Sofa beds

[kurtzoe]

Looking to replace a futon I've used for guest visits for many years now. I would like to offer my guests the most comfortable experience possible. Most choices are in the 1.5>2.5K range and seem like the same old thing. Thin mattress although memory foam is now an option and a spring based base. American Leather has really quality/comfortable pieces but they come with a 5.5K price point for a queen. I may go with this but naturally don't want to overpay if there are other quality options at a softer price point. Any suggestions or recent experience to share? Thanks in advance.

 

[Sue J]

No recent experience but sofa beds that I have used or owned were a compromise. Not a great sofa and not a great bed, either. I hope there are better offerings now.

We used to have a full sized sofa bed. It was a pretty awful loveseat size sofa and then when we opened it up to the bed we put a full sized mattress on top of the sofa bed mattress. This made it the proper height and a much more comfortable sleeping surface.

Good luck, I hope other posters can point you in the right direction.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Looking to replace a futon I've used for guest visits for many years now. I would like to offer my guests the most comfortable experience possible. Most choices are in the 1.5>2.5K range and seem like the same old thing. Thin mattress although memory foam is now an option and a spring based base. American Leather has really quality/comfortable pieces but they come with a 5.5K price point for a queen. I may go with this but naturally don't want to overpay if there are other quality options at a softer price point. Any suggestions or recent experience to share? Thanks in advance.

I have a Rooms To Go sofa sleeper (regular mattress and not the memory foam upgrade) that felt ok when I tested it. I like the sofa as a sofa but it has never been slept in...not sure it will be but I like the option in case I decide to tolerate guests. I also have a "cheap" Ikea downstairs that is a mediocre couch however I actually think it would be fairly comfortable as a bed if one likes a firm "mattress". It is comfortable to me to lay on and the cushions are the mattress.

 

[MichaelB]

Our overnight visitors, mostly our adult children with their kids, DWs siblings with their kids, prefer a futon and air beds. No one slept well on our last sofa bed because of a metal support rod that went right down the middle and very uncomfortable mattress. A good air bed has the additional advantage of being located anywhere there is room.

 

[levindb]

You may want to look at Murphy Cabinet Beds...or Murphy Beds in general...does not provide the sofa, but has many positive reviews as a bed.

 

[swakyaby]

I had a small bedroom I wanted to set up for the occasional guest, so I was interested in a sofa sleeper so that the room could be useful for other things besides a bed. I went to many furniture stores, but all the sofa sleepers were so uncomfortable because of those metal bar supports.

Then I walked into an Ethan Allen showroom and inquired. He showed me a sofa and said it had an air mattress inside. He opened it up, connected an electric air pump motor to the mattress and inflated it. I laid on top of it and discovered it to be pretty incredibly comfortable. It felt more like a regular quality mattress than an air mattress, and nothing like a sofa sleeper mattress. It was a queen size. Because it was a floor model, it was 60% off, due to some shoe scuff marks on the front skirt of the sofa. I paid for delivery and hired a professional upholstery cleaner to clean off the scuff marks. Looked like new afterwards. Very satisfied with the purchase.

 

[Aerides]

You may want to look at Murphy Cabinet Beds...or Murphy Beds in general...does not provide the sofa, but has many positive reviews as a bed.

Like the sofa beds, not a great bed either. I think both are one-night visit options. And if your guests are older, or have any aches and pains, far from ideal.

FIL has a murphy in his guest room/office. DH and I have spent plenty of visits using it in the past. Never the best thing but doable for 1-2 night. This time was the first in a few years, and we both looked at the mattress as it was pulled down and realized we were just getting too old for this.

When we left that morning we were both eager to tell the other "never again" and we'll get a hotel for all future stay-over visits.

 

[Badger]

The only time I have slept on a sofa bed was in grad school when I rented a tiny efficiency apartment. It was very uncomfortable with metal bars being felt through the mattress in all the wrong places. Since the apartment was a rental the furnishings were cheap and old and the bed frame had to be folded back to a sofa using a hammer.
Maybe check out a Day Bed with Trundle. It gives you a sofa with the option of having 2 beds when there is more than one person.

Cheers!

 

[gattara]

We used to have a futon - it was not very comfortable to sit on for those w/bad backs BUT it was the most wonderful thing to sleep on. More comfortable than my bed. Perhaps you could find a really good quality futon? We have an air bed and it gets thumbs up from our guests.

