The split-frame story
The Coco can be built with a split frame: the same handmade sofa, engineered to come apart, travel through the doorway or up the staircase as pieces, and be reassembled inside the room itself, where it then lives exactly as any Coco does. It is chosen at ordering time, not improvised on delivery day, and it has one honest exception: the Coco sofa bed, whose mechanism needs the frame whole.
Every furniture lover knows a heartbreak story: the perfect sofa, the impossible staircase, the measuring done too late and the van driving away with the verdict. The split frame exists so that story never has to be yours. It was designed for the houses the property pages call full of character, the Victorian terraces with their tight halls, the top-floor flats with their winding stairs, the basement rooms reached through doorways built for slimmer centuries, and it lets all of them have the generous sofa the room itself deserves.
How the trick works
A split-frame Coco is not a standard sofa sawn in half; it is engineered from the first joint to be a sofa that separates. It is built whole in the workshop, with the same kiln-dried birch frame, the same sprung seat and the same handmade standards as every Coco, and built equally to come apart into manageable pieces for the journey. On delivery day, the pieces travel the route that would have defeated the whole, through the narrow door, around the turn, up the winder, into the lift, and the sofa is then assembled in the room, dressed in its covers, plumped, and finished. From that moment on, you would never know: it sits, wears and lives precisely as any Coco does, with the loose covers, fills and trims you specified, and the only trace of the trick is that the sofa is in a room it could not otherwise have reached. Years later, when you move house, the trick performs again in reverse.
The honest small print
Three plain things. First, the split frame is decided at ordering, never after: a standard frame cannot be converted on the pavement, which is why we ask about your route early and why the access conversation belongs in the deciding stage. Second, the exception: the Coco sofa bed cannot be built as a split frame, because the bed mechanism needs the frame whole, so a tight route plus a sofa bed dream is a conversation to have with us before hearts are set. Third, the split frame is the Coco's answer; for other models on difficult routes, the modular range travels as sectional pieces by design, and between the two options very few routes in Britain or America are genuinely unsolvable. We will tell you which answer your house needs the moment we see the measurements.
A sofa in a room that, by every law of geometry, it could not have entered.
SophieWe will let an owner tell the rest of this story soon, because the best split-frame testimonials are the ones written from the top of a previously impossible staircase. In the meantime, if your house has character in the structural sense, do the ten minutes of route measuring, send the numbers and the walked video, and let us tell you whether your Coco should arrive whole or arrive clever. Either way, it arrives.
Lovely things to do next
The split frame is one answer in the access toolkit; the rest is here.
Questions, answered honestly
What is a split-frame sofa?
A sofa engineered from the start to come apart, travel as manageable pieces through routes that would defeat the whole, and be reassembled inside the room itself. Ours is the Coco's option: built whole in the workshop to the same handmade standards, and built equally to separate for the journey.
Does a split frame compromise the sofa?
No, and that is the engineering point: it is not a standard sofa sawn in half but a frame designed from the first joint to separate and reunite. Assembled in the room, it sits, wears and lives exactly as any Coco, same springs, same covers, same decades, and you would never know by sitting on it.
Can I add a split frame after ordering, or on delivery day?
No, plainly: the split frame is built in at the workshop, so it is decided at ordering time. This is exactly why we ask about your access route early; ten minutes of measuring in week one beats every improvisation ever attempted on a pavement in week nine.
Is the split frame available on the Coco sofa bed?
No, and we state it everywhere this subject appears: the bed mechanism needs the frame whole, so the sofa bed is the one Coco that cannot split. If your route is tight and the sofa bed is the dream, talk to us before ordering and we will look at the route honestly together.
What about difficult access on your other sofas?
The modular range is the parallel answer: larger configurations travel as their sectional pieces by design, composing in the room. Between the Coco split frame and modular sectionals, very few routes are genuinely unsolvable, and we will tell you which answer your house needs when we see the measurements.