splurge on the mattress!!!!!!!! it will be the best decision you'll ever make :-)

Do yourself the favor of buying a good mattress. Think about it: what else in your life gets as much guaranteed use, nightly, and plays such a vital role in your overall health?

I spent years on second-hand mattresses (including a couple on a futon) and, seriously, I'm genuinely appreciative of my mattress every night and every morning. Bite the bullet and get a good mattress; you won't regret it.

wait and see how it works with your foam topper, if you are keen to save money. but thereafter, if it is uncomfortable the first night, it will not get more comfortable as time wears on. it may then be time to splurge. we just purchased a new mattress for a very reasonable price, just the mattress as we are going to do a platform frame. its an excellent mattress. there are good deals to be had, just don't purchase one at the first store you shop.

Height off the ground doesn't matter all that much - you get used to it easily. What does matter is that missing 6" off the length - if your boyfriend is tall, he's going to be miserable no matter what you do.

If he's not too tall for the futon, then getting a good futon mattress will really do the trick. Not all futon mattresses are equal, any more than most bed mattresses! If you bought that futon used, there's no telling what kind of mattress it has - probably the worst, cheapest kind.

It is possible to get a comfy futon mattress, believe me! We have one that we used as a couch for years, and occasionally we'll still drag it out of the back room and throw it on the living room floor to get comfy while we read books or watch movies.

But before you splurge on a mattress, make sure the length is okay for your boyfriend. At $50 you could probably turn around and resell it without too much hassle.

I have the feeling you did not actually get a Queen size futon, no matter what the person selling thought it was - a Full size mattress is exactly 6" shorter than a Queen size mattress. Sooo you are probably the proud new owners of a Full futon.

If you don't need to fold the frame up into a sofa, you might also try some thin plywood underneath the futon for support.

I recently bought a pillowtop mattress & box spring at Sam's Club for about $600, including tax. Very comfortable. You can get a frame for around $30. I found two old doors at a yard sale for $10 - a little paint and distressing and I now have a headboard that cost a total of $20.

The mattress/box spring are worth the investment and with a little imagination and very little $$ you can come up with a frame/headboard that you are very happy with.

Why skimp on something that you spend 1/3 of your life on?

Buy a real bed and mattress.

I think I am the only person that has a queen mattress but prefers my futon that we keep in the guest room. It's extra thick organic cotton.
In Japan, they don't use 1 fat American style futon, they stack several together to make a customised bed roll. When ever I have back problems I go to the futon!

Honestly, I'm in the "get a proper bed" camp, but more on the grounds of real estate than comfort, necessarily. I was sleeping with my husband on a full size mattress that's probably older than I am (not that it's much of a defense, but in fairness I'm only 22) for half a year after I moved in. It was his bed and he loved it, it'd been with him for pretty much forever. Trouble was, he slept on it alone, and though a full is ample space for one person, no matter how much you love each other, it's a little crowded for two. And while the sloping hollow that had formed in the middle where the springs had compressed was a great place for him to nest on his own, it led to him straying into the middle of the bed, and then encroaching on my "half". And if I may flirt with the borders of TMI territory? Those horrible, creaky, worn out old springs. The noise. 'Nuff said.

Now, I don't know what your boyfriend is like. Perhaps he cuddles you gently all night in a way that's mutually comfortable. But I sleep with a man who becomes an unholy bastard when he sleeps. His sleeping self is the Hyde to his daytime Jekyll. He twists up in the sheets and blankets. He flings his elbows out. He latches onto anything he can get his arms around. He murmurs gibberish. He snores intermittently. One time--and he swears he doesn't remember doing this--he stole the pillow right from underneath my head and flung it across the room. And he loves that horrible old mattress. Some would argue that the appropriate response to this would be to wake him up, chew him out, and get on with my night, but I'm Canadian, and the sheer rudeness of waking a sleeper grates on my cultural heritage. Besides, he's cranky when he gets woken up. So instead I finally convinced him a bigger, newer, longer bed would make both of us happy.

