Swapping Our RV Side Recliner for an RV Sofa

Last updated on October 21st, 2024 at 04:31 pm

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Cindy Scott

Cindy Scott is a freelance editor and writer with a background in media, film, and television. She has full-time RVed and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. When she's not kayaking or hiking, you can find her blogging about outdoor adventure at Cinders Travels.

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Welcome to the newest corner of the site, which will give you a look inside our Fifth Wheel! This section will feature posts about the renovations, swap-outs, and fun gadgets we use in our daily lives that have helped make RV life work for us.

When we bought our Austin house back in 2016, I was a bit fearful of changing ANYTHING inside of it. In my mind, I knew exactly what the house’s value was at that moment, and anything I did to it from then on out would alter that value, for the better or for the worse. We thought it was perfect the way it was, and we tried our best to keep it exactly how it was.

But purchasing an RV is different. You know it will only depreciate as you keep rolling down the road. So we figured, why not make it into a place we want to live?! We’ve been working on that since we’ve moved in! I’ll be adding updates regularly. Here’s the first post:

Original Recliner

Below is the Recliner setup that came in our fifth wheel. At first, we loved it. I mean, what’s not to love?!

• Individual Cupholders
• Center Remote Storage
• Private Seating that also Reclines

It seemed pretty great, so we decided to keep the recliners and remove the back couch to build a desk! (See the completed desk build here.)

But over time, the recliners started feeling less amazing than they seemed. I could never keep my seat in one position. I was constantly struggling with the chair’s reclining mechanism, which eventually led to me waking up with a lot of lower back pain every morning.

Also, it seemed that every time one of the cats merely jumped up to join us, chunks of the recliner were flaking away.

We ultimately decided that having a comfortable place to sit and relax at the end of the day was important, so we went couch shopping!

New Non- RV Sofa / Couch

Our only requirements for our new couch were that it be light in color (either beige or gray) and less than 67″ long so it could fit in the same spot. After going to at least five furniture stores in the Bradenton, Florida, area, we landed on this beauty from Ashley Furniture:

What’s fantastic about this normal sofa, turned RV sofa, is:

• Now we can cuddle. 🙂
• Or one of us can lie down.
• Neither of us is waking up to back pain problems.
• It’s relatively impervious to cat terror.
• And, as a bonus, we now have added storage underneath!

I know this is a slight change and a short post, but it was a substantial shift that was monumental in upping our quality of life.