Furniture and home appliance makers are rolling out products that combine multiple functions, as space efficiency becomes a defining theme in South Korea's interior market. Single-person households have become the dominant household type, and transactions of small apartments are rising.
Shinsegae Casa recently launched two online-only sofa beds, Nuvola and Souffle, according to furniture industry sources on the 24th. Nuvola is a three-seat sofa that adds bed and storage functions. Storage space under the seats holds bedding when the piece is used as a sofa and back cushions when it is unfolded into a bed.
Souffle is a two-seat sofa bed measuring 131 centimeters wide, small enough to fit in any room. It places 5-centimeter layers of high-density foam above and below an 8-centimeter pocket spring unit, combining firm support with soft cushioning.
Shinsegae Casa strengthened its sofa bed lineup after noting that multifunctional furniture has been gaining popularity, particularly among younger customers. Average daily sales of Mode, another Shinsegae Casa sofa bed, rose about fourfold in September from the Aug. 19-31 period immediately after its release.
Ceragem in July unveiled the Reflex Massage Sofa Bed, which combines a sofa with massage bed functions. The company expanded its sales channels in October and was scheduled to hold its first home shopping broadcast on Hyundai Plus Shop at 8:40 p.m. on the 24th.
The Reflex Massage Sofa Bed is a wellness appliance that serves as a sofa and unfolds to deliver acupressure massage to a user lying down. Based on precision spinal scanning technology, it tailors acupressure to the user's body shape, and directly heated ceramic plates reaching up to 65 degrees Celsius provide concentrated heat massage along the entire spine.
Desker's motion table, Foreleg, has also drawn steady interest. Desker launched the product last year as "living dining" — handling meals, reading and work in the living room — emerged as a new way of using the home. The tabletop height can be adjusted from 689 millimeters to 1,086 millimeters at the push of a button. While most motion desks have only two T-shaped legs, Foreleg has four, allowing chairs to be placed along both sides.
The shift is seen as the appliance and furniture industries responding to stronger demand for multifunctional furniture driven by the rise in single-person households. The number of single-person households stood at 8.215 million last year, the highest since the statistics were first compiled in 2015, according to Statistics Korea.
Transactions of ultra-small apartments of 40 square meters or less are also increasing in Seoul. Such apartments logged 4,661 transactions in the first half of this year, up 33.6% from 3,489 in the same period last year, according to the Korea Real Estate Board. That contrasts with the overall Seoul apartment market, where transactions totaled 42,186 in the first half, down 2.8% from 43,389 a year earlier.
"More customers are looking to make better use of their living space while also valuing interior design and comfort," a Shinsegae Casa official said. "We will continue to respond actively to changing lifestyle demand with products that combine space efficiency and design."