Please note there is a difference between sofa beds and sleeper sofas. While the difference might not matter to you, it matters to me. Sleeper sofas have bed built into the sofa and usually fold out with folding legs with mattress. Sofa beds don’t have a separate mattress or bed apparatus. Instead, the sofa itself reconfigures so that the sofa cushions form the mattress. This article sets out my favorite sofa beds.
Choosing the perfect sofa bed is one of the most difficult sofas to decide on because there’s the sofa and the bed to consider. Most decent options cost a decent amount of money so you don’t want to compromise on either configuration. I also only include options that you can’t tell it converts into a bed.
When putting together my list of the ten best sofa beds, I consulted my lead interior designer at my interior design firm to weigh in, particularly with respect to the style. She’s one of the best designers I’ve ever seen so I value her input. I know you will too.
Here’s my list of the 5 best sofa beds
Below is my list of the best sofa beds.
1. Perdue Convertible Sofa (Best Budget-Friendly sofa bed)
I’m kicking off my list with a budget-friendly option just because that tends to be highly sought-after. Here it is:
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The 2-seater Perdue is more of a futon than a sofa bed but in this case it’s close enough. For such a budget-friendly sofa bed, it’s a great option. Tens of thousands of people have bought it and most like it a great deal.
Dimensions
Easy conversion
The back has legs that extend outward. The sofa back drops down. That’s it. Takes seconds. No heavy-lifting to turn this stylish sofa into a bed.
Many colors and fabrics to choose from
While you don’t have the option to apply custom fabrics, you do have ten colors to choose from. I particularly like the Dark Royal blue shown above.
What’s it made with?
The frame is engineered hardwood. It’s budget-friendly so you’re not getting kiln-dried hardwood at this price. Something has to give. The cushioning is foam. The fabric is velvet which gives it the rich look.
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2. The Diplomat at Bludot.com
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Converting from sofa to sleeper could not be easier.
Step 1: Remove the back cushions. They slide up and off.
Step 2.: Left the seat from the back and fold forward.
Check it out:
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Dimensions
Sofa configuration: 80″ wide x 30″ deep x 30″ in height.
Bed configuration: 80″ long x 60″ wide.
Solid sofa, solid sleeper
You can tell this sofa bed is solid in both configurations. Most are decent as sofas but the bed configuration is not great. That’s not the case here. The bed is solidly supported around the entire perimeter. This is also due to the solid hardwood frame.
How big of a bed does this sofa turn into?
It’s a queen size bed. This is impressive for the size of sofa but that’s because of the ingenious design. The entire sofa is used as the bed; there are no wasted parts such as arms or the sofa back.
Durable fabric
The Afton Charcoal and grey fabric is tested to 60,000 double rubs. The Toft grey and navy 100,000 double rubs. I had to re-read those counts because those are very, very high (which is a good thing).
Return policy
If you buy it, hopefully you love it but if you don’t, you can return it within 30 days. You’ll get 90% of your money returned. Bludot charges a 10% return fee.
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3. Tuck Sofa Bed at DWR
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How does this sofa convert to a sleeper?
The bottom slides out. The back cushions are placed in the gap for the remaining bed. Very simple, sturdy design which is why it’s on this list.
Dimensions
29″ in height x 85″ wide x 39″ deep.
Different fabrics
I won’t list them out because there are many fabric options. You can request swatches if you prefer (not a bad idea given how much this sofa costs).
Designer
This sofa was designed by Thomas Müller and Jörg Wulff who are located in Berlin.
What I like:
I like that this sofa is made with quality materials but beyond that, I love the style. This style fits in contemporary or transitional living room designs. I’m partial to the light grey but it comes in many colors and fabrics.
I’d say I like how simply it converts to a bed but that’s a commonality among all sofa beds in my list.
The only downside is that the back remains upright when in bed formation. Had the design included a way to drop the back down, the bed would be larger.
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4. Schoonmaker 80″ Leather Sofa Bed
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The Schoonmaker is technically a daybed which means it doesn’t convert. It serves as both sofa and bed with nothing to change. I included it in my list because it’s sizeable enough to serve as a great bed, doesn’t have the awkward daybed arms at the end and also totally works as a sofa. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the price of this sofa as well.
