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Interior designers are becoming bolder and more inventive.

Tradition would have you think, a sofa is a sofa. However, these days designers are becoming bolder and more inventive; the best designer will look at an everyday object and see it in a different perspective. After all, someone once had the brilliant idea of designing a sofa that could be converted into a spare bed. This idea took off instantly, producing the commonly known sofa bed movement. A sofa bed can find room in anyone’s home, creating extra bed space at the push of a button.

A great idea seen recently, is the sofa that hides a snooker table. To convert it, the back needs to be turned round, and the feet need to be levelled, then it’s ready for a game. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t give a hint of its other ‘life’ because it looks just like a traditional sofa.

Still with sport and games in mind, and perhaps using the same design techniques, instead of a pool table, the sofa could be transformed into a table-tennis table, or even a giant chess set. In fact, a different board design could be incorporated on each side of the table section, to allow for different games to be played, say, chess or draughts on one side, and perhaps Monopoly or something similar on the other.

Other designs for dual-purpose sofas could include, say, a two-level arrangement, whereby the back flips up on some sort of cantilever structure to become a single bed, and the base could be another bed, or even a desk or cupboard space, along the lines of the children’s cabin beds that were so popular a few years ago.

Another great idea would be to enable the sofa to be transformed into a play den for children; curtains could be hung at the front and sides, to form a tent arrangement. With a little imagination, the sofa could become a fort, or even a palace fit for a princess.

A fairly easy transformation would be to have a panel on the base of the sofa which pulls out to the side, to form a platform at right angles; this could be used for extra seating, a single bed, or a coffee table.

Of course, as with all great ideas, it surely will not be long before the wealthiest of buyers will be ordering convertible sofas with an in-built touch of luxury; perhaps inlaying the table with parquetry, or studding it with crystals, or even adding some gold or silver, but then the owners would probably not want to hide it away – something like that would need to take centre stage.