Abstract:
A stylish ready-to-assemble chaise lounge and sofa which may be easily and quickly assembled by a consumer, is provided. The invention is a kit from which either a stylish chaise lounge or a sofa may be easily assembled by a consumer using a single Allen wrench. The kits, both chaise and sofa, comprise a seat base, a long side seatback and a short side seatback, feet, fasteners and cushions. With regard to the chaise, the long and short side chaise seatbacks have rectangular lower portions with upper portions featuring a flowing curved “waterfall” seating surface which improves the comfort of a user leaning back against the seatback.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to the field of ready-to-assemble furniture and more particularly to a fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble chaise lounge and sofa that can be assembled by a consumer using a single Allen wrench. 
     2. Background of the Invention 
     Ready-to-assemble furniture is furniture which is packaged for shipment in disassembled form, with assembly to be done by the consumer or end user. Examples of existing ready-to-assemble non-upholstered furniture include bookcases, television stands, and simple chairs and benches. 
     The field of ready-to-assemble furniture packaged for retail sale has generally been limited to pieces of furniture which are utilitarian and non-upholstered. As such, prior ready-to-assemble furniture does not satisfy the need for pieces of fully upholstered furniture such as chaise lounges or sofas, which can serve as the primary pieces of furniture within a living room, den or other room in a home. A few attempts at fully upholstered sofas and the like have been made previously. However, prior art designs for fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble furniture have tended to lack comfort, be pedestrian in appearance and have complicated assembly procedures. 
     A need exists in the art for comfortable, stylish, fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble chaise lounges and sofas that are of high quality, compact and easily transportable when dissembled, and yet can be readily assembled by a consumer with simple hand tools. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention solves the problems of the prior art by providing a stylish ready-to-assemble chaise lounge and sofa which may be easily and quickly assembled by a consumer. The invention is a kit from which either a stylish chaise lounge or a sofa may be easily assembled by a consumer using a single Allen wrench. The kits, both chaise and sofa, comprise a seat base, a long side seatback and a short side seatback, furniture legs, fasteners and cushions. With regard to the chaise, the long and short side chaise seatbacks have rectangular lower portions with upper portions featuring a flowing curved “waterfall” seating surface which improves the comfort of a user leaning back against the seatback. The long side seatback of the chaise abuts the short side seatback and is formed with an inwardly curving end surface which mates with the outwardly curving seating surface of the short side seatback. 
     With regard to the sofa, the long side seatback, similar to that of the chaise, features a rectangular lower portion and an upper portion having a flowing “waterfall” curved seating surface. The short side seatback of the sofa, unlike the chaise, is of generally rectangular construction. The short and long side seatbacks of the sofa abut each other along a planar, i.e. non-curved surface. 
     Both the chaise and sofa kit may be assembled with a single Allen wrench. The long side seatbacks attach to the furniture base via angle brackets (one of which includes a nut or nut plate) and Allen screws or bolts. The short-side seatbacks attach to the furniture base with alien screws and nuts. 
     A feature of the present invention chaise and sofa is that in both designs, the short side seatback can be readily placed at either end of the base and still smoothly abut the long side seatback, allowing for mirror image right and left hand configurations. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded view showing how the short side chaise seatback is attached to the chaise base. 
         FIG. 2  is a partially exploded view showing the chaise base attached to the short side chaise seatback and how the long side chaise seatback is attached to the chaise base. 
         FIG. 3  is a partially exploded view showing the installation of the furniture legs to the chaise base. 
         FIG. 4  is a rear perspective view of a fully assembled chaise showing the curved abutment of the long and short side chaise seatbacks. 
         FIG. 5  is a front perspective view of the fully assembled chaise showing the placement of seat cushions on the chaise. 
         FIG. 6  is a detail of the furniture leg of the chaise. 
         FIG. 7  is an exploded view showing how the short side sofa seatback is attached to the sofa base. 
         FIG. 8  is a partially exploded view showing the sofa base attached to the short side sofa seatback, and how the long side sofa seatback is attached to the sofa base. 
         FIG. 9  is a partially exploded view showing the installation of the furniture legs to the sofa base. 
         FIG. 10  is a detail of the furniture leg of the sofa. 
         FIG. 11  is a front perspective view of the fully assembled sofa showing the placement of seat cushions on the sofa. 
