Sofa Sleeper - yes or no?

[Olechka]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are considering selling our 3 piece leather set and replace it with a set that includes sofa sleeper. We are expecting a baby, the guest room is turning into a baby room, and living in two bedroom condo makes it challenging to find comfortable space to put up guests for the night.

After visiting several stores in Seattle to look specifically for sofa sleeper, I am not impressed at all. I went to Sleepers in Seattle, http://www.sleepersinseattle.com/ They specialize in sofa sleepers, but the quality... I want to cry when I compare that quality to the quality of our leather set couches.

Our next stop was Bedrooms and More store. We recently purchased a mattress from them and saw they had nice looking futons. Yes, the futons are nice, and the mattresses they come with are much better quality than Sleepers in Seattle, but they are just not elegant looking.

We also looked at Bassett and Laz-y-Boy, they don't seem to be that much different from Sleepers in Seattle.

My husband and I feel stuck. We thought getting sofa sleeper would resolve our problems, but seeing what's out there we realize that we are going to be forgoing quality furniture in exchange of lesser product.

Is there such thing as quality sofa sleeper where the integrity of cushion seats isn't compromised , it is sturdy, comfortable, and can truly serve as a couch and a bed if needed? And is that feasible to find a set under 3 K?

Thank you!

Olechka

[simplyjeff]

Hi Duane,

I am sure you have run into the situation where one of your customers asks for help finding a sofa sleeper that will fit through a narrow door or stairway. You may be interested to learn that Simplicity Sofas has introduced a new Quick Assembly sofa sleeper line.

Like all Simplicity Sofas furniture, the sleepers are shipped unassembled and will fit through doors and stairways as narrow as 15 inches, including RV doors and boat hatchways. Assembly takes 10 minutes. No tools are needed. A video of the 10 minute assembly process can be seen here.

Air Dream mattresses (full or queen-size) are standard. So are the 2.5 density Ultracel foam cushions.

The sleepers are custom-built in High Point, North Carolina and ship within 30 days in a choice of 250+ fabrics or COM. Prices range from $1999 - $2699.

[drcollie]

My thoughts on sleepers have always been that unless you plan to use them frequently as a sleeper, you are much better off with a stationary piece and an inflatable air mattress for occasional use. You simply won't get the level of comfort sitting on a sleeper that you will with a stationary piece. Basically you have seat cushions atop the sleeper mechanism, and that's it.

As far as getting pieces through doorways, that's a constant problem with all upholstery. One day, a smart person will develop an App that takes the measurements for ingress points in a home, measurements from the sofa, compute it and let the user know if it fits.

[needstuff]

The company that made our platform bed also made a sort of mission-style futon sofa that has a roll-out platform trundle bed underneath. My wife bought it for her NYC apartment where space was a premium. We used it as our primary sofa for about 15 years, and never had any complaints when guests used the trundle bed. When we moved to a bigger house, we used it as our kids' TV room sofa. We still have it, but it's not really being sat on now, due to the configuration of our current house. But it could be. Based on our platform bed, and some visible screws, I assume the sofa may have come in parts and was assembled on premesis. (I wasn't around then).

For a vacation residence years ago, we bought a conventional sleeper sofa, made in Canada. This had the conventional sleeper arrangement, fold-out with springs. We had lots of guests over, and the first year it was great. The second year our guests complained that it was highly uncomfortable. The springs were shot, after one year. It was actually that experience that made me averse to buying cheap furniture.

Based solely on my one set of experiences I would vote for the trundle platform bed arrangement over a sleeper with springs. Provided that you find it comfortable to sit on (as we did) and sleep on, for its intended occasional use, and you have space in the room to roll out the trundle bed. In the trundle arrangement the bed is simply stored underneath, it does not seem to materially affect the function of the sofa as a sofa. I find platform beds comfortable.

The air mattress idea works too, of course. I believe the trundle bed would be somewhat more comfortable for your guests, and for you, but it would probably be more expensive.

The company who made ours is long out of business, but perhaps you can find something similar.

[Olechka]

Thank you everyone for your input. At the end we decided that sofa bed isn't worth our investment. We would be giving up good quality, all grain leather set that will likely serve us very well for the next 4 years (we got it used), especially with little kids for a large investment that isn't what we really want, but feel we need to have to accommodate our guests. We decided to get good quality air bed, and call it a day. It would be nice for our guests to sleep on something sturdier, but I think given circumstances an air bed is a good and solid option.