Arabic Sofa in Iowa: Majlis Seating Made to Your Living Room

Which layout seats a full house on a long Ramadan evening?

In the years when Ramadan falls in January or February, its long evenings of iftar and visiting land in the coldest weeks of an Iowa winter, and the whole family ends up in one room. One 75 in (190 cm) seat holds two or three adults, an L holds five or six and a U holds eight or nine, so the guest list settles the shape.

Hosts who open the house for Ramadan plan early, and when to order before Ramadan and Eid is covered in our guide to Yemeni and Arabic majlis in the USA. The single, L-shaped and U-shaped floor sofa sets start from these same three shapes.

How do you plan a living room you rent or have not walked through yet?

1. Ask whoever manages the home for a floor plan, and copy the living-room walls onto a sketch marked as approximate.
2. Stand in each corner and photograph the opposite walls, with the doors, windows and floor vents in the frame.
3. Send the sketch and photos with rough lengths, and the designer draws a first layout from them.
4. Once you can enter the room, tape each wall from one corner to the next and replace the rough numbers.

The room-measuring guide lists what to photograph, and the majlis planner turns rough lengths into a seat count.

About 28% of occupied Iowa homes are rented, which makes a set of separate seats, backrests and armrests easier to move than a fixed sofa.

Which seat height lets the eldest guest rise without help?

In many homes the eldest guest decides the height. All-foam majlis models usually come at 12 in (30 cm) or about 16 in (40 cm), with lower floor-style seats of 4 in (10 cm) or 8 in (20 cm) on request, and wooden-base models are built at 14.5 in (37 cm) to 16 in (40 cm) depending on the model.

At 16 in (40 cm) the seat is level with a typical living-room sofa, which suits anyone who finds a low seat hard to rise from; with a backrest the total height reaches about 31.5 in (80 cm).

Can the center table, curtains and rug match the seating?

Settle the seating fabric first, because the rest is matched to it. A rug is made to the room's measurements, and a long room can take more than one, so measure the open floor rather than the set; stock rugs run from 31.5 × 79 in (80 × 200 cm) to 79 × 118 in (200 × 300 cm), though not every size is made in every design.

Each window gets its own made-to-measure curtains, cut to reach the floor or the top of the backrest, in up to three layers, and they are ordered together with the seating. Table sets come as one large center table with four small ones around it, or as nesting sets of 5, 7 or 9 pieces.

How do the boxes get to an Iowa address?

The cushions are pressed, rolled and vacuum-sealed, so a set ships in several boxes that may not all arrive on the same day, and every box has its own tracking number once the order ships. Delivery to the US and Canada is by tracked express courier — ask us for the current transit estimate. For the import side, see our delivery notes by country.

How large are Iowa's Arab and Sudanese communities?

Census data count Sudanese ancestry apart from Arab ancestry, and in Iowa that group is larger than any single Arab ancestry group. Majlis, jalsa and diwan are different names for one idea: a room where guests sit low along the walls.

Which room holds the majlis through an Iowa winter, and when does a patio work?

According to the 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Des Moines, January brings an average high near 30°F (-1°C) and the year about 36.5 in (93 cm) of snow, so the majlis is an indoor room for most months. Census construction data show that about half of new single-family homes in the Midwest have a basement, so a lower-level family room belongs in the plan too.

Only five months, May to September, average highs between 64°F (18°C) and 90°F (32°C), which is the window for patio seating, and a set made for it uses the water-repellent outdoor fabric.

What does an Iowa shop need to know before ordering sets to resell?

A shop that wants to resell sets will want two answers first: where the sets are made, and on what terms they can be ordered. The first is Istanbul, where the atelier cuts, sews and finishes each set. Terms depend on styles and quantities, so a trade enquiry through the wholesale page names the store, the styles to stock and the expected quantities.