How to convert it to a bed
No conversion necessary. It’s really a daybed so it’s both sofa and bed as-is.
Dimensions
25.75″ in height x 80″ wide x 35″ deep.
What I like about this sofa bed
It’s relatively good quality for the price with a solid wood (ash) frame, foam and feather seating-fill and genuine leather upholstery. These aren’t the very best in sofa materials, but they’re decent without spending a fortune. I particularly like this design. It comfortably seats two people as a sofa but can seat three (one person doesn’t get a back rest to lean against). As a bed, it sleeps one but does so comfortably given the entire 80″ is available for bed length. Lastly, I love the design; in fact this particular sofa bed stood out for me. It would work great in an office doubling as a guest room, family room or even living room. The design lends itself to work in both formal and informal settings.
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5. The Rosalind Sofa Bed
I kinda went against my own rules with this one due to the upright arms when configured as a bed. I’m tall (6′ 3″) so don’t care for beds that wedge me in (i.e. beds like this or sleigh beds). However, this is a particularly large sofa coming in at 86.6″ wide which means the bed surface is just shy of 78″ which works for me. I could fully stretch out and so this made my list. It’s also 40″ deep and 35″ tall which makes this a sizeable bed in bed form.
The frame is wood; sadly it doesn’t specify beyond that other than a walnut finish. That’s unfortunate given the frame of any sofa is integral to its quality. The filling is HR foam (high resiliency foam) which means it has a density of 2.5 to 2.8.
Brand: Luonto
The fact this is a Luonto sofa gave me no hesitation for adding it to my list. Luonto is one of our go-to brands when looking at sofa beds for clients. In fact, we’re working on an interior design project that includes a Luonto sleeper (not this one, a smaller sofa but it’s fantastic).
IMO, Luonto is one of the best sleeper sofa / sofa bed brands out there so I’m very comfortable suggesting this sofa bed.
The Design
The design is more traditional which I chose intentionally because I want my list of the best sofa beds to offer a range of styles. This sofa would work in any traditional or transitional design just fine.
Sleeper sofa vs Sofa Bed
I much, much, much prefer sofa beds over sofa beds. Sleeper sofas have fold out beds with mattresses. Sofa beds are sofas that are the bed with a simple reconfiguration. The
Below is an example of the sofa bed… notice the folding-out legs.
The 5 sofa beds above are proper sofa beds. Each have different ways to convert into beds but they are sofa beds.
What goes into choosing each sleeper in the list above? What’s my methodology?
Sadly, I haven’t tried all sofa beds on the market. The problem with reviewing furniture, especially large, expensive items like sofas is there’s no way I can try ever sofa bed on the market. It’s an impossibility. That means there’s no way I or anyone could put together a list based on having tested every single sofa bed available.
That said, I own an interior design firm. Part of my work as owner is to talk to many furniture suppliers, brands and manufacturers. I also attend conferences in the industry. Lastly, I along with my designer select all kinds of furniture for clients. I did not and need not reach out to other experts to assemble this list. It’s based on my own expertise within the industry.
That leaves me to starting with reputable brands then going on mostly style. Other customer reviews, if they exist, help as well. But at the end of the day, it’s a style decision. I believe that’s fair to say with pretty much any furniture reviewer.
A few years ago I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. We would visit furniture stores and try out the sofas and other furniture. So that’s what we did. We visited tons of stores. It proved useful at first but when we started writing our various reviews, we realized yet again that it really wasn’t representative of all sofas on the market. Our list was limited to what we could try at a local store.
What this boils down to is that our list of the best sleepers above is mostly helpful with style and design. That’s it. I haven’t had each sofa for ten years so I can’t tell you how it’s holding up. I haven’t dumped ketchup or red wine on them so I can’t tell you just how stain resistant they are. All I can tell you is whether I like the design. While not perfect, I’m of the view it’s still a worthwhile effort to help readers narrow their choice among a massive sea of sofa options.
