Bed, futon, or sleeper-sofa: The dilemma of the studio apartment dweller

In My Humble Opinion
1

Or maybe it’s a trilemma since I have three options, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t a word.

Anyway, I live in a very small studio apartment. For all intents and purposes, it’s a room and a bathroom. Since I moved to Washington in 2001, I’ve been sleeping on a futon I bought when I first moved here. It wasn’t top-of-the-line, but it’s what I could afford at the time.

Nearly four years later, the mattress is lumpy and getting flat, and everytime I sleep on a bed, I just think about how much more comfortable it is than my futon. Plus, the thing makes very, very loud, distracting noises if there’s anything more interesting than sleeping happening on it. ahem

So, I need something new. I could obviously get myself a nice bed, but since I live in a studio, that means I have no couch, and any friends I have over would either have to sit in my office chair or on my bed, which could be kind of, well, weird.

My other options are to get a better futon or a sleeper sofa. But I want something good, something that comes as close as possible to replicating the feeling of sleeping on a bed when I sleep on it. Do really, really nice futons and sleeper sofas exist? And if so, where do I find them?

Also, I’m 6’2", and I HATE having my feet hang off the bed, so I’d need something with an extra-long mattress. Anyone have any advice? Money isn’t much of an object here, since I consider my sleep very important to me.

2

Maybe a daybed? There are some pretty ones here.

3

I bought a $1,200 sofabed from Jennifer Convertibles about nine years ago as a sofa/guest bed. I’ve never slept on it, but my parents complained that they found the support rod in the middle of the bed uncomfortable. We’ve had that problem with cheap sofabeds, but I thought I was getting a good quality one by spending that much, so perhaps there is no such thing as a comfortable one. I second the daybed idea, since you are sleeping on a real mattress. If I had to do it over again, I might get a futon, since the ones I’ve slept on were quite comfortable. Perhaps you can replace the futon with a newer, longer one?

4

I slept on a futon for a number of years. Mine was a tri-fold type, so it was the same as a full-sized bed. When I got a proper bed, I moved it into the living room. Being a tri-fold, it was not as handy for stretching out on like a couch.

One thing to consider is that futons are easy to move. :slight_smile:

5

Man, they go out of their way to make those things look as feminine as possible, but that might be the ticket.

6

Well, if you’ve got the budget, there’s always the Murphy bed.

Or you could get (or build, actually) a loft bed.

Whne I lived in an efficiency I got tired of the futon thing too. So I got a futon bunkbed. It was great because I could have a real mattress up top and a sofa below that I didn’t have to fold out everyday. But if I had “company”, I could unfold the futon for a full-size mattress. Plus bunkbeds are just cool.

You’re so tall tho’, I think you’d probably need to build your own loft that could accomodate an extra long mattress. Then you could just place your futon sofa below it.

7

I believe that Murphy beds need to be bolted to the wall or floor, and that may not be allowed in an apartment.

8

One thing a sofa bed has going for it is that there are cushions between the unwashed masses and where you sleep. If something gets spilled or emitted, it doesn’t get spilled or emitted onto your bed. Futons are more comfortable, though. If you’re a big guy, I think you’re going to feel the lack of support a sofa bed has pretty quickly. It’s just those squiggly springs, some cross pieces, and a thin mattress. With a futon you have a full platform. Ikea has some sofa bed models with regular-ish mattresses where you fold down the back like a futon rather than pull the folded black metal beast out of the bottom of the sofa.

9

Murphy beds are *so * cool. You can get one that looks like a set of filing cabinets when it’s folded up, like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

10

Did you hear about the Irish psychiatrist?
Instead of a couch, he had a Murphy bed.

11

I have a two bedroom place and I sleep on a mat on the floor.
Nothing beats a good floor. With a lightly padded mat.

Well goodnight. I’m going to floor.

12

I only looked at the first page of the daybed link, but the first one and the last one seem to be fairly non-feminine. Put some bolsters on instead of those fluffy pillows and they would work.

When I was in high school I had a trundle bed that had no real headboard or footboard. Against the wall with bolsters at the back and sides it would have made a reasonable couch by day, and the bolsters could have come off at night for sleeping. Plus the pull-out bed underneath would come in handy for company. If that’s a consideration.

13

I have slept on many sleeper sofas over the years. I have never slept well on one. They always have impossibly thin mattresses sitting on top of unspeakably poorly placed metal bars. It’s always much more comfortable just sleeping on the damn couch (which I can do, being short).

I’d probably build a loft.

14

They bolt to the floor. A friend patented and used to manufacture a freestanding foldout bed. Unfortunately, he went out of business long ago.

How often do you flip your futon? I like a firm bed, so futons are a natural for me, but they have to be flipped every week or so to keep the inner layers from packing down.

15
      • I have never slept on a futon or hide-a-bed that felt anywhere near as good as a real bed (mattress+box springs). I had a futon and it was easy to move, but it was too firm and it was small too–I was sleeping diagonally. Couch-beds are firm and have metal rods everywhere, you always end up laying on at least one. If I were you I would get a real bed and look for a larger place to live, or just accept the fact that I live in a broom closet and other adjustments must be made.
        ~
16

Hide-a-beds are a tool of Satan, used to get you to hate your own existance.

Get comfortable bed-type bed. You can’t put a price tag on a good night’s sleep.

17

Just remember to get the attachment that plays the Halleluja Chorus when it opens…

18

I am unwise in the ways of bedding… what’s a bolster? :slight_smile:

So at this point I’m pretty certain a trip to Ikea is in my future, just to look at what they have (and try it out), but it looks like that futon/bunkbed combo might be the way to go, even if it would make me feel like I was in college all over again, though not as much as building my own loft. That might be my only option though if I want a mattress that’s actually long enough for me.

A co-worker of mine said, flat out, that a straight guy can’t own a daybed. It just doesn’t work. But I’m still not sure if I want to rule that option out.

19

http://www.toreadors.com/martha/projects/bolster.html

See the above for a picture - it’s a rounded tube like (??? it’s hard to describe!) pillow - if you go back to the daybed site and zoom in on the Four Post Black Metal Daybed - it’s the beige longish pillow.

20

Murphy Beds rock. Our studio apartment felt like it doubled in size when we got ours installed.