How to Make a Sofa From a Refrigerator Box

That's what I googled yesterday, and, not finding much that was helpful, I will use that as my title in case others living with almost nothing except a refrigerator, a refrigerator box and a desire to sit somewhere other than the floor google the subject in the future.....

First off, I would like to thank Ilana for being reasonable and giving up her desire for a play house in deference to my desire for something sofa-like.  And Chana who helped Ilana shlep the box and contents inside.  And to both of them for not laughing at me when I told them my idea :)

"Before"

First, we stuffed all the styrofoam pieces inside and tried to make them reasonably level

Measured for "arm rests" (I didn't think we could push the middle inside for the seating area without having a side area still attached to the box)

Measure twice, cut once ;)

Cut out of the arm rests (an Xacto knife would have been so spiffy, but making 3000 holes with the pair of scissors we brought worked too)

Caaarefully pushed in the middle section to make the seating area aaaand:

It works!!!  It's actually surprisingly comfortable.  I have been reminding the kids that this is not a *real* sofa and we do need it to last the few weeks until our lift comes, so they really should not lie with their feet up on the back rest part.....Or do any other weird sofa yoga that will cause our beautiful piece of furniture to stop being functional before our Macy's set gets here.

The arm rests didn't really work because one end of the box was open and had little to support the arm once it was cut out.  But the other end (closed end of box) works great as a library shelf!  (Here is some of the assortment of books that we felt we couldn't live without until our lift got here, or random things we found at our house after the lift left: "Baby Blues Treasury", "Relativity by Einstein", "Sense and Sensibility", "Geronimo Stilton", "Pygmalion", "Big Nate: I Smell a Pop Quiz", "Zits Treasury" and "All of a Kind Family Downtown", among assorted magazines and books I got the kids to read on the plane [ooh!  "Split Ends" with "new material")