I needed someone to test out my bed/sofa design!

[Bruce Kieffer 167]

I have had this idea for a bed/sofa for about 20 years. I'm finally getting around to designing and building it. I call it a bed/sofa rather than a sofa bed since it will be used as a bed 99% of the time. Anyway, I asked a friend to stop by and give the design a sit and tell me what they thought!

 

Here's the sofa orientation without Bernie:

 

Here's the bed orientation:

 

Edited January 24 by Bruce Kieffer

[Tamsin Slatter 513]

Nice work! Bernie looks comfortable.

[Rossford 28]

He could be in every client rendering for several years and still draw a laugh.  Has anyone else put in other characters just for fun and to see if people notice?  It's risky.  I once rendered a fender bender in a parking lot, but I upset a person who had been disabled in a car wreck, and never did anything like it again. 

 

But, I could see a Homer Simpson or Where's Waldo type addition, at least for the right client.  

[Tamsin Slatter 513]

I had a training client many years ago who used to include an image prop of her daughter in Victorian costume somewhere in her landscape models. A mysterious ghostly woman in black, from a bygone age...

[LarryO 18]

I think you need a holder for a mug of hot cocoa and maybe a heated back cushion.

 

A former co-worker used to place a shopping cart in all of his illustrations.

[Bruce Kieffer 167]

Conan interviewed the sales woman from the Burlington Coat Factory who sold Bernie his coat. She suggested navy blue, but Bernie wanted his coat the color of spilt coffee!

[Taproot 286]

@Bruce Kieffer 

 

Bypassing Bernie for a moment ... I like your convertible bed / couch idea.  Probably, because I'm thinking about something similar for a family member.

 

One thought - rather than the exposed tabs to support the back when in a sofa position - how about shot bolts on the back side of the backrest rail?  That way, you could just have a drilled hole at the head and foot of the bed.  That would eliminate hitting against the protuberances while you sleep.

[Bruce Kieffer 167]

@Taproot If I understand correctly, you are referring to the stop blocks that position the back when the back is in the sofa orientation. Is so, I am always open to suggestions, but I don't think those blocks will be a problem since I alway have a large stiff pillow placed against the head board (bed frame end in this case). Even so, I am curious... What are "shot bolts?" You may mean throw bolts? And if it is a throw bolt, that to me is not secure enough to hold the sofa back when leaned against, and it requires the user to physically set the bolt, and those bolts would need to be locked in some way. It's a lot for a user to get right.

 

Seating is the hardest furniture to design. It's so easy to get something wrong, and I have been wrong too many times! I always make prototypes to test seating. I did so with this design too, but I did not test the back stop block for your concern. It is a good point.

 

Another thing to consider if you were to do a similar design. Pivoting pieces create pinch points. I had a design element to minimize the pinch point, but I decided not to add it since my bed/sofa will only be used with my wife and myself. If I had designed this as a project for woodworkers (that's what I did professionally), I would have needed to address the pinch point concern.

Edited January 28 by Bruce Kieffer