At Home with Homebody’s Sectional Recliner Sofa

Getting hands-on with the 2-Seat Recliner Couch

Designing Your Custom Sofa

Shopping for furniture online isn't always as straightforward as we’d like it to be. In some cases, you just can’t figure out how to create the perfect pieces for your home. For instance, you may want a three-seater with a standard armrest on one side and a chaise or a recliner on the other, but that particular arrangement may not be on the retailer’s website. Homebody has solved this problem.

Homebody’s website allows you to easily search and sort sofas by two main categories: couches and recliners. Couches are couches, and recliners are recliners, it’s as simple as that. The fun part comes in when you get to the customization. Even if you start out searching for a traditional “couch,” you just have to click a button to add a recliner to one, both, or all of the sections. The same goes for choosing a color, fabric, type of headrest, additional armrest, or ottoman.

You can narrow the color and fabric type down further to include only pet-friendly fabrics. If you scroll to the bottom of the website, you’ll also see handy collections in the footer that organize furniture arrangements that tend to work well in bedrooms, family rooms, basements, and home theaters. These collections are essentially the same couches and recliners you’d find if you simply search by “couch” or “recliner,” but since basements and home theaters tend to have more oversized couches with recliners and L- and U-shaped configurations, the collections might be helpful.

If you’d like to see or try out a couch before you buy it, you may be able to check out samples at half a dozen Homebody showrooms in California, Texas, New York, and Washington D.C. 

And thanks to Homebody’s convenient modular design, you can always add to your sofa over time if you need more space or simply desire a different configuration. For instance, you could start out with a two-piece sectional loveseat then add on a left-arm chaise and/or a matching recliner or ottoman in the future.

Customizing the 2-Seat Sofa

To start designing your Homebody sofa, you just click on any configuration (a two-seat recliner, for instance) and go from there. Drop-down menus for different features include configuration, material & color, and recliners. So, even if you clicked on the two-seat option, the drop-down menu shows configurations for other seating arrangements, like a 3-seat L-shaped sofa or a seven-seat U-shaped sofa. I appreciated having that clear visual before me, making it easy to go back and forth between different styles.

The material and color and recliner drop-downs work the same way. Even if you clicked on a (non-reclining) couch, you can easily add a recliner to any or all of the sections. Similarly, if you clicked on the “velvet and beach day” color/fabric option, you could easily switch it to “linen and gloomy day”. After you choose your color, you can also add on extra arms or ottomans to your liking.

I do think the color and fabric mix would benefit from being expanded. The available colors and fabrics are beautiful, but if you want a linen couch, you only have two color choices. Three for velvet. Additionally, Koala is the only pet-friendly fabric, but it’s offered in just one color, a lovely soft gray. If you prefer beige, there is no pet-friendly option. That said, even the fabrics/colors that are not officially certified as pet-friendly are sturdy and stain-resistant.

If you’re not sure what color to go with, you can request free fabric swatches. That’s what I did and the swatches arrived after about a week. I found them helpful when determining what color would work best in our home but I found it odd that the swatches weren’t labeled so I had to go back and forth online trying to guess what I was looking at. Not the end of the world but definitely an area of improvement for the Homebody.

Delivery and construction

Initially, we expected the sofa to arrive in 3-4 weeks, but we were pleasantly surprised that it arrived in under two. Incredible! Because I was traveling when it arrived, I told my sister just to have it left in the garage, and I’d deal with it when I get back so the boxes wouldn’t take over the living room. 

Homebody’s delivery policy includes free delivery to your garage or front door. White glove is available; the price is based on the configuration. Curbside is free; indoor is $200. So if it would be challenging for you to carry them in yourself, you may want to recruit some help in advance or upgrade to white glove or indoor delivery. 

The company called me a couple of days in advance to confirm a delivery date, but they weren’t able to give us a delivery window. Considering we need to get kids to/from school each morning and afternoon (and to dance and tae-kwon-do practice most days), we were worried the couch may arrive while we were out of the house. 

This may be outside of Homebody’s control, as most furniture companies rely on various local warehouses and moving companies to carry the furniture to their final stop. In my experience, however, I’m usually given a 4-6-hour window or, at minimum, I’m given a narrower delivery window the morning of the delivery so I can plan my day around it. As it turns out, we were the first stop of the day, and the sofa arrived before my niece had to go to school, but the lack of a same-day call could prove challenging for people with complicated schedules.

The boxes themselves were small and light enough for us to move around easily. My brother-in-law and I carried several of the boxes in from the garage, down the front walkway, and up two stairs into the house without issue. The boxes that contained armrests and backrests were light enough for either of us to carry alone. The couch and recliner bases were heavier so my brother-in-law and 14-year-old nephew carried those in together. We got everything inside in under 10 minutes.

As for the packaging, I was extremely pleased to see the sofa was packed very efficiently in the boxes, with additional cushions, pillows, and accessories stuffed into the spaces under the seat bases. Wooden feet, clamps, and electrical cords were neatly packed into boxes that were zip-tied to the base so they were easy to locate and remove. Very smart packaging!

