futons

<p>kmc- I was looking into getting a futon or sofa and found a reasonable one that is 62 inches long. Do you know how I can fit a futon/couch this size under a loft bed? Can you change the configuration so that both the dresser and the desk face outward (ie., partially outside of the loft area-freeing more space under the loft?) It looks like all of the configurations show the desk under the loft and the bookcase under the bed but the dresser outside of the loft. I’m in a double- 12 x 15.</p>

<p>Someone said in another thread that you can face them outward, but I don’t know how much space that gives you. I think the beds are about 7 feet long, so I would guess you’d have around 5 feet, thinking about how deep the bookcase and desk organizer are. But depending on how you configure your room maybe it doesn’t need to go under the loft. Good luck.</p>

<p>Thanks, Ema. From what I can see from the housing website, it sounds like the dresser and desk are 24" deep, and the bed is 84". So…I’ve only got 60" if either the desk or the dresser have to be completely under the loft for support. If you can pull the desk out so that
only 12" of the desk is under the loft, then you’d have 72" to work with. Does anyone
know if this is this OK?</p>

<p>I don’t think so. I don’t believe it would balance, and I believe there are railings on the bed that would prevent you from doing that. I haven’t seen the beds since April so I am just going from memory here but my guess is that would not work. </p>

<p>I am guessing it would fit in the room somewhere if one or both of you lofted your beds, but as I said I am no good at this stuff. You also never know the SHAPE of your room, my room last year was 14x19, but it was a corner room and “L” shaped, so we had substantially less room than we thought we would.</p>

<p>I was afraid of the stability issue. I was hoping that leaving 12" under the loft would be enough, but you’re probably right. </p>

<p>I found a layout of my room on the UM wireless map [U-M&lt;/a&gt; Wireless Network Locations](<a href=“Website Offline / U-M Information and Technology Services”>Website Offline / U-M Information and Technology Services) -so unless they move me around, it
looks like I’m in a regular 12’ x 15’ room.</p>

<p>I was trying to figure out what that page was, four HOURS, like a week ago. When I was sofa shopping. Figures. My room appears to have a little hallway leading into the big rectangle, I hope the 10x12 isn’t including that or I am in big trouble. lol</p>

<p>Is it possible they gave me a room without a closet?!</p>

<p>Hope it works out. I guess I need to keep looking. Good luck!</p>

<p>Hi Mack. In answer to your question, I believe it depends on the type of furniture you are lofting, the normal modular or the lifespace 2. With the older style, which my son had last year, it’s the DEPTH of the bookcase that is actually supporting the bed, which is 12" on either end. Problem with the 62" futon under a lofted bed is that even if you face your desk and dresser out (which would take 11’ but not leave you much room to open the drawers if it’s against the 12’ dimension) is that after you subtract the 24" for each bookcase support, you’re now down to 60". So the futon that WOULD fit, if you lofted along the 15’ wall length (but remember, there’s still a door or closet; closet you can remove the door) would be the SOLSTA from IKEA at 53".</p>

<p>Another option in a 12x15 room would be maybe to L-loft/configure your beds if your roomie agrees and use the space you saved on the opposing wall for the futon. Alternately, if you search “foam chair sleeper” on ebay, you can see the foam flip out chairs that come in 24" w, or 32" w or 48" w that are a little more space-saving (also beware, some futon couches are REALLY deep. It’s hard to find one that’s just 30", most are 40" and this messes things up.</p>

<p>Just one caveat – initially my son lofted last year. He had a lot of trouble getting up in the morning, partly because he didn’t get around to sleeping until late, but partly because when half asleep you just don’t feel like climbing down a ladder. Halfway through the year, I dragged a bunch of furniture back home and left his room in a half-stack configuration, which still gave him extra storage space but also made it much easier to use the bed as a couch and get out of bed in the morning. His desk area was much easier to keep organized once separated from the loft as well. </p>

<p>That’s why this year we’re REALLY trying to map out in advance because it’s unbelievable what a difference having your room organized well makes, at least for him ;)</p>

<p>Thanks KMC. The furniture in my dorm is the Lifespace 2. My roommate wants to keep the lofts. l’m just trying to figure things out. My room is 15’ long (the bed wall) and there are
closets. So…it would be great if I could make the cheap couch I found work. Physically
there is room for the bed (84") and the dresser and desk (24" each)- then I’d have 84" under
the loft. I just don’t know if the bed is stable or if it’s legal to do this. The sofa could just jut out 20" into the room I guess. Is it ok to remove the closet doors? I’m in Mojo.</p>

<p>84" is the length of your bed. In order to hold the bed up, the 12" width of the bookcases, which are mounted on the dresser and desk whether facing in or out, actually reduces the available “under-loft” dimension to 60", meaning you could not fit a 62" long futon lengthwise under the loft.
You could run it perpendicular to the wall under the loft, in which case the 40.5" width would leave 22" jutting out from under the loft.</p>

<p>The bed will be stable so long as those 12" deep bookcases are supporting it. There is no other way to support full loft configuration.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
K</p>

<p>Thanks KMC. I reached a couple of people in housing who were able to answer my questions.
According to the housing staff, as long as there is enough length in the room, the Lifespace 2 modular desk and dresser can be positioned outward (the support bars on the bookcase
and I-trek face both lined up outwards) freeing up the whole 84" space under the bed.
Because of the closets, most of the rooms in my dorm only seem to allow this on one of the
walls, not both. And housing says that the only rooms with closet doors are some of the
rooms on North Campus (despite what the Wireless map floorplans show). So… it looks like I’ll be ok- in fact you could get away with a 72" sofa according to housing- in this situation. I’m hoping they’re right and I won’t have to lug the thing back home. Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>I suspect that is at the highest loft then, because the picture they show of lifespace two lofted actually has the bed sitting on the top shelf and the depth of the shelf on the specifications is 12" deep.
Perhaps there are pins at the back of the shelf and pin holes in the actual legs?
If you google Lifespace II, btw, you will find the company mfg. site, which shows more detail. At any rate, I will keep my fingers crossed for you!</p>

<p>How do you know which furniture set you have?</p>

<p>According to my housing assignment, my room has modular furniture. The university provides either Building Block or Lifespace 2- according to their website. I talked with the housing staff (called the housing information number) and was told that most of the rooms in my dorm have Lifespace 2. Call housing (734-763-3164) and hopefully they will be able to tell you…</p>

<p>Hmm. Do you suppose that wireless map is anywhere near to scale? Because if it is, the university included the elevator in my room dimensions and my ACTUAL room is only 10x6, not 10x12. Which is… kind of a complete disaster. I’d have to loft my bed even if I brought in no extra furniture and not even my fridge would fit, AND there’s probably not a closet so I have to make up for that somehow, and since I’d have to loft I’d lose my under the bed storage.</p>

<p>Ema- From what I can see, the wireless map is accurate. I’m supposed to be in a
12’ x 15’ room and it measures out accurately on the map. I hope there is some
kind of mistake with your room- it sounds impossibly small!</p>

<p>Ugh. By the looks of things, there is a little hallway right on the edge of the room and then it opens up, and that longest wall is probably 12 feet, but the other wall is nowhere near that long because the depth of the elevator shaft is taking up however many feet of the room that is. And then since there is a bathroom, I have a door in the bottom right corner of the room and another a the top left corner of the room, so I can put nothing in either corner, and I am pretty sure the beds are close to 7x3 as it is.</p>

<p>If it IS only 10x6 because of the freaking elevator, I am going to have to write some letters asking them to improve how they do these things. Even when you are only giving “approximate” dimensions, including an elevator and a broom closet in someones dimensions is just a bit much.</p>