         FIG. 12  is a detail of the angle brackets and fasteners used to attach the long side chaise seatback to chaise base and the long side sofa seatback to the sofa base. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. The invention may, however, may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. 
     The Chaise Lounge 
     With reference to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , a chaise lounge or chaise  10  in accordance with the present invention is shown. The chaise  10  is comprised of the following principle components, a base  12 , a long side seatback  14 , a short side seatback  16 , legs  18 , base seat cushions  20  and  22 , a short side seatback seat cushion  28 , and long side seatback seat cushions  24  and  26 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , the chaise base  12  is a generally rectangular, upholstered structure. The short side seatback  16  is an upholstered structure comprising a generally rectangular lower section  30  and an upper section  32  having an outwardly curving seating surface  33 . Four clearance holes  13  are provided on a side  15  of the base  12  to be attached to a side  19  of the short side seatback  16 . The clearance holes  13  align with nuts  17  disposed in the short side seatback  16 . The base  12  is attached to the short side seatback  16  via Allen screws or bolts  34 . A flat washer  36  is placed on each Allen screw  34 . The screws or bolts are then passed through the clearance holes  13  in the base  12  to engage the nuts  17  in the short side seatback  16 . The Allen screws  34  are secured to the nuts  17  by tightening the screws with an Allen wrench  40 . 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 2 and 12 , the chaise base  12  with the short side chaise seatback  16  attached, is shown. In position for attachment to the base  12  is the long side chaise seatback  14 . The long side seatback  14  is an upholstered structure comprising a generally rectangular lower section  44  and an upper section  42  having an outwardly curving seating surface  43 . The long side seatback  14  includes end surfaces  51  and  53 . Attached to the long side seatback  14  at each end surface  51  and  53  are upper angle brackets  46 . The upper angle brackets  46  include a vertical flange  49 , which attaches to a respective end surface  51 ,  53 , as well as a horizontal flange  47 . Attached to the horizontal flange  47  of the upper bracket  46  is a nut or nut plate  50 . 
     With continued reference to  FIGS. 2 and 12 , attached to the chaise base  12  are lower angle brackets  48 . Like the upper angle brackets  46 , the lower brackets  48  include a vertical flange  57  which attaches to the chaise base  12  and a horizontal flange  55  which interfaces with the horizontal flange  47  of the upper angle bracket  46 . The horizontal flange  55  is equipped with a clearance hole or slot  59  which aligns with the nut  50  of the upper angle bracket  46 . The long side seatback  14  is attached to the chaise base  12  via Allen screws  52 , lock washers  56  and washers  54 . The screws pass through the hole or slot  59  in the lower angle bracket  48  to engage the nut  50  attached to the upper angle bracket  46 . The screws  52  are securely tightened using the supplied Allen wrench  40 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , based upon the inventor&#39;s many years of experience in the furniture making art, it is believed that the outwardly curving seating surface  33  of the short side seatback  16 , and the outwardly curving seating surface  43  of the long side seatback  14  provide improved comfort to a person sitting on the chaise with his back resting against either of the curved seating surfaces  33 ,  43  of the seatbacks  14  and  16 . 
     The curved seating surfaces  33 ,  43  of the long side  14  and short side  16  seatbacks both face inwardly of the base  12 , when installed on the base, i.e. when a consumer seats on the base and leans against the seatbacks, the user&#39;s back will rest upon the curved portions of the seatbacks. In the exemplary embodiment, the long side seatback  14  is of shorter height than the short side seatback  16 . However, both seatbacks could be made the same height or relative heights of the seatbacks could be reversed. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 2 and 4 , the long side seatback  14  is formed with end surfaces  51  and  53  having an inwardly curved end curvature  60 , which allows the end surfaces to smoothly abut the outwardly curved seating surface  33  of the short side seatback  16 . A feature of the chaise lounge  10  is that both of the end surfaces  51  and  53  of the long side seatback are formed with the inwardly curving end curvature  60 . This allows the short side seatback  16  to be placed on either end of the base  12 , as may be desired by the manufacturer or consumer, because the long side seatback  14 , being inwardly curved at both ends, will mate to the outwardly curved seating surface  33  of the short side seatback  16 , regardless of on which end of the base  12 , it is placed. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 3 and 6 , the chaise  10  is equipped with furniture legs  18 . The legs  18  are equipped with threaded studs  58 , which engage nuts  62  which are affixed to each corner of the base  12 . The legs  18  are rotated clockwise until the studs  58  tightly engage the nuts  62 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 5 , the fully assembled chaise  10  is shown. Also shown are the placement of base seat cushions  20  and  22 , long side seatback seat cushions  24  and  16 , and short side seatback cushion  28 . The base and seatback cushions may be made from a wide variety of fabrics in a variety of patterns, as is known in the art. 
