Younes Duret Floating Sofa Ransa with built-in bookcase

With a favorite book in hand, it can be fun to draw in your legs, curl up and bask in the other-worldliness of the reading experience. Where better to do just that than in a lofted sleeper sofa that feels like it is suspended in midair above a built-in bookcase?

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Younes Duret stuck to the essentials when it came to the materials and form of this clever book-storing couch, using straight lines and a simple wood-plus-white-cushions look. It’s called “Ransa,” and it’s a seriously stunning combination of gorgeousness and functionality. Just look at that richly colored wood on the arms.

Younes Duret Ransa Sleeper Sofa with Built-in bookcase

The interstitial space between the base and bottom of the sofa section constitutes a 360-degree floor shelf you can pack with books, magazines or other things you wish to access while you sit or lie down above. In fact, without some entertainment tucked between the layers, the effect is quickly lost and the semi-secret central support leg is revealed. Which brings up a good question: while great in theory, how does this stay up when put under the pressure of human weight?

Ransa is a piece of furniture that is a solid and light build as the same time. It contains as a whole a reading boudoir. This bookcase sofa is made of wide proportions, a deep seat, an enticing structure seemingly levitating above the bookshelf base. The art and pleasure of reading is praised, in this comfortable sofa where one can read or relax, alone or as a couple, letting go where this journey will take us… our favorite writers at hand.”

Younes Duret Soukna Floating sofa with built-in bookcase

Douret also designed the similar Souk’na Sofarabe sofa, which incorporates a beautiful Moroccan pattern. While it doesn’t achieve quite the same floating effect, it does include storage for books and other objects.

Alluding to Bedouin nomadism where trunks enabled caravans to travel while taking with them all of the bivouac accessories, Sofarabe is a fully versatile and customizable sofa. True to the aesthetics of the Moroccan living room in terms of size and proportion, it is composed of three modules, each formed by a seat with a removable cover strapped like a saddle over a walnut wooden box whose decor or function can be individually altered with new elements that will soon be available in limited editions.”