Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. Chupacabra. While these creatures have long been rumored to exist, we don't have any hard evidence that they are actually out there. Another elusive near-mythical entity is a sleeper sofa bed that is actually comfortable to sleep on. Amazingly, in this case, our readers have reported not only having seen them but capturing them and living with them in their very own homes! Click through for the list, and bookmark for future reference...
Of course, comfort (especially for sleeping) is a very subjective thing, but real-world recommendations that aren't hosted by a retailer or manufacturer can be hard to come by and are always valuable. Here are a few truly glowing stand-out reviews from our always helpful readers:
I bought a sofabed from this company, the SB52, Momento Italia and it is fabulous! Very comfortable to sit and sleep on (orthopaedic mattress) and the bed pulls out without having to take the pillows off. What's more the sofa's fabric can be switched quite easily (hidden velcro fasteners) to completely change the look of your room. I don't work for this company, I just think they have great stuff...! Kind of expensive, but great modern design, and super functionality make it worth it - absolutely! - Adrienne
We have this one from IKEA (MANSTAD). Been sleeping on it every night since January & are quite happy with it. We use a memory foam mattress topper to make it a bit more comfy. It's actually more comfortable than the bed we used to have! - Paisleypetals
I have to say that I spluged, and purchased a sofa from Carlyle. I have slept on it since the beginning of November and it is so comfortable. I have had two sets of house guests and their opinion is the same as mine. I would say this was a good buy. I did buy it while they were having a sale so that did make the cost a bit more reasonable. - Mason
I bought a Smala from Lignet Roset a few years ago. It's a great sofa and flattens out to a queen size bed. It is a firm bed and has gotten such rave reviews from my guests I have tried it out myself. It's really comfortable (of course for the price it should be). Bottom line, this sofa bed should be included in more reviews like this. It's a winner for a good nights rest, as a sofa and as an object. - liamwen
If you can *EVER* get your hands on a used Castro Convertible, grab it. Even if you have to pay to have it reupholstered. It's a tremendously comfortable sofa bed to sleep on. - TootsNYC
I currently live in 232 sq. ft. and sit and sleep on the same Ikea sofa bed as @Paisleypetals: (MANSTAD) I'm absolutely in love with it, especially the storage under the chaise and how comfortable it is to sleep on (it's firm, so be prepared). At $699 you can't go wrong - and trust me, I usually hate buying Ikea furniture. I'm also in love with dual purpose furniture, so this ties in with the whole theme of my flat. Congrats on living small. I love it. - stephenslater
Lucy Au. These are absolutely the most comfortable I've ever slept on (because of the full slat back support compared to just 3-point metal back support typical of fold-out beds), these are ottomans that convert to twin - full - or - queen beds. - Rucy
I love my Mitchell Gold Bob Williams Sleeper! I purchased the Reese last year from their store in SoHo and couldn't be happier. I was nervous about making the purchase, but after seeing the design of the sofa, experiencing the comfort of the mattress, and the service at the store, I was sold. - trents79
Soooooooooo glad we went with the Room and Board... the air/coil combo matresses are unbelievably comfortable!! - carriestrine
By far the American Leather sleeper sofas are the most comfortable on the market because of their patented method uses no metal springs. The king size is awesome. - FengShuiByFishgirl
The Cooper by G. Romano is great-looking and very comfortable. All our overnight guests rave. - lmccl
Have your own recommendation to share? Please let us know in the comments below - future shoppers will thank you!
Image: Pink Bigfoot pin by Pearson Mason | $10 at Pearson Mason's Etsy shop
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I'll have to mark this one - I'm spending the weekend at my Dad's new apartment in New York, and he's got a sleeper sofa for me. We'll see how that goes!
Absolutely agree with carriestrine above. The Room & Board air coil sleepers are wonderful. I highly recommend - PQuill
Another vote for the Room & Board air coil - it feels like a regular mattress!
I went with Innovation USA after pondering offerings from all the big names: Room and Board, Mitchell...... They are very sturdy and have firmer matresses which was the number one request from my guests who were tired of sleeping on our airbed. Great for those with a modern decor: http://www.innovation-usa.com/
My wife and I have the American Leather Comfort sleeper and regard it as the best of the best. http://www.comfort-sleeper.com/
I'm in the UK and I have a Futon Company 3 seater/ bi-fold futon. It is very comfy both as a sofa and a bed -one if the few mattresses I can sleep on as well as my expensive memory foam mattress. I've had good comments from guests, too.
The Lofa Sofa is low on style but high on sleeper comfort, ease of set up, storage and flexibility. Prices are reasonable compared to the modernist designer items.
I replaced my sofabed mattress with an Air Dream inflatable mattress. No more bar in your back, ever. The mattress blows up to 11 inches deep so it takes standard sheets much better than others, and it inflates and deflates in seconds. The only downside is the feel of the air mattress if your partner moves around a lot, but it's firm and you get used to it.
i got an AWESOME sleeper sofa at jennifer convertibles a few yrs ago in nyc for less than a grand. it has a regular sofa bed mattress w an aero bed mattress attached to the top w an electric pump that inflates it in about 1 min... SO COMFY- u never feel the bars thru the mattress!
Ms. Laban, congrats on a very well-written post; clever lead, great picture, well-organized information, and a nice payoff to the lead. Yay, AT!
