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Original poster

Tell me about your Ikea Hemnes sofa bed please.

51 replies

Spidermama · 17/01/2010 16:55

As part of our radical plans to create more space for the kids, dh and I are planning to make our bedroom into a dual purpose bedroom/sitting room. We need a really comfortable sofa bed or double day bed.

I'm not usually a fan of Ikea but this looks like it might work out well for what we need.

So I wondered if anyone had one and whether you think it would be comfy enough to be our bed every night?

Thanks.

OP posts:
helpYOUiWILL · 17/01/2010 20:52

with the resmo mattress

Original poster
Spidermama · 17/01/2010 20:53

It lacks the drawers though to hide the bedding in.

How easy is it to get the Hemnes day bed pulled out into double bed position?

OP posts:
helpYOUiWILL · 17/01/2010 21:06

i have got the storage box that goes underneath it

Original poster
Spidermama · 17/01/2010 21:11

Hmmm. I think I might have to go to Ikea in Croydon and have a look at my options.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 17/01/2010 21:14

it's easy peasy. you just pull in the middle of the front bit, above the middle drawer. impossible to pull it out too far. then put the top mattress on the pulled out bit.

Original poster
Spidermama · 17/01/2010 21:40

Ruddy does yours have the two mattresses? Are they damp or smelly after being in your garage? (I hope you'll excuse my impudence.)

I'm just trying to get hold of DH to find out if he's going to Leeds again in the forseeable.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 18/01/2010 09:37

yes it has the two mattresses but they are in the house so no not damp or musty at all they are just the very most basic mattress that ikea do though (you choose which you want when you buy the bed, they aren't included). you may want fancier ones.

SweetApril · 18/01/2010 11:40

We have one of these in DD's room which we use as a spare bed for guests but which DD will soon be using for her "big bed". It's a good five or six years old so there may be some design changes but here's what I'd say are the fors and againsts.

For:

  1. Quality is pretty good
  2. Looks good
  3. Great for storage
  4. Brilliant guest bed
  5. It's kingsize when pulled out

Against:

  1. The foam mattresses which Ikea recommend for it are not very good quality. Fine for guests but not for long-term use. If you get better quality sprung mattresses they will be thicker and when you stack one top of the other to make it into a sofa it will be way too high IYSWIM, almost to the top of the rail.

  2. As Tallis says, one person will not have a "headboard" so their pillows will be inclined to fall off and they can't sit up in bed and read or whatever.

  3. It's easy peasy to turn it into a kingsize bed if you have hard floors. If you have carpet it's much harder to pull it out cos it doesn't roll so smoothly (bear that in mind if you look at it in the store cos they will have hard floor and it will seem a doddle!)

  4. It's very heavy (not necessarily a bad thing) and was a bit of a bugger to put
    together.

  5. The wooden slats on the base are not fixed and if you overfill the drawers they tend to drift out of their little slots.

TBH, we love ours so much we can't bear to part with it which is why DD is having it as a big bed (with a single good quality mattress and we will store the foam ones under our bed for when we have guests). But I really don't think it would be a good long-term solution. We slept on ours for three months many moons ago and it was very comfy and not at all flimsy but it def did feel a bit temporary esp because of the odd "headboard" arrangement. If you could find good mattresses that would not be too high for the sofa part then it might be worth considering at a push. You really must grin and bear the experience that is Ikea Croydon to get a proper feel of it. That's what we did. Set it all up in the store as a bed and laid on it for a good five minutes! HTH. I'm happy to answer any more questions you might have!

Rubyrubyruby · 18/01/2010 11:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Spidermama · 18/01/2010 16:14

Thanks SweetApril. Very comprehensive answer there which is extremely helpful.

We have another 'main' sofa in the room so it doesn't have to be all that comfy as a sofa - more as a bed.

Ruddynora my dh may well be going to Leeds again at the begining of February. However we only have a Renault Megane and I think the bits might be too big to transport in or on that. What do you reckon?

I may get it new in the end. Sometimes Ikea stuff doesn't respond well to being taken apart and put back together again.

Hmmmmmm. Dunno.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 18/01/2010 19:56

it is pretty big. measurements are on ikea site i guess, prob 2m long? standard ikea bed length? well, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon so just let me know

smegheads · 19/01/2010 15:28

Hi RuddyNorah, I'm interested in buying the daybed from you and i live in Leeds! Does this come with the mattresses and is there any damage? Cheers Lea

notanumber · 19/01/2010 15:35

Can't comment on its qualities as a bed, but is it to be the only sofa in the room too? The only place for people to sit and read / watch tv / chat?

Because, I have to say that it looks pretty uncomfortable for that purpose. There are no cushions or padding at the back, just a bit of wood. And if you piled some on I suspect they would slip in an irritating fashion.

ruddynorah · 19/01/2010 16:38

oooh! well i better hang on a bit to see if spidermama wants it still. see if she replies to this thread by end of the week ish. otherwise you can have it smegheads! yes i have 2 mattresses for it, just the basic foam ones. they are totally fine, in the house, so not damp or anything. the actual bed is in the garage. no damage, again totally fine. it is all in bits though, not still built IYSWIM. but all the bits are there plus instructions. we were ver careful with that as i planned to ebay it, only then with one thing and another i haven't got round to it. you're welcome to come and have a look if you want before committing to buy it.

spidermama?