 

[athena53]

I'd second the air mattress bed. DS and DDIL have one for guests and it can be put anywhere. I used to sleep in the spare BR when I visited before the third grandchild made his arrival. They also bring it with them when they visit me and set it up in a room which is equipped as an office. Far more comfortable than typical sofa beds.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Futons seem cheap, pull-out sofas are almost never a good option. I recommend the Murphy bed. For us it's been a great solution. Our guests love sleeping on the Murphy bed.

 

[bizlady]

I have had good luck with a Serta. Not a particularly attractive couch, but very comfortable to sleep on. I have it in an office and use it with our granddaughter when she stays- I usually sleep with her until she gets older and find it very comfortable. The back folds down to a a45 degree angle for TV, then flat for sleeping. The bottom pulls out like a drawer and then a piece pops up. The drawback is that it is not a zero clearance.

I decorate it with some throw pillows and a throw blanket when not in use.

https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/serta-sabrina-726-rolled-arm-sofa-bed-stf1283.html

 

[EastWest Gal]

During medical school I used a daybed. It's a twin size bed with a couple of back cushions which turns it into a couch during the day. Get one with a trundle and it can sleep two very comfortably. They are not expensive at all.

 

[cathy63]

MIL has two sleeper sofas and I've slept on both. The one that is really just as comfortable as a normal bed is the one with a 4" or 5" memory foam mattress. The foam itself doesn't fold up. It's in 3 slabs that run the length of the sofa, and when it pulls out, the three pieces end up laying next to each other. You don't get folds or depressions in the mattress because it never bends, and there's no hard bar across the middle (or if there is, there's so much foam you can't even feel it).

The one that's less comfortable is a similar design but with only 3" of foam. The thicker mattress makes a huge difference.

Something like this: https://www.livingspaces.com/pdp-ma...een-plus-sofa-sleeper-w-storage-chaise-231607

 

[r3saving]

You may want to look at Murphy Cabinet Beds...or Murphy Beds in general...does not provide the sofa, but has many positive reviews as a bed.

I second the wallbed solution because you can use a regular, comfortable mattress. Wilding Wallbeds has a sofa option; I'd assume other companies may have them too. I didn't buy that specific bed but can vouch for their wallbeds being very sturdy and comfortable.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

You may want to look at Murphy Cabinet Beds...or Murphy Beds in general...does not provide the sofa, but has many positive reviews as a bed.

I used to think Murphy beds were only a cheap NYC tenement type of thing, probably from TV and movies, but there are some REALLY upscale ones! (We had this company do a custom installation, not a Murphy bed, but I've been coveting theirs since then!) https://hardwoodartisans.com/collections/wall-beds

 

[pb4uski]

Our overnight visitors, mostly our adult children with their kids, DWs siblings with their kids, prefer a futon and air beds. No one slept well on our last sofa bed because of a metal support rod that went right down the middle and very uncomfortable mattress. A good air bed has the additional advantage of being located anywhere there is room.

+1 Our Florida condo came it a sofa bed. DS was the first to sleep on it and immediately complained about the metal support making the sofa bed uncomfortable. We went out that day and bought a good quality queen sized air mattress and just put it on top of the sofabed mattress. It folds up into a box the size of a 24-pack that is stored in a corner of the closet.

Problem solved! Plenty good for the 3-4 nights a year that we need it.

OTOH, we have a queen sized Murphy bed in our travel trailer that has an 8" foam mattress that is very comfortable so that would be a good option for the Florida condo if we needed a third bed more often.

 

[Katsmeow]

Looking to replace a futon I've used for guest visits for many years now.

We plan to soon move and I anticipate that our guest room will be small and we may want to do other things in there also so I've thought a lot about this. There seem 3 solutions I've thought of (I rejected the Murphy bed):

1. Futon
2. Sofa Sleeper
3. Daybed

The problem with sofa sleepers is that they are usually horribly uncomfortable to sleep on. I am intrigued by the suggestion to put an air mattress on one. That might be an option. Although taking the air mattress up and down might be a pain for the guest. Oh, I've read that there are sleeper sofas that have actual pull out mattresses that are comfortable but need more room. I haven't tried one though.

