DreamSofa sees more buyers specifying sofas for work-from-home use

DreamSofa says more customers are now ordering living-room seating with remote work in mind, from seat depth and cushion firmness to video-call sightlines. The shift reflects how home working has become a permanent factor in furniture buying, even as the company says a sofa still cannot replace a proper desk chair.

Why it matters: - Home working is changing what buyers expect from primary living-room seating. - DreamSofa says the new demand is not just about comfort. It is about posture, durability, and how a sofa performs across work and leisure hours. - The shift matters for households that use one room for both office and living space.

What happened: - DreamSofa, a direct-to-consumer custom furniture manufacturer, says a growing share of its order consultations now include home-working requirements. - The company has published specification guidance for buyers whose main living-room seating is used during part of the workday. - DreamSofa says those work-related requests were largely absent from consultations before 2020. - A DreamSofa spokesperson said buyers are now naming work-from-home use at the point of order rather than treating it as temporary.

The details: - DreamSofa says extended seated work changes the way a sofa should be built. - Higher-resiliency seat cores help resist slouching during multi-hour sessions. - More structured back cushions support a more upright posture than a deeply reclined lounge setup. - Shallower seat depth makes it easier to keep feet on the floor and maintain lower-back contact with the backrest. - Deeper seats, which are common in lounge-oriented designs, can force the sitter to perch forward or recline too far for typing. - Arm height and width matter because buyers use the arms to support forearms, hold a laptop tray, or balance a cup. - DreamSofa says mixed-specification modular orders, such as a firmer section inside a softer sectional, have become a common solution for households balancing work and relaxation. - Home-working households are also planning around camera sightlines for video calls. - Some buyers orient seating to create a usable background. - Others use modular sections and open-backed configurations to separate work and living areas without partitions. - DreamSofa says reconfigurable seating can shift between weekday and weekend layouts, especially in apartments where one room serves as both office and living room. - A sofa in a two-commuter household may see three or four hours of daily use, mostly in the evening. - A sofa in a home-working household can see eight to twelve hours of daily use once work and leisure time are combined. - That use pattern increases compression cycles on cushion cores, load cycles on frames and suspension, and abrasion on fabric surfaces. - DreamSofa says that level of use can shorten the service life of lower-specification seating. - The company recommends high-resiliency cushion cores, fabrics with high double-rub abrasion ratings, and kiln-dried hardwood frame construction for households with heavy use. - DreamSofa says the use profile in a home-working household has more in common with commercial seating than with residential seating specified two decades ago. - The company also ties the trend to its 2026 Mid-Year Consumer Insights Report, which found buyers evaluating furniture on cost per year of use rather than purchase price alone. - DreamSofa says its products include made-to-order sofas, sectionals, modular seating systems, and sleeper sofas built on kiln-dried hardwood frames. - Seat firmness, depth, height, and configuration are specified per order through the company’s FlexForm Sizing system. - DreamSofa says every piece comes with a lifetime frame warranty and a 100-day home trial. - More information is available at the company's website.

Between the lines: - The guidance suggests home working has moved from an emergency setup to a durable purchase criterion. - The company is effectively treating a sofa as a dual-use piece of equipment, not just a design choice. - DreamSofa’s framing also shows a broader convergence between residential furniture and the durability expectations usually associated with commercial seating.

What's next: - DreamSofa expects buyers to keep factoring work hours into furniture decisions as hybrid and remote schedules persist. - The company says it will keep steering customers toward proper workstation setups for full-day desk work. - DreamSofa is also encouraging posture habits such as keeping feet flat, raising the laptop on an arm or tray, and changing position each hour. - The practical next step for buyers is likely more customization at the point of purchase, especially in multi-use homes.

The bottom line: - Home working is no longer just affecting desks and office chairs. It is now changing how people specify sofas.