BEDDING — Inside the Home

Sofa Bed

Sofa beds – a great space saving solution

Few of us have a room to keep free as a guest room, these days we use a spare room as an office, laundry room/wardrobe or even as a gym! That's if we even have a spare room.

As our homes shrink (or we simply accumulate more ‘stuff') we are becoming more inventive with our interiors, & dual purpose furniture, including storage beds and sofa beds are becoming more and more popular. sofa beds enable us to use just a small fraction of the area of a bed on the days when we (or our guests) don't need to sleep, so work really well in these new properties.

Style is important too. Most of these new homes are modern, but fortunately sofa beds have changed over the last few years and provided you are prepared to spend a little more, finding a stylish contemporary sofa bed is not impossible any more. There has been a lot of growth in contemporary style decor over the last few years, and modern sofa beds have become much more widely available

So how do you make sure you choose the right modern sofa bed? There are several different types of sofa beds & they all have their place, depending on how much room you have, how often it will be used & which room you are planning on putting the sofa bed in.

If room is limited, but you need to put up two adult guests in a double bed then a fold down sofa bed (sometimes called a click clack bed) is perfect. To turn these into a bed the back of the sofa is pushed down, & the back becomes part of the mattress. Generally less comfortable for sleeping than pull out sofa beds, nonetheless these are easy to use, & not usually too pricy. They don't, however, have any storage room for duvets, pillows etc, & fabric options on the budgets models can be severally limited.

Another alternative is a single sofa bed, sometimes called a daybed. These are essentially a single bed, with a proper single mattress, but with a fitted mattress cover to match the base, & a covered back &/or sides. To look at they look like a sofa, or chaise longue, but the seat cushion is actually a mattress. Suitable for children's rooms & spare rooms these can often have storage options including under bed drawers or a lift up storage base, where sheets, duvets & pillows etc can be stored when not in use.

An interesting option for these is that many of them can include a second bed stored in the base, complete with mattress. By the time you buy the mattress a good quality day bed is not cheap, but they are very useful, & don't take up too much room. As the guest is staying on a proper mattress they are very comfortable to sleep on, although not quite as good to use every day as a sofa.

Finally, a pull out sofa bed can give you the best of both worlds. If you are planning on putting it in your living room, & planning on using it every day as a sofa then it's important to shop around & find a sofa bed that you like the look of as a sofa, & that is nice & comfortable to sit on.

These sofa beds usually have a much wider choice of fabrics than fold down sofa beds & daybeds, allowing you to make sure it looks perfect in your room (these can be quite a large investment, so this is an important point) & many have some room for pillows &/or a duvet, so can be a good solution if you only have one bedroom & often have guests to stay.

They have a pull out mechanism, so the bed is folded into the base & only pulled out when needed, & many even have some room to store pillows or duvets. The mattress sizes can vary from 120cm wide to 160cm wide, & the better models have mattresses that are comfortable enough for daily use (great if you live in a studio).

The mechanism is usually metal, & as they vary in robustness & ease of use it is best to either buy a high quality Italian sofa bed, or test a less expensive one carefully before you buy. The only disadvantage is that they can take up quite a bit of room when extended, so measure up carefully, & make sure that any other furniture in room can easily be moved to make space!

Something to consider is the size of the room your sofabed is in. If the bed will mostly be used guests who are staying over (rather than just overnight after a few too many) your guests need to be able to move easily around the room, & to get in & out of the door, & they will need room for their personal possessions, & possibly even their luggage!

So think carefully about who will be sleeping on your sofa bed, how often & where, & make sure you choose the sofa bed that is right for you. With so many types & models available you should be able to get something that fits the needs of you & your guests perfectly.

About the Author

Good quality, Italian made modern sofa beds can be seen online at Go Modern, who specialise in contemporary sofa beds and contemporary furniture

Got an Ikea Solsta sofa bed. Remedy for slipping cushions?

I just bought a Solsta sofa bed from IKEA and the bottom cushions keep slipping out when I lean back against the sofa. I know its sort of "you get what you pay for", but I had no other choice. Anyone know of a way to remedy this?

You can bye stick back Velcro and stick or sew one to the cushions and the other half to the frame

Lincoln Park Futon Sofa Bed from The Futon Shop

Tags: bed, design, furniture, home, sofa, sofa bed, sofa bed mattress, sofa bed sheets, sofa beds, sofa beds for sale

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 8:26 pm and is filed under bedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.