     The Sofa 
     With reference to  FIG. 11 , a sofa  64  in accordance with the present invention is shown. The sofa  64  is comprised of the following principle components, a base  66 , a long side seatback  68 , a short side seatback  70 , legs  84 , base seat cushions  86 , and long side seatback seat cushions  88 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 7 , the sofa base  66  is a generally rectangular, upholstered structure. The short side seatback  70  is a generally rectangular upholstered structure, having planar side surfaces  71  and  73 . Four clearance holes  72  are provided on a side  74  of the sofa base  66  to be attached to a side surface  71  or  73  of the short side seatback  70 . The clearance holes  72  align with nuts  17  disposed in the short side seatback  70 . The sofa base  66  is attached to the short side seatback  70  via Allen screws  34 . A flat washer  36  is placed on each allen screw  34 . The screws are then passed through the clearance holes  72  in the base  66  to engage the nuts  17  in the short side seatback  70 . The Allen screws  34  are secured to the nuts  17  by tightening the screws with an Allen wrench  40 . 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 8 and 12 , the sofa base  66  with the short side sofa seatback  70  attached, is shown. In position for attachment to the base  66  is the long side sofa seatback  68 . The long side seatback  68  is an upholstered structure comprising a generally rectangular lower section  78  and an upper section  82  having an outwardly curving seating surface  80 . The long side seatback  68  includes planar end surfaces  86  and  88 . Attached to the long side seatback  66  at each end surfaces  86  and  88  are upper angle brackets  46 . The construction of the upper angle brackets  46  is discussed above, with respect to the chaise  10 . 
     With continued reference to  FIGS. 2 and 12 , attached to the sofa base are lower angle brackets  48 . The construction of the lower angle brackets  48  is discussed above, with respect to the chaise  10 . The long side seatback  68  of the sofa  64  is attached to the sofa base  66  via Allen screws  52 , lock washers  56  and washers  54 . The screws pass through the hole or slot  59  in the lower angle bracket  48  to engage the nut  50  attached to the upper angle bracket  46 . The screws  52  are securely tightened using the supplied Allen wrench  40 . 
     Based upon the inventor&#39;s many years of experience in the furniture making art, it is believed that the outwardly curving seating surface  80  of the long side sofa seatback  68  provides improved comfort to a person sitting in the sofa with his back resting against the long side sofa seatback  68 . In the exemplary embodiment, the long side seatback  68  is of greater height than the short side seatback  70 . However, both seatbacks could be made the same height or relative heights of the seatbacks could be reversed. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 11 , the long side seatback  66  is formed with planer end surfaces  86  and  88 . The planar end surfaces  86  and  88  of the long side seat back  66 , allow the short side seatback  70  to be placed on either end of the base  64 , as may be desired by the manufacturer or consumer, because long side seatback  66 , having planer end surfaces,  86 ,  88  will abut the planar side surfaces  71 ,  73  of the short side seatback  70 , regardless of on which end of the base  66 , it is placed. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 9 and 10 , the sofa  64  is equipped with furniture legs  84 . The legs  84  are equipped with threaded studs  58 , which engage nuts  62  which are affixed to each corner of the base  66 . The legs  84  are rotated clockwise until the studs  58  tightly engage the nuts  62 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 11 , the fully assembled sofa  64  is shown. Also shown are the placement of the base seat cushions  86  and the long side seatback seat cushions  88 . Only one base and long side seat cushion is shown in  FIG. 11 , however multiple cushions may be used. The cushions may be made from a wide variety of fabrics in a variety of patterns, as is known in the art. 
     The foregoing detailed description and appended drawings are intended as a description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention and are not intended to represent the only forms in which the present invention may be constructed and/or utilized. Those skilled in the art will understand that modifications and alternative embodiments of the present invention which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the foregoing specification and drawings, and of the claims appended below are possible and practical. It is intended that the claims cover all such modifications and alternative embodiments.