For an Arabic majlis in Lakemba, Sydney, Sofhu builds the set to your wall measurements in Türkiye and ships it free to your door. There is no local shop. A set for a Lakemba home is best planned around hosting: an L-shape or U-shape for the front room, an ottoman and loose floor cushions for extra guests, and zippered covers that wash at 30°C.
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During Ramadan, Haldon Street fills every evening for the Ramadan Nights food festival, and the crowds are very large. What the festival does not show is the second half of the night, when families go home and the visiting starts. That is the room this page is about. An Arabic majlis for a Lakemba, Sydney home is, more than anything, a set that has to seat far more people in one month than it does the rest of the year.
Where the evening continues after Haldon Street
Lakemba, in Canterbury-Bankstown, is closely associated with Sydney’s Lebanese and Muslim communities. Its mosque is one of the largest in Australia, and Bangladeshi and other communities share the suburb with Lebanese families. On Eid morning and through the Ramadan evenings, houses here receive relatives, neighbours and friends in waves.
A three-seat couch and two armchairs do not cope with that. Seating along the walls does: nobody has their back to anyone, the middle of the room stays free for trays, and children can sit on the rug.
Planning seats for iftar and Eid
Start from the walls, not from a head count. Measure every wall the seating can run along and note where the doors are. Then decide how the room has to work on its busiest night.
- A U-shape on three walls gives the most places and suits a front room used mainly for guests.
- An L-shape leaves one wall free for a television or a sideboard and suits a room the family uses daily.
- An ottoman in the centre is a table for coffee and sweets and an extra seat when needed.
- Loose floor cushions add places for the younger guests and stack away afterwards.
Our iftar and Eid seating plan works through layouts for different guest numbers, and the guide on how many people a majlis seats explains how to estimate places per wall. Sofhu’s earlier article on Arabic sofas for Ramadan gatherings has more hosting ideas.
The look: Levantine habits, Gulf patterns
Lebanese homes have their own way with a sitting room. The older Levantine reception room used a low sofa and cushions on a raised platform, and today’s jalsa arabiya sets are sold as mattress, backrest and armrest. The Syrian and Levantine seating guide covers that background.
In practice, most people choose by seat height and colour more than by country. Sofhu makes two products. The Arabic majlis is raised to sofa height and fully upholstered, with a fixed back, like the navy and burgundy sets on this page. The Arabic floor sofa is floor-level seating, a mattress seat with loose back cushions and an ottoman, like the red sadu-weave set below.
If the room is small or you prefer something quieter, a single run in taupe or beige along one wall does the job without taking over the house.
Covers and foam for a month of heavy use
Thirty nights of guests means tea, coffee, syrup and small hands. Sofhu’s covers are zippered and removable, and Sofhu states they can be machine washed at 30°C. Take the covers off one section at a time so the room is never bare, and do not tumble dry velvet. Our guide to removing coffee, tea and henna stains covers the usual accidents.
Inside, the cushions are 32 kg/m³ (32 DNS) high-density foam with no springs. That figure is weight per cubic metre. It tells you how much material is in the seat, and denser foam generally holds its shape better when a row of adults sits on it night after night. If you like a softer or firmer seat, ask for it when you order.
How an order for a majlis sofa in Lakemba works
Sofhu is the manufacturer and sells direct. There is no shop in Lakemba and no stock held in Sydney. You send wall measurements and a photo of the room through the quote form or on WhatsApp, agree the layout and fabric, and the set is made for your room. It travels vacuum packed and the foam recovers its shape once the bags are opened.
Shipping is free worldwide. Australian import taxes or charges may apply depending on the order, so ask Sofhu how yours will be handled.
For other parts of the city, see the Sydney majlis page and the Auburn page, which covers toshak and sedir-style sets. The national overview is Arabic sofas in Australia, and the full range by layout is on the majlis sofa sets page.
