13 Living Room Sofa Alternatives: Couch Alternatives Make Your Life More Comfortable

A living room is incomplete without seating for sure. But you don’t have to decorate it with the traditional couch or sofa if it is small or you simply want something different for your living space.

There are many sofa alternatives to the large living room sofa or a couch. Because in no book of rules it is written that you need to decorate the living area with a huge sofa. You can put bean bags, floor pillows, or poufs. Put a large mattress and plants to make a Zen room. Or recycle some objects such as tires, pallets, and cinder blocks.

The main focus should be comfortable seating that can accommodate the people you have in your living room either on regular days or on the days when guests arrive such as the holiday season. After thorough research, we have collected some living room couch alternatives.

Sofa Alternatives – Bean Bags 

If you want to create a relaxed and casual feel in your living room for enjoying every day, then think of replacing the sofa with bean bags. They are cozy, comfy, and fun. You can select different colors and textures to create the theme you want.

1. Some Tips to Style with Bean Bags – Nordic Style

You can make a nordic getaway like that of a resort right inside your living room with bean bags and a natural wood coffee table.

2. Some Tips to Style with Bean Bags – A Movie Theatre

Place the bean bags over an area rug, and install a multimedia screen on the wall. You can enjoy movie nights in the comfort of your own home even on the laziest days. You can fix a retractable projection screen so that it can be rolled away when not in use.

3. Some Tips to Style with Bean Bags – One Large Beanbag

Replace your couch with a bean bag couch, and create a youthful look in your living room. You might have to sew such a bag on your own, but the result will be worth the effort.

4. Some Tips to Style with Bean Bags – A Beanbag Hammock

If you want to decorate your living room with something unusual, then you can think of a bean bag hammock.

Couch Alternatives – Floor Cushions

An alternative to a large living room sofa is floor cushions. Not only they are easy to carry, but they can be of any size and can fit inside even a very tiny living room. The only thing you will need with floor cushions is an area rug and a low ottoman or a coffee table.

1. Some Tips to Style with Floor Cushions – A Moroccan Living Room

If you want to decorate your living room with a theme on a budget, then think of a Marrakech living room. Some long floor pillows, throw pillows and a carved wood low table is the perfect recipe for a Moroccan-inspired living room. Add further charm with a pendant light and some plants.

 2. Some Tips to Style with Floor Cushions – A Floor Cushion Sectional

If you want your living room to be eclectic and cheerful, then you can get some customized floor cushions with a backrest and join them together into a cushy sectional. Are you thinking why a sectional sofa of floor pillows when we have to think of an alternative? The answer is that you get to mix and match colors and patterns. You can also change the size and shape of the floor cushion sectional every now and then to shake things up a bit.

3. Some Tips to Style with Floor Cushions – A Cozy Nook for Relaxing

While decorating your living room, you can have as much fun as you want. Say goodbye to the conventional sofa and bring in some floor pillows to make a nook for yourself. We have brought two ways to create a hangout spot. These ideas are great for tiny living rooms. One way is to cover the floor of your living room with a rug. Then place two large floor cushions along with lots of colorful and comfy throw pillows. The second way is to fit in a large mattress in the whole living room and then place lots of throw pillows along the walls. Such a floor arrangement can also be an excellent place for meditation or reading in solitude.

Sofa Alternative – A Flying Carpet

This one is a simple yet ingenious concept. This carpet has curved foam wedges that can be tucked underneath its surface, that give it dimension, and the feel of flying. The foam wedges have different heights so that you can use them as pillows or backrests. It is offered in green and red color.

Couch Alternative – A Bench with Chairs

You can also put a bench paired with chairs in your living room. If the seat is upholstered, it will add comfort to the living room. A bench seat can be a great way to introduce texture and color to your living room.

1. Enhance The Storage of Your Living Room

If you have a small family, then you can put a storage bench, with the chairs. In routine days use the seat as a coffee table, and when guests come over, use it as seating.

2. A Window Seat Bench

If you have a window in your living room, then you can save some space while boosting storage with a window seat bench. Make sure to make the window seat as comfy as possible so that you won’t miss your couch at all. Put some accent chairs and perhaps a reading chair over a rug, and you are good to go.

3. Bring the Outdoors In

A bench that is meant for a garden doesn’t mean it cannot become a part of your living space. In fact, it will give shabby chic vibes if you put a distressed wood outdoor bench inside your living room, along with some cozy sofa seats.

4. A Built-in Bench with a Tufted Wall

Built-in benches are also a popular choice for furniture. So, you can go for a built-in seat in your living room but to take it up a notch, install a tufted wall as its backrest. This will create a unique accent wall in your living room, and you won’t have to think about what wall treatment or wall decor to do.

