Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“I discovered the magic of the built-in sofa when we created them for my tiny 50 sq m house,” says Portland, Oregon-based designer Jessica Helgerson, of the home where she lived for four years with her two children and husband. Doubling as twin guest beds, deep and wide enough for many sitters, and with hidden storage in the base, “those sofas were a sanity saver,” she says. They were what made Helgerson’s compact living room cosy and practical.Early in his career, the Modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a major proponent of tailor-made interiors. At Fallingwater, built in 1935 atop a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania, rustic flagstone floors and stucco walls are the backdrop for built-in seating with North Carolina black walnut and cream cushions.From Modernist sunken conversation pits to traditional plaster structures in the Balearic Islands, sofas and seating built into the home are seen as either retro or rustic — but among designers and homeowners today, a revival is afoot. And new iterations are significantly more comfortable than their predecessors. Since her personal prototype 20 years ago, Helgerson has created numerous built-in designs for clients. “Deeper is better, and corners are also the magic spot,” she says. At a 1970s house on Sauvie Island, north of Portland, she created an L-shaped sofa with colourful pillows in a snug; for a home in Brooklyn, she positioned a design in a spacious kitchen. “Everyone wants to be in the kitchen, and everyone wants to sit on the couch,” says Helgerson. “So when you build a sofa in the kitchen, that is invariably the favourite spot in the house.” At an eclectic home in Mallorca built for the US sculptor Michael Prentice, a built-in plaster sofa has bolster pillow armrests that break up the dusty pink ombre seating. It is large enough to fit three adults lying down, and is in its third iteration: the first was too low to the ground, then the cushions were too firm. “A good sofa hits perfectly where your knees bend, whether you’re a tall basketball player or petite,” says Prentice.In the holiday home of French sisters Christine Boissaye and Laurence Talon, an 11-bedroom house in Essaouira, Morocco, a sizeable sofa curves around a fireplace in a gentle U-shape and is made of local stone with a white sand and lime finish. It was built by local artisans on site in tandem with the house. “Built-in benches are common in Morocco, and we had bench cushions made in Essaouira and added pillows with different patterns and colours,” says Boissaye.Similar plaster sofas are found at agroturismo Can Martí in Ibiza, and echo the thick limestone walls of local finca architecture in style. “Most of Ibiza’s architectural influence comes from the north of Africa, and built-in sofas are traditional on the island,” says owner Tom Brantschen, who designed them himself. Usually made of stone, a local wood called Sabina (also used at fincas as ceiling beams), and a mixture of sand and lime, “We modernised this by using a type of brick for the structure and a mixture of sand and lime for the finish,” he says. They are also plusher than is traditional, with deeper, more luxurious cushioning. Within a 1970s house in Nottinghamshire, England, built by British architect David Shelley, a conversation pit’s original black leather sectional has been carefully reupholstered and rebuilt by the home’s current owner, Simon Siegel. “It was beginning to look tired and feel uncomfortable,” says Siegel. He struggled to find tradespeople who could replace it. “I’m in the business, and upholstery is one of the hardest areas you can do cheaply,” he says. “It’s a commitment to spend a lot of money on a built-in sofa. Finding someone to manufacture a custom one at a sensible price is also hard. It’s a difficult thing to do.”Bespoke, built-in sofas are challenging to design and install, but “the benefit is you have something unique to you and your home, and it gives the opportunity to identify exactly what works for you”, says Detroit-based designer Patrick Thompson. “It gives a different perspective on what is possible in a space and how to connect with others.”Thompson built a large U-shaped sofa with orange cushioning for a family with five children in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “My clients wanted to create an open area central to the home where everyone could congregate,” he says.For Thompson, built-in sofas are rare not because finding the builders or sourcing foam is difficult, but because people don’t take the time to explore bespoke or non-traditional options. With a little bit of planning, though, they can transform a space. Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