Agree, great post - fun and humorous, but still worth clicking through (and bookmarking)!
We were looking for a super cheap but still comfortable option a little while ago, and ended up coming across a BEDDINGE in the as-is section at IKEA. It was basically half off the already low price, so we bought it thinking it would be a great "for now" piece until we could afford something we REALLY wanted. We never would have predicted it, but we have had rave reviews from all our overnight guests!
As a sofa, it leaves much to be desired, but it works great in my husband's home office as an occasional spot for me to hang out when I get tired of never seeing him, and is an extremely comfortable (firm) bed, that I think is somewhere between double and queen in size. :)
Nice to have easily changeable slipcovers, and the optional storage box that fastens to the bottom of the frame is great for storing bedding when it's a sofa, and the slipcover and toss cushions when it's a bed. :)
I sleep (and never use as a couch) in an IKEA PS Collection sleeper sofa. It's been quite comfortable for the last 5 years, After 5 years, it's no good, though, but it's really well worth it's low price!
I wanna switch for a real bed now, maybe from Muji...
-Vic
Manstad is no longer being made! IKEA Woodbridge had to refund my money for it months ago because it was out of stock everywhere and they were discontinued. :(
Mrsbreakfast-They are changing the design so you can put the chaise on either side, instead of having to choose. I don't know when they are coming, though.
I have the (now disco'd) Ikea Tylosand sofa bed. Our family is all out of town, and comes to stay with us at least once a year. We've slept on it plenty, too. It's almost too comfy as a sofa. I've fallen asleep on it too many times when watching TV or a movie. It's pretty comfy as a bed, also, which we've used when re-doing things or when we moved recently and were procuring a new bed.
I hate to disagree with such a wonderful review but I've owned an IKEA MANSTAD sofa like the one mentioned here for almost 2 years and have hated it for 1.5 of those years. The foam padding is of poor quality and lost much of its firmness very quickly. Now when I make it into a bed there are spots that are firm (those that are tucked away) and spots that are not (those that get sat on which makes for a rather uncomfortable sleeping area.
I love the sleeper chairs and small sofas made by LL Bean; not sure they're still available, but I've slept on them as a guest and they were quite comfortable.
Umm, yeah. If I were willing to spend more than $2500 on a COUCH I'm sure I could find a comfortable one with a sleeper option.
I own a beautiful leather sleeper sofa that my guests hate. My mom stays with us for weeks at a time, so we bought a new sleeper for her--I found one at LaZ Boy that fit the bill. We upgraded to the premium coil/air mattress--my mom loves it and even with upgraded upholstery it was less than 1400.00 (for the smaller apartment-sized model--the larger size would be closer to 1600.00).
Certainly more than I wanted to spend given my collection of empty beds (guest room and sleeper, and aerobeds) but a good choice for my mom who can't get up and down my stairs with ease and who has logged 3 months on it since last October.
I bought an innovation couch / sleeper last month. it's comfortable.
and it cost less than 1k.
Mitchell Gold Bob Williams - We bought their Alex sofa, and the Super Deluxe Queen Sleeper. Now we bring people over just to show them what a sleeper sofa can be. Its more comfortable than the last mattress I owned.
We're convinced that the Comfort Sleeper is the best option for so many reasons. You don't have to believe our words, come preview one at our New York store!
I got the Valencia sleeper from Sleepers In Seattle. Almost got a Comfort Sleeper from them, but $2500 was really not in my budget. I got the valencia for under a grand..and it is still super comfy and compact. Also got the spring-free latex mattress, which I've heard nothing but good things about from my guests.
raven1025 - yes!!!! hooray! thanks.
LOVE the Manstad sofa from Ikea! I just featured it in a quick shopping trip post! I'm planning to get one for our living room!
For almost two years I've been using the Ikea PS Lovas as my bed and my couch. It's been great. BUT the two main structural welds both just broke off of the frame in the span of two weeks. For the price, I really expected it to last longer. So disappointing!!
We bought a queen size sofa bed from these guys:
http://www.thesofabedstore.com I think it was called a Cassius. The In-laws said it was very comfortable over Christmas.
I recently purchased a Lofa Sofa (http://www.lofasofa.com) and I absolutely LOVE it. These can only be ordered online, but the owner will send you fabric swatches and really helped me navigate the many options including arm style, add-ons, etc. I ordered a style called the Mary Miller in the California Collection, and it's really stunningly gorgeous...the color totally pops and the fabric is a rich, royal blue mock suede that easily tolerates my kids' tiny spills. Also comes with an ottoman and it's beautiful as well...although the owner recommended that I have the factory reversibly screw the lid shut so my kids couldn't crawl in there...great advice because the ottoman is huge inside. I'd never made such a big purchase on the internet, but after testing a number of American Leather sleepers in local stores and finding them not only expensive but horribly uncomfortable, I decided to take a chance on the Lofa bed. I live half way across the county from Montreal, but had the whole thing delivered to my door TEN DAYS after ordering it for under $1500 including tax and delivery. It is so, so comfy, easy to assemble, easy to navigate through small doors, and really not very futon-like at all. I LOVE this thing and am so glad I took the chance ordering it online. Also way better than anything I've seen at our local Ikea (and I generally am a fan of Ikea.)
Can't go wrong with the Manstad definitely - there are custom covers available for it too - Flickr!