Skegness · 19/01/2010 17:07

My older kids have these and they are cleverly designed and fab in many ways. I would agree with SweetApril's assessment entirely, however, and think that the mattress problem would be a dealbreaker for me in your situation. It is designed to take 2 foam mattresses, each half the thickness of a normal mattress. This is fine for a lightweight kid using the bed as a single with one mattress atop the other. It is also surprisingly comfy as a double for occasional use. However, it would not be my choice for good support of an adult of normal weight every night. Replacing with 2 sprung mattresses of normal thickness is not an option either unless you don't mind your daybed very high.

Original poster
Spidermama · 19/01/2010 18:40

Thanks for holding it for me ruddy. I think it makes more sense for smeg to have it as she's up there. I'm watching a few on ebay round my area.

Last night one went for £200 and another for £180. Today one went for £122.

I am worried about the comfort of it but actually, as dh plans to be away for most of the year, it might just work out well.

OP posts:
smegheads · 19/01/2010 18:42

Hi RuddyNorah, thats great. If Spidermama doesn't want it, if you contact me on [email protected] and we can sort out a day to come and pick it up! Cheers Lea

bran · 19/01/2010 18:58

I came here to comment, but there's no need as SweetApril has already said everything I was going to say.

DS has this for his bed and we hardly ever use the pull out bit. He really loves it as we told him it was like a cabin bed that pirates have. He has a proper mattress and we store the second mattress between the back of the bed and the wall, where it provides a perfect shelf for his many soft toys.

For use as a sofa, it's higher off the ground than a normal sofa so your legs would dangle a bit. You would also need fairly solid cushions to bring the back forward a bit, unless you were planning to use bolsters and lounge harem style.

If two of you are using it then whoever is on the inside will have to climb over the other to get out, which could be a pain.

I'm not a huge fan of dual purpose bedroom/other. I think it's more restful to just have your bedroom as a bedroom if at all possible.

Original poster
Spidermama · 19/01/2010 19:10

Bran I would rather not give up my bedroom but I have three boys aged 10, 7 and 4 in one, albeit large, room at the moment and the ten year old is going a bit wild. We are looking for radical solutions.

OP posts:
bran · 19/01/2010 19:26

That's a tough one Spidermama, I can see radical is needed. So, will the 10 yr old go into what is now the sitting room?

I just think that the Ikea bed is good, but changing it from bed to sofa and back again every day is going to be quite a bit of effort. And it's not a hugely comfortable sofa unless you have large, deep cushions which will then need to be stored somewhere when it's a bed.

Original poster
Spidermama · 19/01/2010 19:29

Bran dh and I would go into the sitting room with the sofa bed and ds would get our room. There is another sofa in the sitting room so it would not be the main one.

I'm going on and off the idea by the hour. Very difficult. All the kids would gain but dh and I ... hmmmmmmmmm.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 19/01/2010 19:31

sorted then smegheads. will email you!

bran · 19/01/2010 20:07

What is it about sharing that is driving your DS1 wild? Would it be possible, for instance, for you to give him a large, lockable wardrobe in your bedroom to keep all his clothes/toys/computer games/private things in? He could use your bedroom as his den, with the other 2 not allowed in there, and only use the boys' bedroom to sleep in.

Once he has locked his wardrobe and gone to bed then the bedroom will be yours again. You would still lose some privacy, but not as much as if you were using your bedroom as a sitting room for everybody, plus you wouldn't have to keep changing from sofa to bed and back again.

friendly · 21/01/2010 22:59

We have a similar problem. When I asked ds what he would like for his 8th birthday he said his own room. He shares with dss 6 and 4. We don't have enough bedrooms so I decided the only option was to buy a room divider, ikea again, I think it's called expedit. It cost about £90. It has 16 cubes and he has all his bits and pieces on it. You can buy wicker baskets or plastic boxes to fill the cubes. We have a few baskets and then his books and bits which give him a bit of the privacy he was after.

I also bought him a spotlight which clamps onto the unit. He only has room for his bed in his section and then a narrow strip of floor and then the divider. It's not ideal but it has given him a little space of his own, a safe place to put his lego, books and bits. He was really pleased with his 'room'.It has meant he can have a later bed time than the others and read by his spotlight. I don't know if this would be an option for you.

Original poster
Spidermama · 30/01/2010 15:16

It sounds like you've made a great job of it friendly.

I had been looking at those room dividing shelves you're talking about. I feel a trip to Ikea coming on.

One of the main problems with having three in a room is that it's just like toy soup in there. It's so hard to know who has made which mess. They like the big floor space in the middle for playing but because it's nobody's territory, no-one takes the responsibility for keeping it neat. The same goes for the sitting room.

The idea is to try to give them a sense of their own living space within their bedrooms in the hope they'll spend some time in there.

OP posts:
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