By using this site you agree to the use of cookies.Too many sofa beds fall short of being useful as either a sofa or a bed. With firm cushions, bad support, thin mattresses and clunky mechanisms, they’re usually not met with great enthusiasm by house guests. Thankfully, there’s a whole new breed of bed designs that solve the problem, with those at the top of the range being so comfortable they’re good for use every day. As always with large furniture pieces, think about size, access to your home, and guarantees that indicate sturdiness and good craftsmanship. 1. Willow and Hall Appley 2-seater Sofa Bed: from £554, Willow and Hall This small but comfortable bed from Willow and Hall folds out easily by pulling the wheeled base. Good for spare rooms and studies, the two-seater version is 122cm wide, and the armless design means it’s good for getting through small doorways. The frame is steel, and the cushions are foam and fibre. It’s available in 90 different fabrics and leathers, and is handmade and delivered in four and five weeks.
2. Sofa Workshop Jude Corner Sofa Bed: from £1,994, Sofa Workshop More of a sofa with an added bonus, the Jude sofa bed hasn’t compromised on comfort in order to discreetly include a pull-out double bed within its design. Made by hand in Britain, the sofa bed has a 15-year guarantee, a hardwood frame, foam seat cushions with fibre-filled back cushions and a deluxe double mattress that will give your guest a good night’s sleep. 3. John Lewis Clapton Sofa Bed: £349, John Lewis Great for small budgets and spaces, the petite Clapton sofa bed simply folds flat to go from day to night, rather than involving a bulky pull-out mechanism. The hardwood frame is guaranteed for 10 years – a good investment for a small price. Best for occasional use, the bed is a compact 182cm x 109cm when flat, and may need a mattress topper for added comfort. 4. Habitat Honovi Sofa: £1,700, Habitat If you’re dead set on impressing guests, the Italian-made Honovi sofa from Habitat is a three-seater that converts to the equivalent of a kingsize bed, with a luxurious 14cm-deep sprung foam mattress.
Foam is used for the deep seats cushions, and feather-filled for the back. The covering fabric is removable (dry clean only), making it practical too. Delivery takes eight to 10 weeks. 5. Loaf Pavilion Medium Sofa Bed: £1,445, Loaf The slouchy design of Loaf’s beds and sofas put comfort first, with deep seats and feather-filled back cushions across the range. The Pavilion sofa bed is no exception. Proving comfortable as both bed and sofa, it has a 12cm deep folding mattress and a mechanism that’s easy to use. The sofa comes with a 10-year guarantee. There’s a medium, large and love seat/single bed combination available too. 6. Made Jefferson Sofa Bed: £999, Made The ingenious folding mechanism makes Made’s Jefferson sofa bed stand out. The whole piece glides smoothly from sofa to bed in one action, with the back cushions stowing under the legs. With a 14cm-deep mattress it’s comfortable enough to be used every day – great for studio flats or small bedrooms.
The polyester fabric comes in grey and dark red versions. 7. Esme Sofa Bed: £970, Living It Up Esme is a smart-looking sofa bed with extra care given for your guest’s sleep. There’s a 13cm-deep pocket sprung mattress with layers of cotton, fibre and insulator pads. The sofa bed also locks into place at six points, giving good support. The small two-seater version folds out to a bed of 85cm x 186cm. The sofa has loose back pillows making it better suited to occasional rather than constant use. 8. Next Brompton Occasional Sofa Bed: £950, Next Next’s Brompton bed has a design to suit traditional interiors, with scrolled arms and a high back that look great in tweed and checked fabrics. It comfortably sleeps two with a fold-out size of 194cm x 98cm, and has a standard pull-out mechanism. There’s great scope to design a sofa to suit your needs, with a choice of three feet colours and 91 fabrics. Delivery takes six weeks. 9. Aissa Two Seat Sofa Bed: from £1,410, Sofa
This charming sofa bed looks small but packs a lot of space. Thin arms allow it to deliver a generous area for seating and a surprising mattress size of 193cm x 153cm. Comfort is key: the seat and back cushions have feather in the fillings, and the mattress is 12cm deep. There’s a choice of 100 fabrics and the frame has a lifetime guarantee. 10. Backabro Sofa Bed with Chaise Longue: £725, Ikea Ikea’s solution for combining corner sofa and bed is neat and practical – including hidden storage space under the chaise longue section for pillows and blankets. The pocket-sprung mattress is on the firm side, designed to give support, and the overall sleeping area is a huge 200cm x 248cm. The cover is a cotton and polyester blend. For unexpected guests, Willow and Hall’s Appley occasional sofa bed is sturdy and comfortable for a good price. Its compact boxy looks are made with the guest room or study in mind. If you’re opting for a sofa bed that can be used every day Made’s stylish Jefferson sofa bed delivers on comfort with a 14cm-deep mattress.
Its clever fold-out mechanism makes using it easy to use daily. IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testingMattresses have become so technological – some are even based on research from the US space agency NASA – that they now sometimes go by the name 'sleep systems'. And at up to £40,000 a throw, some even cost as much as a mid-range BMW and command the same sort of social status. But is it really necessary to fork out to get a good night's sleep? The consensus is that a cheap mattress is indeed a false economy – spending, say, less than £200 is almost certainly not going to ensure a good night's sleep unless you are very young, very light and frequently sleeping somewhere else. Cheap mattresses also need replacing more often, perhaps as frequently as every two years.
