Our cosy lounge room

This is our lounge room, as it was yesterday afternoon. Untidied, summer lounge room. It is the only room in the house with carpet. About 4.1m by 2.8m. Not large, but a good room. Our room, the room we relax in.

 

There has not been enough seating for us all, though that hasn't been a big problem because most of the year we don't sit down and watch TV together. 

We never tried to solve the seating problem, because there simply isn't room for more Western-style chairs, without compromising on the floor space. The floor space is important for boys that like to wrestle or play big board games. More chairs would limit the flexibility for how the floor is used. This also happens to be our spare bedroom, where we lay out our futons if we have guests.

But Japan has other options we hadn't considered. This year we acquired two Japanese floor-chairs (called zaisu) from friends and colleagues who were emptying their house prior to moving back to the States. They are amazing. Underneath that comfy exterior is a metal frame with a hinge. That hinge holds you upright when you sit on this chair. It will even recline!

Look at these amazing floor-chairs. They flatten all the way out, so storage isn't as big a deal as you might imagine. I can't believe we've never considered chairs like these!

This is my chair. I cross-stitch, crochet, read, mend, or just sit and watch DVDs here. It's a cosy corner.

Here's the view from my chair. On the left is the door out to the dining room/office area. On the left side of this photo you can see a hint of a cupboard. It's a huge cupboard, floor to ceiling and deep. It holds lots of stuff, including our double futon for visitors and many games.