sofa beds (can't make the subject any more enticing, I'm afraid!)

[hairtwiddler]

That's it really. Do you have a good one? Where did you get it? Has to be:
same size as standard double bed
comfy as both bed and chair
firm mattress suitable for 'on the heavy side' grandparent!
Budget - under £500 (well under if possible)

Sorry can't help, spent £1000 10 years ago.

It is very comfortable though.

John Lewis do lots.

We have one from ikea that we only use very occasionally, which is perfectly comfortable, but if you buy from Ikea I would suggest buying the highest quality mattress that they have available - don't budget on that.

here

Thanks Bree, am currently on JL website... not much change from a grand there.
May need rethink of spare room arrangements!

We had the single version of that Ikea one for a while. It's very comfy to sleep on but kind of ugly to look at. I guess it's plain enough though and would work ok with a nice throw.

My friend got the day bed that pulls out into a double bed and it has those built in storage drawers??? Or was it to be a sofa in your lounge?

I would get a decent second hand one on Ebay if I were you. You'd get a lot more for your money.

Ah, now had no idea you could order different mattress quality. That I like.

Give it a good steam clean obv. I got a really nice, posh single chair bed which works well with my chaise longue and chesterfield, Victorian parlour stylee.

It's also comfy for guests. It was about £80, nearly new, on ebay and would have been about £450 new (I looked it up).

It's for a study, so would like it to be a sofa so could have somewhere to sit and read quietly when it's not in use as spare room for grandparents or other guests.

Or M&S have these under £500

here

We had one form Cargo homehops which was really good value.
My sister has t now, 9 years later.

Mumsnet is such a great pool of knowledge! So far am quite interested in Ikea one with extra padding.

This one for example has machine washable covers and they claim it would have originally cost a grand and a half.

I would check that out.

Of course if you go the ebay route you have to factor in the price and inconvenience of picking it up.

Benson Beds have some. We got some as SOfa's for our church - they are 5 seaters, and were cheaper than just buying a sofa. VERY easy to lift & turn into bed.

Or this.

Need to move to Bishop's Stortford for that one! Thank all for taking the time to post on this one.

hairtwiddler - our ikea one is in the study (with a throw over it) We are fortunate that we have another "spare room" (we live abroad - not dealing with UK house prices) with a proper bed in it, so it is really for overflow, but dh and I have slept on it and found it fine and our guests have always said it is very comfortable.

Thanks for that. I think a trip to Ikea is in order, if only for some of those mint rolo type sweets.

Or this.