Review : Habitat KOTA 3 Seater Sofa Bed

You probably feel like I’ve been banging on about my need for a new sofa for far too long. After all, I spoke about it here and here. My sofa was probably one of my biggest bugbears at home. We bought it when my husband and I first moved in together and we were living in a really massive flat.

Our living room alone was about half the size of our entire current flat so it could accommodate a rather large 4-seater sofa (along with a two-seater sofa bed and an armchair). It was a fantastic buy at the time, with big fluffy feather-filled cushions and really deep seats. It was so cosy and perfect for romantic snuggles of an evening while watching movies.

Well as you can imagine life has changed somewhat in the past eight years. We’ve moved from rented accommodation into our own teeny tiny flat and had two wonderful baby girls. Those evenings of snuggling on the sofa are very few and far between. And the once full and cosy cushions became flat and squished as plumping became a pointless exercise with a toddler jumping all over the sofa every day.

I couldn’t wait to swap my sofa for something that was more suited to our current lifestyle and home. I have spent hours, probably days, looking at sofas online trying to find THE ONE (for now). And now I’ve found it! Check out the KOTA 3 Seater Sofa Bed from Habitat (affiliate)

I decided that for practical reasons we would be better off getting a sofa bed. Our flat is tiny and we have nowhere for guests to sleep should anyone want to stay overnight. And it would be handy to have an extra sleeping option given that we have a small baby who is still waking frequently in the night for feeds and my husband has to be well rested for work.

A sofa bed would allow him to get an uninterrupted night’s sleep every now and then. However, most sofa beds are pretty huge and cumbersome and we would have trouble fitting them into our small living room when folded out as a bed. So we needed a space-saving option that didn’t cost the earth. I’d spent so long looking for the perfect sofa bed that I was starting to think it didn’t exist.

Then one day I was contacted by Habitat and asked if I would be interested in reviewing one of their sofas. I couldn’t believe my luck and being all hormonal at the moment I nearly wept! I whipped my laptop out and started perusing the offering.

Habitat stocks the most wonderful sofas, but like I said I needed something that wasn’t too expensive. With two-year-old and 4-month-old daughters there seemed little point in getting anything overly expensive as it will no doubt see more than its fair share of abuse. No, what we needed right now was something simple, hard-wearing and space-saving.

Of all the sofas I’ve ever looked at I never thought I would choose something like the Habitat KOTA 3 Seater Sofa Bed (affiliate). I’ve always thought these click-clack type sofas where you simply fold it flat to make a bed looked pretty uncomfortable and should only be considered for guest beds rather than a sofa you would use every day. I mean they have no arms!

But when I saw this one, it kind of made me reconsider that long-held view. I loved the colour for a start and charcoal goes with just about anything so if we do decide to redecorate we don’t need to worry about it fitting with a new colour scheme. It’s definitely hard wearing as the cover is a 65% polyester 35% linen mix so it should stand up to the wear and tear that two small children will subject it to.

And one of the features I was really happy with is the fact that it has little legs. I’ve read that when you live in a small space it’s important to choose furniture with legs as the more of the floor you can see, the more of a sense of light and space you are able to create.

And it’s so true. It makes so much difference to the perception of space in our living room just having a sofa with visible legs. Plus it’s pretty handy as we can now store our daughter’s foldaway baby gym under the sofa…bonus!

I was also pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it is. Considering our previous sofa was full of feathers and extremely squishy I was expecting to find this one quite hard. But it’s actually really comfy, maybe it’s just my age and I need something with more structure now to make me sit up properly.

It’s also much nicer to sit on and use my laptop as I don’t just sink right into it. My husband still needs a bit of convincing though as he loved the feather-filled sofa, but then it wasn’t him that had to reshape and plump it multiple times a day.

But the best thing about this sofa is, without doubt, the fact that it takes up so little room. Our living room looks so much wider now and I really value the extra space that it has created. Even when the sofa is used as a bed, it takes up hardly any extra space, making it perfect for use in a small living room.

And it is so quick and easy to go from sofa to bed. By simply pulling the back of the sofa towards you slightly you can release the click-clack mechanism allowing you to lower the back right down. Once lowered, the bed is the size of a small double so perfectly adequate for any overnight guests we may have.

Having said that though, we’ve already used it as a bed a few times to snuggle up as a family on a wet afternoon and watch cartoons. It somehow feels more luxurious to sprawl out on a bed than to cuddle up on the sofa and my daughter loves seeing it go from sofa to bed.

I can’t begin to tell you how much happier I am now that we have a new sofa. I now no longer frown every time I come into the living room, but rather smile. So if any of you are on the lookout for a space-saving sofa bed, the Habitat KOTA 3 Seater Sofa Bed (affiliate) comes highly recommended.