Spend a bit extra, say, more than £1,000, and you should not need to change the mattresses for 10 years, or, in the most luxurious pocket spring cases, up to 25. "Spend as much as you can afford," advises Andy Hills of And So To Bed. "The minimum should be about £700 on the mattress and bed base combined. It always strikes me as absurd that people will spend £3,000 or £4,000 on a sofa which they sit on for an hour or two some evenings, and much less than £1,000 on a bed where they will spend a crucial eight hours every night." Once you have fixed the budget, the next priority is looking for the right kind of support. "People often ask for orthopaedic mattresses, but all that means is a hard one," says Hills. "Very few people actually need a hard mattress unless they have crushed a disc. For most other people, they will simply be uncomfortable, particularly for lighter women, creating shoulder pain and pins and needles sensations." Indeed, your body weight will largely dictate the sort of tension you require – the softer ones are better for an eight-stone woman, a firmer mattress will benefit a 16-stone rugby player type.
Of course, many suppliers sell combination mattresses with different tensions on either side, catering for couples with greatly varying weights. Always remember to lie down on a mattress in the showroom and ask for professional advice Others sell two mattresses zipped together, a technique much improved on the old days, making it now almost impossible to tell that there is a divide. "We say if couples feel the zip, we'll give them their money back," says Hills. With spring mattresses, the firmness is largely dictated by the number of springs. High-quality mattresses such as Vi-Spring, such as the superb double model, will often have soft cotton and lamb's wool to enhance the springs; the very best will have horsehair filling, which breathes well and acts like more tiny springs. Vi-Spring offer a comfort promise – try the mattress for up to 90 days, if need be, they will replace it with a softer or harder one. Tempur, a manufacturer of memory foam mattresses using material developed at NASA to relieve g-force pressures during space launches, offers a 60-night free trial.
The viscoelastic foam is designed to eliminate pressure points by spreading body weight evenly. The foam cell mattresses, that start at around £1,040 for a double, reorganise themselves constantly to mould to the exact contours of a body, and because they do not harbour dust mites in the same way as more traditional mattresses, they are excellent for asthma sufferers. Although good mattresses are expensive, they are surely worth it for health and happiness, even if it means making savings elsewhere. "People often put up with wakeful nights, constant tiredness and sore backs for a long time before connecting it to the mattress," warns Lucy Benham of John Lewis. "A good test is sitting on the edge and seeing whether the whole side of the mattress collapses. If so, the mattress needs urgent replacement. "Also, when looking at a new one, remember that quilted ones tend to be of lower quality. Tufted ones, which look like they have buttons going through them, are better as this means the filling is contained to avoid it moving around.
Good stitching around the sides indicates that the springs are contained in pockets, which will be much more effective than open spring mattresses. "But always remember to lie down on a mattress in the showroom and ask for professional advice. Choosing a new mattress is a very important decision indeed." Make sure the bed base is suitable for your mattress. A poor base will make even the most expensive mattress uncomfortable. Divan or upholstered ones are best for spring mattresses as the springs in both components complement each other. Memory foam mattresses are better if you have only a wooden slatted base. To gauge the right tension for you, lie on the mattress in the showroom, and push your hand under the small of your back. If there is a large gap, the mattress is too soft, no gap at all, then it's too firm. Just being able to pass your hand through suggests that the tension is spot on. If the mattress is too hard, your body will try to compensate by frequently tossing and turning during the night, up to 60 times.
This will impair your and your partner's sleep. A good mattress will reduce turning to 17 times a night. A too-hard mattress makes the body do the work, rather than the bed. The shoulder and hips cannot sink into the mattress, so they curve towards each other, resulting in a bent and stressed spine. A too-soft mattress lets the body sink into a hammock position, causing hips and shoulders to pinch in, the spine to curve and putting pressure on joints and muscles. Numbness and tingling can follow. The best spring mattresses tend to be pocket-sprung, where each individual spring is kept separate to respond to pressure from your body. Five of the best mattresses 1. Vispring wembury superb small double mattress, £1550 Made from British fleece wool, cotton and horsehair to added breathability, this Vispring mattress is guaranteed to give you a comfortable night's sleep. 2. Tempur sensation deluxe 22 memory foam mattress, £1899 The NASA developed Tempur material works to redistribute body weight and reduce pressure points while you sleep.
The supportive foam layer also cradles the body throughout the night, making sure you achieve optimum relaxation. 3. Sealy Activ Geltex 2800 box top pocket spring, £1150 Sealy combines the latest technology and eco-friendly luxury fillings to provide the ultimate in quality sleep solutions. The mattress is fitted with a gel infused foam to provide pressure relief, body support, and breathability - giving you the best environment to ensure a good night's sleep. 4. Top Dog Mattress, from £645 Loaf pride themselves on selling just five mattresses, and their 'Top Dog' model - filled with cashmere, silk and natural fabrics and boasting double-decker layers housing 2,200 individual pocket springs (for the kingsize version) - is one of the best. 5. John Lewis Natural Collection silk 14000 pocket spring mattress, £2050 This luxury mattress from John Lewis features three rows of hand side stitching and 14000 springs in the king size version. It is also made from a unique blend of fillings, including: (ethically sourced) goat Angora, Yorkshire wool, Egyptian cotton, British fleece wool, cotton, hemp, wool, linen and horsehair giving you softness, breathability, comfort and natural springiness.