sofabeds - anyone found a decent one?

[sis]

We are considering converting our spare bedroom into a play/recreational room for the whole family. It will be somewhere that ds can leave train tracks overnight, I can read and dh can listen to his music without the tv on in the backgroud.

At the moment, the room is a bit of a junk/storage room with a double bed in it and we would like to replace the bed with a sofabed to give us more play space and somewhere comfy to sit. I would really appreciate any info you have on sofabeds - anyone got a good one? anyone got a bad one which we should avoid? Do you get what you pay for or is there a really good one out there at a reasonable price?

Many thanks...

We have got one that is "foam", not springs, and it is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever slept on (only once when we had friends to stay and we let them have our bed). We got ours from Index (Littlewoods). As a settee, it is most comfortable but is definitely lacking in comfort in the sleep department. It is also too short (I am not tall - only 5'4", but my feet hang over the end). I really feel like chucking it out and getting a spring one but would definitely recommend trying before you buy to make sure that you would actually feel comfortable enough to sleep on it.

Sis - have you considered a futon? Ous folds into a sofa, which is comfy, and everyone says it makes a great bed too.

We got a Jaybee 'click-clack' type sofa bed (about £249)for our play/spare bed/computer/office/library/clutter room. It's comfy to sleep on and the best bit is that in our smallish room it opens out within its own space plus a few inches, so there's no need to move anything. Not that I'm lazy or anything.

We got a great one for our toy/guest room from Ikea. It has no arms, but the seat part pulls forward, and seat/cushion bit becomes the mattress (you would understand what I mean if you saw it) It wasn't very expensive, and comes with a cover which fastens over the top & it machine washable. The MIL & FIL have to sleep on it when visiting, and MIL has problems with her joints, & she thinks its v comfortable.
BTW if you're looking at sofabeds, check the size of the bed, some are quite small.

We bought a brilliant one from Sofas and Sofabeds on Tottenham Ct Rd in London about 4 years ago. Its got a fab comfy mattress and we use it as our main 'tv' sofa every night. It was 799 all those years ago but its very comfortable.

Dont get a foam one! Don't get a futon! Both become v uncomfy v quickly.

we,ve got the ikea one likes berries and its very comfortable. i also bought a childs one from mccord, its a child sized sofa that pulls out to a single bed for 1-6 year old. costs 100 pounds and is sooo cute

I have had some of my worst nights sleeps on sofa beds, I would steer clear of foam or futons (IMHO), no offence meant. I suppose a good way to check how comfy they are is by how many repeat visitors you get! R

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New to this everyone, so hello! and here goes.....we bought a brill sofabed last yr from a company called Oakridge direct. They're mainly a mail order firm, but if you're in the vicinity (S. Wales) they do have a showroom tacked onto their premises, which you can browse around. Anyhow, we got a fantastic sofabed, metal action etc, very comfy, all for around £200 - the prices are really quite unbelievable. I checked their no for you - it's 01685 844000 if you want to order a catalogue....and although it may sound like i do, i really don't work for them!!

Hello and welcome to the site Leese.

Thanks for all the comments and advice so far. I'm pretty much sold on a srung not foam mattress.

Bee, like some of the others on the thread, my experience of futons has been that they are pretty uncomfortable. The rolling up theory may work for comfort but, would defeat the object for us as we want a sofa to sit on when it's not being used as a bed for guests.

SueDonim, what is a jaybee click-clack sofabed? is there somewhere that I can find out about these things?! I feel a bit silly for not knowing.

Leese, I had seen adverts for the sofas-direct type service but didn't know about the quality, so it is good to hear from someone who has actually bought one of their sofabeds.

Berries and cos, I thought all the ikea sofabeds were foam matressees, do either of you know if the have spring mattresses?

I will try and find out about the sofa and sofa bed store - hopefullt from the internet as shopping time is severely limited due to the fact that dh and I are both working full time AND we both hate shopping...

SueW, I don't suppose you remember where you bought that lovely sofabed all those years ago, do you?

Once again, thanks for the info given so far, I'll start investigating tomorrow.

Hi, Sis, I'm the one feeling sily, now cos I can't find those sofabeds on the internet! But this is the type of thing, though really, it's just a glorified futon. Argos Sofabed

And this is the Jay-Be site, although I can't see our sofabed there.

Our sofa in the living room is a sofabed and is very comfy as a sofa and a bed. The only thing is it's not very wide, so is not particularly comfy when there's two of you (because you have to sleep close together and get all hot as much as anything - we always gave up our bed and slept on it while my PIL stayed for weeks on end, so I know.) It's from the Sofa Workshop, and was very reasonable (about £1000 for two large sofas.)

In our new flat, dd sleeps in the "boxroom" (internal room which is common in tenements) which is about 6' x 6', and the spare room is a spare room cum playroom. We got a sofabed from Ikea, like the one that Berries described. We paid extra for a proper sprung matress (it cost about £350) because I figured that if it wasn't really good, I'd feel obliged to vacate our bed when people came to stay, which defeats the purpose of having a spare room. It's very comfy to sit on, and I'm told to sleep on too. It's pretty big though, so won't fit in smaller rooms.

We bought a decent sofa bed for our last flat which only had one bedroom - and we wanted our friends to come and stay more than once!

The trick is to get a mattress with a single fold (I think confusingly it gets called a double fold mattress) - it folds in half and into the bottom half of the sofa. These mattresses tend to be properly sprung AND (very important) most of the base is slatted - so you don't get those nasty bumps poking thorugh into your back. The "triple fold" mattresses tend to be foam and have a much easier (=cheaper) mechanism for sliding into the base of the sofa (I have very bad memories of 2 weeks on a cheap sofa bed which had a triple fold mechanism at my granny's - my Mum and Dad, when they stayed, ended up going and buying a sheet of MDF!)

We bought ours from Delcor - they've got shops around the country, but a quick google search didn't reveal a web site. It wasn't cheap - but also not extortionate - about £800 6 years ago (it was on a special deal - but one that gets repeated regularly). The two seater is wide enough for 3 friends to sit on comfortably (although neatly!) and also a decent width for a couple to sleep in. We would sometimes choose to sleep in it for a change (or if we were staying up late to watch TV - it was/still is very very comfortable.

Re the warnings on foam - the mattress itself must not be foam, but good quality foam cushions for the sofa are OK and keep their shape better than feathers!

If you don't want to spend that much and are only wanting something for occasional use, then I'd go for a futon. Even though they're very firm, at least they don't have the lumps and bumps that cheap multi fold sofa inflicts you with.

Yeeehaaa!!! I have been and gone and done it!! Thank you sooo much for all the helpful info armed with which I decided to to visit the lovely, lovely people at John Lewis and got a special offer with sprung mattress for just under £500.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you!