The title of today’s blog is a direct theft from a sordid little book by Edward Gorey, but truthfully, the book is only as sordid as your dirty, dirty little minds 🙂

I have a penchant for multi-purpose devices – things that do more than one useful thing.  It tends to cut down a bit on clutter in your life if any object you buy or create can be a multi-tasker. So, being space-limited where my office/spare room/chill out room are concerned, the need was there for a piece of furniture that would serve lots of purposes.

The day gig, graphic design, sometimes requires me to have projects open on multiple monitors. I’m a fan of having my personal computer running while I work to keep me company with music, random Tweets and Facebook posts, and other visual distractions. 😉 This means I’m going to need lots of real-estate or those awful extension-arm thingies you see for monitors for stock traders or soon-to-be-dead peripheral characters in the Matrix movies.

Spare room – I live in the Washington DC area. We have lots of great events and stuff to do here, so drop-ins are expected. Since I like to have new victims on which to try out my cocktail and food obsessions, extra bed space is necessary in this house.

As an extension of liking to throw parties, sometimes there’s a need for people to leave the main party and have private conversation, or for introverts like me to recharge a bit when I’m feeling drained from the efforts of being “on” for a crowd. A chill-space is a great spot to retreat, reflect, read, and relax. The four R’s are VERY necessary.

This started me on this long and winding road that resulted in the following: The Curious Sofa. It’s a broad-format work desk, a deep daybed/sofa, and a king-size bed, all in one piece of furniture.

In the process of building this thing, I tried various support structures consisting of rope, d-rings, and eye hooks. They supported the mattress, but the center sag left me feeling a bit too cradled by the bed and not quite supported. Dowel rods were the second choice, but flexed when left at their full length. The best option appears to be consolidating the support into shorter dowel rods that split where the base folded. They then provide the full support for the mattresses, they also provide the same support for the day bed when the support structure is folded up.

When the daybed/sofa is flipped up on its supports and the back becomes horizontal with the floor, a desk is formed. the desk required support, so a decorative element was designed for the headboard of the bed with hinges that would enable it to be folded out into legs. Two wood shims would the be placed in the negative space behind the legs adding support.

D-rings were attached to the top of the headboard, so when the twin mattress with pad is folded in half, a couple springs and some clips hold one of the twin mattresses against the headboard, creating the back of the couch/daybed.

They also provide a very nice opportunity for some “restraint” when the base of the bed is unfolded, thus the “Curious Sofa” idea came to mind.

Two twin mattresses (a cheaper option than a king-size mattress) and a good mattress pad, and some bedding options from the local put-your-crap-together-yourself store, and voila, The curious sofa is born.

Images follow.