench) and repeated the line of the hand stretched along the body.

Causette (from French causette – easy conversation) The years passed, customs became stricter. It was not considered to be a good form. The ladies straightened their backs but did not stop to embrace coquettishly the back of recamier. And then the cabinet-makers created the hybrid – so called causette. The causette is a sofa with the character hollow: here two former “armrests” meet. The lady and the gentleman are sedately sitting on the different sides of causette, there faces are turned to each other. And only putting the hand on the bend of arrest they can touch with the fingers by stealth.

The difference of causette from sofa and banquette is clear: the first one has the full-fledged back, the second one does not have it at all. The causette have the shortened one. Compared with chaise longe this element is shorter and its sit is wider.

So if you decide to make your interior refined, choose a couch or any of its relatives to add some uncommon element to your furniture.

Leather furniture has never lost its popularity since old times till the present days. The leather sofas and armchairs are considered the elements of prestige and solidity. However the production of soft furniture made of leather also has its mysteries and intricacies. For example, the experienced person can easily tell in what country one or other sofa was produced.

We will also try to gain an understanding of this. Let’s have a look at the basic four countries producing leather furniture.

Italy

Italian furniture, both leather and not, distinguishes itself with the high quality and reliability. The designers from Italy annually take part in the best competitions and exhibitions devoted to the production of soft furniture. Italian designers combine skin of buffalos, pythons, and chamois with metal and transparent glass in one set. And however paradoxically it sounds, everything combines very harmonic.

Furniture from Italy has its background in English classic however the Italian could introduce their features of character: some spirit of freedom and free-thinking. Italian furniture is characterized with free proportions and thinner color tints. Besides classic the Italian masters cautiously reproduce the models created by constructivists of the beginning of XX century, for example sofas and armchairs of Le Corbusier.

England

English furniture can be meritoriously considered the classics; during many years the armchairs and sofas of England of XIX century are considered the standard of leather furniture.

Orientating to this standard, the English producers apply the method of artificial stabilizing of leather using in production. Soft and elastic leather literally flow around the form of thing, and texture and color of leather can, for example, imitate texture and color of wood of which the furniture is made.

Switzerland and Australia

Both in Switzerland and Australia the buffalo skin is used for producing soft leather furniture already for a long time. This material has the following distinguish features:

- original relief with small “wrinkles”

- large thickness

- exceptional softness which gives the special manufacture.

Australian and Swiss leather furniture distinguishes itself with the big sizes; it makes an impression of solidity and thoroughness and becomes even more generous with years.

Nowadays many countries of the world can brag about their companies producing leather furniture of high quality which is not inferior to world analogues. The producers rely on the experience of the best foreign designers. In the production of leather furniture both own and import raw materials and mechanism of transformation are used.