Cozy but flexible reading nook furniture?
February 6, 2022 7:46 AM   Subscribe

I have a small space I'd like to furnish as a reading nook, with two comfy curl-up chairs and possibly a small table or hard-topped ottoman for board games. The catch: 1-2 times a year, for up to a few weeks at a time, the space needs to be cleared and occupied by unrelated seasonal stuff, with very limited space to stow the regular furniture during that time. Is there furniture like a grown-up version of dorm room dish chairs, low-profile and portable but also genuinely comfortable, durable, and OK-looking?

Other creative ideas would be most welcome. Thanks!
posted by Bardolph to Home & Garden (10 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have bank/ courthouse chairs. They are really comfortable. Maybe 1 of those could go at the dining table during the holidays.

A low table is useful to hold the mug of tea or glass of sherry you'll want while reading, and if you have a holiday object, it could go on top of the low table.
posted by theora55 at 8:07 AM on February 6, 2022


If you have access to outdoor space, perhaps you can find suitably comfortable outdoor furniture that happens to live outside only 10% of the year.

Alternately perhaps you want some Instagram worthy indoor swings…
posted by oceano at 8:15 AM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


If you are okay with a high table instead of a low one, a tilt-top table, a gateleg table, or even a folding tv tray might work.
posted by Hypatia at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2022


Sigurd Ressell's Falcon Chairs are the first thing that come to mind, but $$, so most types of metal frame sling or “butterfly” chairs should collapse super small for storage. (My pair was in storage for a long time.)
posted by supercres at 9:38 AM on February 6, 2022


I’ve considered getting this floor chair.
posted by Comet Bug at 10:27 AM on February 6, 2022


Hanging chairs suspended from the ceiling during nook-times but cup-stacked together and hung from high up the wall during those seasonal interludes.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:28 AM on February 6, 2022


By "dorm room dish chairs" do you mean papasans? There are definitely elevated, grown-up-looking papasan chairs (I like this one and this one, just as a for instance), which are much more portable than an armchair—that first one purports to weigh only 14 pounds. The (to me) nicer-looking ones don't come apart in two sections plus cushion like a standard wicker papasan, though, so they might be more of a challenge for your limited storage space. You'd basically need to have a chair-sized hole they can live in, rather than stacking them against the wall.
posted by babelfish at 11:05 AM on February 6, 2022


Much of Ikea's range can be disassembled, although that may be more effort than you have in mind. The POÄNG chairs are quite comfortable and would be nice in a reading nook.
posted by dg at 5:13 PM on February 6, 2022


You could also consider a built in bench that folds down.

There’s a reason why ikea’s version of a gateleg table is so popular within the tiny house community.
posted by oceano at 9:59 AM on February 7, 2022


Or bench like boxes that store the soft parts when you have to move them elsewhere. Maybe the boxes stack when not in use?

Lounging furniture in small spaces needs, IME, a lot of pillows because it lacks the supporting geometry of a comfy chair; and if you’re using a wall as a backrest, the base needs to be fixed or the reader will perpetually sliiiiiide into the room. But there are demountable versions.

This was wildly fashionable in the 1970s and the, hm, 1890s-1910s, I’d check out old project books.

Interesting project!
posted by clew at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2022


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