Sofas with built in drinks consoles, brilliant or absolute bum?

[HoneyDragon]

Sorry for dull thread.

I need a sofa. I’m drawn to those ones where you can plonk a drink next to you with the lifty uppy magic bits for drinks, snacks and miscellaneous hair bands.

Does anyone actually have one and like it and use them? It would allow me to have a corner sofa and do away with awkward side tables. Or are they a ridiculous gimmick and I’ll just end up with red wine stains?

I’d appreciate some insight very much.

I have one. It's probably totally naff but I do like it. It's well stocked with pom bears and nuts. The drink holder holds a wine glass in place but not a mug. It doesn't replace a coffee table though.

My aunt has this and loves it. Her's also has an integrated phone charge.

We have one and I have a love /hate relationship with it.

Love because the drinks holders are very handy, as is the cubby for storing stuff.

Hate because a side table would have more room (only two cup holders and it's a massive corner sofa) and I don't like the look of it!

When we come to replace I will revert to having two separate sofas and side tables.

And like Upsky's, the drinks holders will accommodate a wine glass or pop can, but not a mug. So we end up balancing them on there which is less than ideal

IMO they're the ugliest pieces of furniture in the world.

Agree with others - not very elegant but practical. I guess it depends what you use your sofa for (more formal or more relaxed).

If you go ahead, I would just caution about sofa material for stain repellant or easy-to-clean types.

They are hideous.

They are hideous but a friend has one and it is great for movie nights. Her's has a wine fridge though. So I'm kind of on the fence.

Do you want practicality or style? I’m not convinced you can have both.

I have a three seater where the back of the middle seat folds down and has two cup holders. I thought it would be amazingly useful, but it's really not, and doesn't lie flat - so anything would be easily spilled if used! So we still use our Ikea stools that are re-purposed as small tables!

I love mine, however the drink holders end up collecting little bits n pieces and I have to clear them out before I put a drink in one. Right now I have 2 nail clippers, hair bands, a peg, some bits of string and craft stuff from our sewing activity in one and the tv remote in the other. There are some headphones and a few toys in the centre console. I did away with my coffee table and put it in the playroom to give us more floor space in the lounge room. However, my floor space is now taken up with two laundry baskets of clean clothes for me to sort while watching tv and a variety of toys.

I haven't seen one of these; would anyone care to post a few pics?

Decades ago, in our hippy squat days, we got a fabulous huge sofa bed from the dump which had wide wooden arms which included trapdoors and all sorts, including bookcase shelves. We were in a place with huge rooms at the time, as it would never have gone into a “normal” house.
It was the most gargantuan piece of furniture ever and I have no idea of it’s provenance, although it must have been very old.

I would have that back in a heartbeat, as it was obviously a special, if not bespoke, piece. Anyone seen something like that?

Its, its, its. Bloody illiterate autocorrect. 🙄

@DifficultBloodyWoman

Do you want practicality or style? I’m not convinced you can have both.

No, mine is unspeakably ugly. The whole corner sofa thing is ugly, especiallythe colour, it's burgundy leather. I bought it when I had two early teenage boys at home to replace the sofas that had suffered at the baby / toddler stage. They loved it, it was brilliant when they had groups of friends round. Immensly practical, spills don't stain it and it's indestructible. DC have left home now and I am left with this suite which is as good as new but much hated.

Tacky, I think, but each to his own.

It would just become another receptacle for junk in my house .

I agree that they aren’t pretty. But it was comfortable and seemed to be a logical solution to the wanting a corner a sofa but needing end tables issue.

Not holding a mug would annoy me do you think furniture showrooms would let me bring in mine to see if it fits?

We decided not to get it with our corner sofa. The sales assistant actually advised us against it because of the amount of spilled drinks they hear about. We’ve got 2 dc too so it seemed like the most sensible thing to do.