Sofa Alternative – Ditch the Sofa for a Daybed

 1. A Daybed with Accent Chairs

Your living room can become your favorite napping spot if you put a daybed in place of a couch. Put two or more accent chairs in complementing or matching colors with the daybed.

2. A Daybed as a Focal Point

A daybed can be a focal point on its own too without the need for any chairs around it. You can surround it with bookcases, and your living room will become a reading/nap nook.

3. Two Daybeds

If your living room is roomy enough to accommodate twin daybeds, then you can place them facing each other with a coffee table in the middle.

4. A Daybed with a Trundle

Sometimes we have a lot of guests at once, and the guest bedroom isn’t enough. So, some guests have to sleep on the sofa. But if you have a daybed with a trundle, two people can share the same space.

Couch Alternative – Chairs

You can group chairs together and create seating arrangements that match your requirements exactly.

1. Four Chairs Around a Coffee Table

A set of 4 chairs around a coffee table looks like a perfect equation for furniture arrangement. Another good thing is that this furniture outlook can suit even small living rooms as well.

2. Mix Textures

While replacing the couch with chairs, you don’t have to get all the chairs in the same design. You can embrace more than one texture at one time to create an unusual look in your living room. Such as this living room has two sofa seats in white and two wicker chairs making a flawless combination.

3. Have Some Fun with Patterns

Be brave enough to embrace patterns in your living room, and cover your chairs with printed fabrics in the prints that accentuate the other decor elements of your living room.

Sofa Alternative – Hanging Furniture

Swings are not just meant for outdoor use. You can hang some swings in your living room too, and make it fun and relaxing.

1. Swing Daybeds

If you require a lot of seating for your living room, then think of hanging two daybeds. Make sure to hire a professional service so that the daybeds are sturdy for everyday use.

2. Swing Seats

Swing chairs are also fun. By mixing one or two swing chairs with regular chairs, you can create a living area that will suit all the family members. Because sometimes not everyone prefers to sway in a swing. So, for a change, two types of chairs would be fun.

3. Hammocks

Another popular type of suspended furniture that is used outdoors is a hammock. But you can bring it inside your living area, and put a few chairs with it to complete your living room seating.

4. Learn How to Make a Hammock Chair

Sofa Alternative – A Chaise Lounge

 A sofa or couch alternative with close resemblance but much more comfort is a chaise. It also comes in different sizes to suit different requirements.

1. A Solo Chaise Lounge with Storage

You can make a chaise lounge showstopper by putting it in focus, and pairing it with chairs. If you choose a chaise that has hidden storage, you can keep clutter in check.

2. Two Chaises

You can put two chaises in your living room with a small table in between them. You can also join the chaises and make a pit sofa where you can enjoy movies or cuddles.

Sofa Alternative – A Zen Retreat

Japanese Zen-inspired decor has minimalist features. Usually, there are low seats or cushions with natural elements woven together into a blissful space where you can feel a flow of tranquility.

1. Ways to Design a Zen Living Room

 There are different ways in which you can create a Zen living space.

  Include Natural Materials

You can install a window seat with a wood top in your living room. Extend the seating options to tree stump stools. Also, introduce hints of a Japanese garden with plants that have gravel surrounding their bed. Put some scented candles or an essential oil diffuser. Add some throw pillows and floor cushions to make it comfy.

 A Low Table with Floor Pillows

The easiest way to design a living room without a sofa is perhaps the hallmark Zen theme. You just have to put a low coffee table and surround it with floor pillows in neutral colors.

A Large Floor Cushion with Poufs

You can put a large mattress along a wall and accompany it with smaller poufs. Surround the space with lots of plants, and your Zen getaway will be ready.

Couch Alternative – Recycled Tire Chairs

Couch Alternative – Inflatable Chairs

Your living room seating can be so light that even your kids can move it around with these inflatable PVC chairs. Put as many as you want and create a favorite spot of your friends and family in your living room.

Couch Alternative – Build a Seat with Pallet Wood

Take two shipment pallets, and join them together with screws into one platform. Measure the size of the platform and cut a foam according to it. Sew a cover for the foam cushion, and put it on top of the pallet frame.

Couch Alternative – A Cinder Block Bench

Just like a pallet wood platform, you can also make a platform with cement blocks. Stack them over each other to the desired size of the bench you want. And then make a foam cushion seat for it and place it on top of it. You can use the cubby holes of the cinder blocks for storage purposes as well.