Bean bags for small spaces: how to choose one that won't take over the room

Measure the bag filled, not the cover

Round bean bags are sold by their diameter, and that number is the cover lying flat. Fill it and sit in it, and it spreads. A Regular round bag is a metre across before anyone sits down; a Large is 112 cm; an XLarge is 120 cm. In a small room, that metre is usually the problem.

Shaped bean bags work differently. A lounger or tub chair is cut with a back and a seat, so it holds a footprint you can measure like any other chair.

Round or shaped

A round bean bag is for slouching. It moulds around you wherever you land, which is the point, and it flattens out between sittings. It suits a corner where you'll lie back with a phone or a film.

A shaped bean bag is for sitting. The Lounger has a 48 cm deep seat and a back, and the Regular sits 35 cm off the floor. It reads like a low armchair in a room, and it's the one we'd put in a small bedroom or a reading corner.

Beans, foam or both

What's inside changes how a bean bag feels more than the cover does.

• Beans move as you move, hold a shaped bag upright, and settle over time, so they need topping up.
• Sensory foam is quieter and softer, and moulds to you as you sit. In a round bag it can replace beans entirely: a Regular takes 300 L of beans or 320 L of foam.
• A mix gives you some of both. For the Lounger and tub chairs, keep it mostly beans: swapping 100 L of beans for 120 L of foam softens the seat, but all-foam lets the shape slump.

Covers arrive unfilled. You can add sensory foam on most product pages; beans need to be bought locally. If you'd rather skip the filling job, the DreamPods arrive filled with foam, vacuum-packed. The honest limit: allow up to 48 hours for one to reach full size, and the DreamPod Chair, Mini and Cruz can't be returned once the pack is opened.

Check the cover comes off

A bean bag in a lived-in room gets sat on in shoes, eaten on and slept on by the dog. Look for a removable, machine-washable outer cover over a separate inner liner, so the filling stays put while the cover goes through the wash. The Pierre, Cloud and Boucle round bags all work this way.

The Lounger and tub chair covers don't come with a liner, because of their shape; the Knox set does, for both pieces. If you already own a round cover without one, a mesh bean bag liner comes in all three round sizes.

For kids' rooms, look at the zip

Our bean bags come with the outer zip pull removed to meet Australian safety rules. The zip opens with a paperclip, which grown-ups can manage and small hands can't. For a child's corner, the Regular Lounger, the Regular tub chair and the DreamPod Mini are the ones sized for children and small adults, and the Mini has a pull handle so it can be dragged to wherever the game has moved.

Which one for which corner

• A small bedroom: the Regular Lounger, for the smallest footprint with a real back.
• A reading corner: the Corduroy tub chair, which sits like a chair, with a back to lean on.
• A living room you put your feet up in: the Knox with its ottoman, which has a rope handle so it moves when guests do.
• A covered deck: the Outdoor tub chair, in 600D Oxford fabric you spot clean.

Setting up a whole reading corner around it? Start with how to set up a reading nook in a small living room.