Adam Nguyen's Blog: 9 swanky curved sectionals in midcentury modern style

Wow, it’s hard to find a midcentury-modern style sectional with a curved — or rounded “wedge” back center — piece available new today. But I dug and dug — and found nine designs among four companies. Why aren’t these more popular? I have my theory…

Did they even have squared-off sectionals in midcentury America?

I don’t think so. The only sectional sofas that are really “retro” — as in 1940s, 1950s, 1960s midcentury style — are sectionals with a rounded wedge in the middle. *I think.* That is, I don’t think I’ve seen too many 90-degree, all squared-at-the inside-edge sectional sofas from back in the day.

Our first sectional sofa was vintage — and it was a wedge — and we loved it. Above: We had a new wedge-back sectional built for our Mahalo Lounge from scratch by a local furniture maker, Barclay Furniture. It was really fun to work with a local company — and not that much more expensive including the fact that got eight-way hand-tied springs and also my spendy upholstery was… spendy. The main reason that I ultimately went with a custom-made sectional is that I wanted one with smaller dimensions than currently offered by retailers. My sectional measures just 96″ x 96″. Most of the designs shown below are larger, from about 108″ x 108″ up to 121″ x 121″. Given the size of my rooms, those extra inches made a difference to me.

So far I have only found four places to buy these made new. The style seems way less popular than squared-off sectionals, although I think wedges look better and are more functional too. I will also make a bet: Those big curvy corner wedges are a bear to make, to ship, to store, and to deliver. I bet furniture makers prefer not to push them. What do you think?

Four places to buy midcentury-modern style, wedge-back sectional sofas:

Note, the center piece seems to be formally called a “wedge”. As in: wedge of pie. Makes sense.

And note, my list is not in any particular order:

Rowe:

Like a number of designs in this story, Rowe Furniture’s Brady sectional also can be ordered sans an arm on one side with a sitting cushion thingie instead on either side. My husband and I thought about this option, but decided that while it looked swanky, it was less functional.

Rowe Brady Wedge Sectional

Room and Board:

Room and Board’s Reese curved sectional comes in two sizes.

Room and Board Reese Curved Sectional

Joybird:

Joybird really caters to the mid mod crowd, and they have six different designs of round corner sectional — their navigation takes you right to them, easy peasy. Note: Joybird is currently an advertiser on my site; they did not pay me to write this story or anything.