Though this couch is wide and sturdy, I found it surprisingly easy to move around because the modular pieces are much more maneuverable than one massive sofa. I repeatedly moved each of the bases around to determine which configuration would work best, and I had the entire thing assembled in about 90 minutes, no tools required. Had I clicked through to the QR code videos mentioned in the handbook, I would have probably knocked 20 minutes off the assembly.

This cute stop-motion-style “Comfy 101” animation video does a good job illustrating how all the pieces and sections fit together, but for actual step-by-step instructions, watch these assembly videos. 

The back and the arms look very similar, so it was helpful that each piece was clearly labeled by a small tag that is no longer visible after assembly. The backs and arms were easy to slide into the bases and, because I couldn’t get my act together and decide how I wanted things configured, I wound up putting them in and taking them out (then putting them back in) several times with relative ease. 

One person can easily assemble this couch on their own, and if you had two people, you could probably do it in 30 minutes or less. The only part that would have been easier to assemble with a second person was the back of the recliner. It’s a little hard to see the metal levers you need to slide the back slots into while you’re holding up the back. Additionally, once you have one side of the backrest slotted in, you must hold the back in place while also applying pressure to the second lever in order to slot that side in (all without a good view of where exactly the lever slot is). I did all of this in maybe two minutes, so it wasn’t impossible, but if someone has limited mobility or flexibility, this step would definitely be easier with another person. I wasn’t sure how far down to push the back, so I kept pushing, and it eventually clicked into place. I guess that’s how far it had to be pushed. Perfect.

Living with the 2-Seat Recliner Couch

I will admit that I initially worried that the two-seat sofa would be too small for our space. Online, it looked big enough and when I measured it out at home, it seemed like it would be big enough, but our last family couch was a three-seater, so I was a bit concerned this would be too small. However, while this “loveseat” is, technically, a two-seater because it has two modular sections, each of the sections are larger than most “seats”, so it’s nearly as large as our former three-seater. 

While I prefer having an entire section to myself (or sharing it with my 6-year-old niece or our pit bull), I could fit another adult on there if I wanted to. Four adults could fit on this thing if necessary, but we have other armchairs in our living room, so that scenario is unlikely.

My sister and I hang out and chat on the couch, I read stories to my niece, watch movies with the family, and curl up with the dog to enjoy some rare alone time.

My sister and I hang out and chat on the couch, I read stories to my niece, watch movies with the family, and curl up with the dog to enjoy some rare alone time. When chatting, I prefer sitting upright; when reading, I like to recline it halfway; and when watching a movie, I like to lean it back in full recline. 

The back of the couch only extends about two inches when the sofa reclines, which would be very convenient if you have the couch set up against the wall. My family currently has two reclining chairs (from another brand) that extend so far back when reclined that we need to pull the chairs out over a foot away from the wall so they don’t bang and scuff up the wall. Annoying. Homebody’s design means the sofa could be placed right up against the wall, which saves space and usually just looks better. 

Initially, my neck felt a bit uncomfortable while I had the couch fully reclined and the pillow was awkward so I had to stack another behind my neck to find relief. Then it occurred to me to simply adjust the neck rest. Problem solved. The neck rest can easily be clicked forward several degrees so you can choose between various positionings. To get it back up, you simply push the neck rest all the way down to the last click then it springs back up to its default upright setting.

Though the Takis-loving kids (and my Cheetos-inclined brother-in-law) have been caught eating on the couch on more than one occasion, we generally try to avoid eating in the living room for obvious reasons. I love that the cushion and pillow covers can be easily spot cleaned or quickly removed and thrown into the wash. (However, drycleaning is recommended for all fabrics.)

The Koala fabric is recommended as Homebody’s most pet-friendly fabric, so that’s probably what we should have gone with but so far, so good. We love the coffee color, which is like a soft, grayish-brownish hue that matches beautifully with our brown wood floor and cream-colored rug. The color is no longer available, but it’s sort of like a darker version of the warm sand linen.

Speaking of linen, this linen couch is a far cry from the thin, wrinkly pants usually associated with the fabric. This linen is thick, luxurious, stain-resistant, and comfortable to curl up on. The cushions have five layers and eco-friendly down that is not only comfortable, but also supportive, so you won’t get a backache if you spend too long reading, watching TV, or napping – all of which are fantastic activities for this couch.

An ergonomic, edgeless design means cushions, arms, backrests, and headrests are smooth and satisfying, so you can relax on the couch without being bothered by sharp angles or uncomfortable edges that prove uncomfortable after long periods of sitting or lying. My favorite design feature is the small pocket on the side of the headrest, where you can stuff the remote control so you don’t lose it. Should you lose it, you can still dig your hand down between the cushion and armrest to access the recliner controls there.

An ergonomic, edgeless design means cushions, arms, backrests, and headrests are smooth and satisfying, so you can relax on the couch without being bothered by sharp angles or uncomfortable edges that prove uncomfortable after long periods of sitting or lying.

I think the couch is perfect as is, but I appreciate that its modular nature means that we could split it up if we want to or add additional seats. The two sections are large enough to serve as independent chairs. If we went that route, the seats would be wide enough that one could easily rest in the chair without falling out, but given the modular design, we’d always have the option of ordering additional armrests if we wanted to convert them into proper two-armed chairs.