Wright Chat

Built-in sofas seem to be a very consistent feature in FLW's work starting with Pre-Prairie houses extending through the conclusion of his long career. I have always looked at these built-in sofas as being best for transient seating. Based upon my limited, informal survey they do not appear to be the type of seating that would be appropriate to watch a movie or read a book in. Does a truly comfortable built-in sofa exist in Wrightdom?



I am researching this topic for the Restoration of the Davenport House. The small second floor den will become our family room with 50" flat screen plasma TV serving just my wife and I. Our two children are grown and no longer factor in our use of the den as a family room. The FLW working drawings for the house did not show a bench in the den. When we removed the 1931 L-shaped Usonian styled bookcase we made an interesting discovery. We found the following: a bump in the floor with an inverted wood beam to give barely adequate headroom for the stair below and ghosting, with a wood trim and nail pattern, indicating a wood bench with solid infill over the stair bump. This bench extended from wall to wall. Please bear in mind that the year of significance for the restoration of the house and its site is 1921. This gives us the 1901 FLW design with original bay, original roof extension from the high roof to the top of the bay, original front raised terrace off of the living room, a generic garage that was built in 1921, typical 1920's drive with a grass strip in the center in the center. My options are as follows.

1. Ignore all comfort considerations and restore the wooden bench with the flat horizontal seat. This is the most historically accurate approach and the most physically uncomfortable solution. My wife has been quite emphatic, "Don't even think about any solution that is less than comfortable. You are removing one of my favorite features of the house, the 1971 Ben Weese rear deck, over my protest. Whatever you do in the den it must be comfortable".

2. Do a comfortable built in sofa that is clearly not part of the original house.

3. Continue to watch TV in two Eames Chairs and Ottomans that are exceedingly comfortable and restore the L-shaped 1931 bookshelves over the floor bump. I struggle with this one because our year of significance is 1921. Outside of the kitchen, bathroom, and powder room, we are strictly adhering to this for the restoration of the house, garage, and site.

4. Same as Number 3 above except I would bag the restoration of the 1931 L-shaped bookcase and build in a straight run bookcase over the bump that subtlely did not appear to be original to the house. The two Eames Chairs and Ottomans are part of this solution. I am currently leaning toward this approach by default, but I want to explore all options.



I welcome feedback and input on this.

If you want to be true to the space, you may wish to reconsider the decision to put your 50" tv there. The upstairs rooms/alcoves in Wright houses of that vintage tended to be pretty small - a 50" tv might totally dominate....



If you have a basement maybe you could do a family room and use whatever seating for viewing that you and your wife find comfortable.

Paul,



The answer to your question is a resounding NO! But, that doesn't mean that it won't serve your function...the built ins that I have sat on would work really well for guests in a large party setting, but not anything else. I would be atrue to the design as possible, but then again, you are the one who has to live there, and you should be comfortable. I have an Eames chair myself and i can't think of anything better that I would rather sit and watch TV in.



Thus, I would go for option 3, for what its worth.



BTW, I read in Storrer's book that your house was restored by a previous owner. Did it happen that way or did they do an unsympathetic restoration?



Thanks (this is EJ, BTW)

Anonymous wrote:BTW, I read in Storrer's book that your house was restored by a previous owner. Did it happen that way or did they do an unsympathetic restoration? (this is EJ, BTW)

Thank you for your input.



I have the highest repect for the previous owner. They deserve significant credit for preserving the house and insisting that the house go to a sympathetic owner when it was sold. However the house was not restored. The previous owner did quality maintenance of the house. Some of which was done improperly by technically incompetent painting contractors that is difficult and expensive to reverse.

We have an original built-in sofa in the living room of our FLW. You're absolutely right - terribly uncomfortable. When we bought our home 10 years ago the couch had been recovered in green and pink flowered fabric (which set the tone for what the previous owners had done to the rest of the house - did I mention the bright green formica countertops in the kitchen?). Anyway, we found the softest, nubbiest, most natural fabric we could, had the cushions re-stuffed and now have a beautiful, uncomfortable couch. My vote is that if you want to stay happily married, you'll make sure that wherever you and your wife sit down after a long day feels good - otherwise you may be sleeping on that historically accurate wooden bench!

P.S. I love reading about your construction progress - happy the house found you!

We have a wright-inspired home with 3 built in couches. We worked with a custom furniture maker and had on set of cushions that were too hard and then we restuffed them at a considerable cost with a softer foam. They are not uncomforatble and look great--but they do not have the feel of an overstuffed couch. I wouldn't change a thing.



My advice is to experiment with several densities and several thicknesses and work with a furniture maker who knows what they are talking about.

I am the owner of a FLW Usonian house. I agree. The built in sofas are uncomfortable but work woderfully in a party setting and also look great. Mr. Wright was at the vanguard and they didn't have sectional sofas back in the 1950s so he designed his own.



I have been inside a 1987 John Howe house and one thing I noticed was he designed the built in sofas as well but they looked more like todays more comfortable sectional sofas. I suggest using a natural color canvas fabric. Fallingwater used a natural wool like fabric very rough in texture. Mr. Wright did not pick it out but Mr. Kaufman's son chose the fabric. I also noticed in other 1950's FLW houses that used gold and green fabric. Hard to find gold fabric without it looking like yellow. Good luck!

Apparently you don't have details of what the built-in looked like and you aren't sure it was Wright's. Build a model based on the dimensions you have and on others of the same period, put it in a glass case and do what's comfortable.