And it HAS. Oh, has it ever. And the best part? He likes it too. He likes that his feet don't hang off the bed, he likes that he can come home late from work and not wake me up if I'm already sleeping. I like that I can wake up early and not wake HIM up if he's sleeping. I like that there's room for me to turn over in the middle of the night, and to lie on my back, and to be safe from his nighttime flailings.

TL;DR - If you've ever lain awake at night, with an elbow in your kidney, half a cubic foot of blanket to your name, and the wind through his sinuses gently eroding your sanity, thinking that maybe, just maybe, sleeping can be better than this; I urge you, get a proper bed.

yes, do yourself a favor and invest in a real bed and a real mattress.

Buy cheap, buy twice!

Futons are neither good beds nor good couches. Its the worst of both worlds.

We purchased an innerspring mattress for our futon. Just as comfortable, and about the same price, as our regular mattress. Guests are always surprised at its comfort.

As others have pointed out. this is not the place to go cheap. Spend about 3 to 400 bucks on a decent mattress you can flip over (none of this pillow top crap). Use it for a few years then relegate it to a guest room.

'twists up in the sheets and blankets...flings his elbows out...latches onto anything he can get his arms around...murmurs gibberish...snores...' OMG, are we sharing the same man???

I'm going to start pricing a new mattress ASAP! But how I'm going to fit a queen size bed in my full size bedroom is beyond me, the dresser has already been relegated to the bathroom.

If your frame only works with that odd-sized mattress, you can always buy a good custom mattress to fit. I bought a custom mattress for my Danish Modern daybed. It didn't cost much more than a regular twin mattress.

PreludeInZ --

Good thing the mattress worked -
- Otherwise you'd have like grounds for divorce!

I wouldn't think it would be too hard to get a used queen-size mattress and box spring that was maybe used just in someone's guest room. Those things have almost zero resale value, and even the thrift stores won't take them.

I am with rferraris - a decent mattress and boxspring doesn't have to blow your budget and rails are extremely cheap. You can go without a headboard or be creative about creating one...and then you would have the bed of your dreams.

Personally I sleep on a full size bed with the fiance - we like it since we like to cuddle. It probably helps that neither of us are tall people - just about average.

I had a few futon mattresses, and none of them were good for sleeping. They're making more comfortable ones lately, though.

I am with sparklebot--I have a regular bed (a nice serta) and a futon (with a great futon mattress with springs) in the family room. I sleep on the futon more often than my regular bed--I sleep better.

I wonder how many people have actually slept on a good futon? and yes, I realize that there are bad futons out there, my parents had one in their guest room for a while that was like sleeping on a comforter on a concrete floor. but a good futon can be incredibly comfortable.

My husband and I were sleeping on a cheap futon and futon mattress for more years then I want to mention. Recently we decided to invest in a real mattress. We knew we wanted a firm foam mattress, so a platform style bed would work. We didn't want to invest in a real bed frame, so with a couple of tools and 2x4s we converted our cheap futon frame into a platform frame. We sawed off the armrests measured the mattress and added length and width to the frame with 2x4s. It doesn't look pretty, but with a bed skirt you can't see the 2x4s. It was a cheap project with a great outcome.

I really like the look you've created here with the daybed and pillows in a room with so much natural light. But it has to be comfortable.

serendipitwaddle - I think me (and those who said go for a real bed) are saying you don't necessarily have to go to West Elm or even Ikea for a bed...you can get the rails for a bed anywhere. I have personally never spent more than $30 for rails. Past that all you have to have is a mattress and boxspring - wait for sales and you can get a quality set for under $300. I've seen futons sell MUCH higher NOT counting the mattress.

Whatever decision you make just remember that you will be spending the equivalent of 120 days in a year on the mattress. Your health and whether or not you wake up feeling refreshed and ready accomplish all the important things you need to do, or you feel like a truck has just run over you is greatly determined by your mattress.

It is recommended that you buy a mattress that is 4-6 inches longer than the tallest person(ie you or your partner)

If you have the luxury of purchasing a bigger mattress and do not like the idea of feeling every turn your partner makes ensure your bed is big enough by laying side by side with your partner on the intended purchase. Put your arms behind your heads and have your elbows out. Ideally your elbows should not touch.