Apartment Choice

Japanese company Snow Peak , includes white Take bamboo chairs and the Campfield Futon couch , which can also be transformed into a bed, two chairs and a side table, or even a storage shelf. -- AP photo" /> Folding furniture, made by the Japanese company Snow Peak , includes white Take bamboo chairs and the Campfield Futon couch , which can also be transformed into a bed, two chairs and a side table, or even a storage shelf. -- AP photo It’s not always enough for a couch to be a couch. Sometimes, especially when space is tight, it helps if the couch can double as two armchairs and a coffee table, and even storage shelves, as is the case with one Japanese camping couch popular among city dwellers. The multifunctional Camp Couch is made by the upscale Japanese brand Snow Peak , which recently opened boutiques in Portland and in the trendy SoHo section of New York. Although its $749.99 price tag may be steep considering other camping goods, some clients see it as inexpensive c...

IN THE 1960s and ’70s, long before helicoptering emerged as a parenting style, adults had far less interest in looming over their children, frequently urging them to go play outside or downstairs. The netherworld to which these parents pointed was usually a recreation room or finished basement, clad insipidly in wood-veneer paneling and linoleum. Furnishings typically included a saggy sofa, a scratched ping-pong table and a built-in bar never used for mixing drinks; instead, the kids commandeered it as a make-believe store or a stage for puppet shows. Not even Dad’s novelty naked- lady martini stirrers lured him down once the children moved in. And the closest Mom got was to stand at the top of stairs and yell, “Supper’s ready! Wash your hands!” Perhaps these ratty rec rooms weren ’t worthy of House Beautiful, but the stints of physical distance they offered parents and offspring arguably benefited both in ways today’s airy cathedral-ceiling’d great rooms can’t. These days, peopl...