I transitioned my life nearly a decade ago after leaving the small city in the south of Thailand called Krabi. During my more than 10 years that I lived there I did what most people do and would rent places that were partially furnished. What this means is that the only furniture the places had was stuff that was left behind by previous tenants and of course this meant that most of it was complete garbage. Therefore, we had no choice but the purchase our own furniture and thankfully, there are some stores there that sell the chipboard stuff like Ikea makes but even cheaper. This furniture is definitely not high quality but it was cheap. Almost everyone I know had stuff just like this because quality furniture is really expensive everywhere in the world.
When I left that city I realized that I didn't want to accumulate stuff anymore and that I was only going to live in furnished apartments or houses from that point forward. Moving sucks anyway but moving with a ton of furniture, especially long distances and even worse internationally, is a massive pain in the ass and is super expensive.
I am discovering however, that there is one piece of furniture that all furnished apartments really skimp on and that is the sofa.
I'm not doing my sofa any favors by not bothering to tidy it up for the picture but I'll just say that this, and every other sofa I have had in any condo I have lived in since eliminating furniture purchases from my life has been made of very durable materials that are kind of the usual for apartments. They aren't designed to be comfortable, they are designed to last a long time. one thing that really irritates me is that at 6 feet tall, I can barely lie down on this thing. I have to curl my legs up in order to even lie down on it and once Nadi (my dog) gets involved in also wanting to sit with me things get even more crowded.
So on a whim I went to a sofa store here in Da Nang just to get an idea of how much it would actually cost me to get a sofa that is actually comfortable. Years ago I had one of those "L" sofas and I was spoiled by that. I would really like to have one of those again and to quote The Big Lebowski "It would really tie the room together."
I can't say that I am a fan of how they are trying to taper off the edges of this thing but it was seriously comfortable. I could see myself falling asleep on this thing in a number of positions and was really interested in it until I looked at the price and found out that it was $2500. That's just crazy talk man. I'm not paying that much for anything other than hair transplants.
Others that I found looked like they could be good but there were a couple of things wrong with the one that the sales rep recommended to me. For one thing, this country is way too hot for leather: Fake or real leather. Also, I'm relatively certain that if I were to try to put this in my apartment that at least 20% of it would have to be out on the balcony. I don't know what kind of person in this crowded city has the space for a monstrosity like this but I certainly dont.
Others, like this one in the foreground have terrible design. Why in the hell would you ever want exposed wood for the arm-rests? I don't know about your but the sofa is not something that I sit up straight on and the arm-rest is always a "head-rest" for me. So that one got pushed out of the picture as well.
So all in all I think that my quest to find a sofa was a completely failure because one of two situations happened during my search. Either the sofa was just an slightly less crap version of the one I already have or it cost as much as a used car. So it appears as though I am just going to have to continue to watch TV uncomfortably. Good thing my bedroom, which has a pillow-top mattress in it, also has the same TV setup as my living room.
I have talked to all of my friends about their sofas where they are and I have been to many of my friends' condos as well. The "crap sofa" situation is the same in all of them so at least I know it isn't just me. There seems to be this one type of brand that all condo owners purchase for their units and they are all like mine!