Daybeds are good options I think if you have a single guest who won't mind a twin bed. The problem with many trundles is that they don't raise up to the level of the daybed. I think some do but they are often hard to manuever.

You have had a futon before. We had one as a second sofa for years. Also, our son for several years slept on a futon in his room. He literally never put it in sofa position though. You can buy futon mattresses that are very high quality and comfortable. We bought ours from a place where you could order various mattresses that ranged from cheap to much more expensive. We found that something a bit above mid-range worked out well. There are many cheap futons online that are terrible. We had one that was high quality frame and had drawers underneath it and with the custom mattress was very comfortable. And, you could make it a sofa. The only negative is that the taking it down and putting it up is not immediately intuitive to some people.

Then I walked into an Ethan Allen showroom and inquired. He showed me a sofa and said it had an air mattress inside. He opened it up, connected an electric air pump motor to the mattress and inflated it.

That is amazing and had never heard of such a thing. Might work really well.

Futons seem cheap,

Not all futons are cheap. We had futon that were solid pieces of furniture with a custom (expensive) mattress. You get what you pay for.

 

[cathy63]

... The problem with sofa sleepers is that they are usually horribly uncomfortable to sleep on. I am intrigued by the suggestion to put an air mattress on one. That might be an option. Although taking the air mattress up and down might be a pain for the guest...

You can put an air mattress on top of a futon also. We have a futon on a wooden sofa frame in our spare room. It was fine for sitting and reading or watching TV, but the mattress was old and had gotten too firm (as in rock hard) for sleeping, so we would put an air mattress on it whenever we made it up as a bed. Since it's not in our living room there was no need to set it up nightly.

Recently we upgraded the futon mattress to a much better one with inner springs and it's once again comfortable to sleep on so we don't use the air mattress any more.

 

[Bamaman]

There are very few hideabeds that are very comfortable. They are better with new foam mattresses, but that bar midback is hard to overcome.

We found a hide a bed at an estate sale for $200. It is actually very comfortable. But it is a Hancock and Moore leather couch with goosedown stuffing and a coil mattress. Cost new was $7000.

 

[Badger]

You might also want to consider what Benjamin Franklin said when it comes to providing comfortable sleeping arrangements , "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after 3 days."

Cheers!

 

[Charlotte]

We have a La-Z-Boy sofa, that has an inflatable air mattress built in, and it is quite comfortable. It takes a little longer to set up and close down, but it’s well worth it.

If I recall, the air mattress feature added about $500 onto the price, but it’s been money well spent.

 

[JP.mpls]

Our overnight visitors, mostly our adult children with their kids, DWs siblings with their kids, prefer a futon and air beds. No one slept well on our last sofa bed because of a metal support rod that went right down the middle and very uncomfortable mattress. A good air bed has the additional advantage of being located anywhere there is room.

I agree on the air bed recommendation.
I've never enjoyed sleeping on a sofa sleeper, or moving one.
I'm on my second air mattress for guests.
I really liked the first one, but it finally started leaking.
Costco has a very nice one for $150. It even regulates the pressure automatically.
My guests seem very happy with it, and they have several choices on where it will be.
The only downside that I can see, is that someone could have trouble getting in and out of the bed.
The new one is very thick, so that gives it some height.

Take care,. JP

 

[Sanstar]

We have a La-Z-Boy sofa, that has an inflatable air mattress built in, and it is quite comfortable. It takes a little longer to set up and close down, but it’s well worth it.

If I recall, the air mattress feature added about $500 onto the price, but it’s been money well spent.

This is the same type we have. It’s at least 10 years old, looks like new and no complaints re: comfort from many different family members. I like the firmness is controlled with air pump.

 

[swakyaby]

We have a La-Z-Boy sofa, that has an inflatable air mattress built in, and it is quite comfortable. It takes a little longer to set up and close down, but it’s well worth it.

If I recall, the air mattress feature added about $500 onto the price, but it’s been money well spent.

Had I known La-Z-Boy had such a sofa sleeper with an inflatable mattress built in, I would have shopped there first. I'm sure their prices for a brand new product were much better than the usually expensive Ethan Allen. But I felt good about buying the Ethan Allen floor model because it was such a good discount, was a quality product, very comfortable, and a professional upholstery cleaner restored the dirt-stained front skirt area to like new.