Convertible Sofa Beds
What are convertible sofa beds? I used to own a furniture store and have lots of experience with this rather unique piece of furniture. Since I am an expert on this I wanted to offer some pros and cons of owning one. Most of us understand what a convertible car is: I’m thinking 1950’s corvette, beautiful blonde, large white framed sunglasses, maybe a pony tail and a ball cap, a scarf, and a drive on some beautiful coastal highway only for fun.
Customer Reviews:
"This couch looks wonderful in our living room, and is very useful for a fold out bed. My husband and I have been sleeping on it, until we get a bed in our bedroom. When sitting on the couch it can feel a bit hard, but it helps to lean it back some. That is the only complaint I have. Everything else is perfect. We love it. Also, it helps when you have guest coming to visit, they will have a place to easily sleep. All you have to do is lay out the couch like a bed, and wa-la. " – 2010 Bride
Customer Reviews:
"The sofa arrived as scheduled and yes in one very large box! I decided to have a "tool party" with friends and family to help put it together. After taking everything out of the box we noticed that one of the frames was bent. But armed with a hammer, the guys were able to flatten it out. It took about 2 hours to put together after many laughs and false starts!
The color is a little darker than pictured but it still looks good. It sits comfortably as a sofa and I have not heard any complaints from anyone that has slept on it.
We purchased this sofa/sleeper for overnight guests. It looks great in the room and we're very happy with it! I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a sofabed that does not have room for a pull out bed.
I gave it 4 stars because of the bent frame but all in all it is definetly worth it!
" – Amazon Newbie
Customer Reviews:
"We were looking for a chair we could use in the office for sitting and reading that was compact, with a small footprint and could convert to a bed for guests.This is perfect, small, compact, light, clean lines and stylish.Supereasy assembly, and it can be configured several ways:chair, chaise, lounger, bed.Definitely a great purchase! " – Alice Tesla "la professoressa"
Customer Reviews:
"For a build-it-yourself convert-a-couch from Amazon, this couch is actually quite comfortable. Its multitude of springs provide good back support for anyone who needs to sleep overnight in the sleeper bed position. It is also easily adjustable between 3 positions - flat, reclining, and sitting upright. May not be the best sofa bed or the softest out there, but I would recommend it if you're looking for something in this price range to lounge on! " – Catherine
Customer Reviews:
"The use of the word "twin" in conjunction with a sleeper highly suggest that it folds out to a twin sized sleeper. What is really means is two toddlers can sit side by side on the loveseat, very dishonest! " – Sharon Loya
Customer Reviews:
"It requires at least two people to assemble.The material is good and sturdy.Love the storage space...very comfortable. " – jay
Customer Reviews:
"Aside from our guest bedroom, I have another small craft or "reading room" in a modern house. We often need another sleep space for a guest and I didn't want to spend a lot. This convertible sofa fits the bill and looks very neat/chic in a minimalist way. " – N. Marks
Customer Reviews:
"For the money, this is a great couch. What impressed me the most is how they got a couch this size into such a small box. I unboxed it on the porch and carried the individual pieces into the living room by myself. It took three of us to take my old couch out that was about the same size as this one. What a mess that was. It took me three hours to put the couch together by myself and there were no real problems of any kind. Taking into consideration the fact that I am 75 years old, someone younger could probably do it in half that length of time. There are probably better convertible sofas available, but I can pretty much guarantee that by the time one gets them delivered, they are going to cost at least twice as much. No one is going to believe me when I tell them that this couch came in a box and I put it together by myself. Simply amazing. My wife thinks I am some kind of genius, but in fact, it really wasn't that big of a deal. I couldn't be more pleased. " – John L. Bowen
A sofa isn’t quite as picturesque, but is definitely something we all understand and have common experience with. And last, but certainly not really least, is the bed. Sadly, not everyone has a bed, but everyone knows what one is. When you combine these things together you get a distinct and useful piece of furniture that allows you to convert what appears to be a normal sofa into a bed.
The thing I would identify as the main good aspect about owning one of the convertible sofa beds is their obvious utility. Most people I sold these critters to called them hide-a-beds. And that’s precisely what they are. The bed hides away inside what appears to be a normal looking couch. If living space is limited, and the need exists for another bed for a guest to sleep on, then this makes a good alternative to setting up a separate bed when it is only going to be used occasionally. You sort of get the best of two worlds. Full use of a sofa couch, and use as a bed. Pretty cool!
Customer Reviews:
"It requires at least two people to assemble.The material is good and sturdy.Love the storage space...very comfortable. " – jay
Customer Reviews:
"Aside from our guest bedroom, I have another small craft or "reading room" in a modern house. We often need another sleep space for a guest and I didn't want to spend a lot. This convertible sofa fits the bill and looks very neat/chic in a minimalist way. " – N. Marks
Customer Reviews:
"For the money, this is a great couch. What impressed me the most is how they got a couch this size into such a small box. I unboxed it on the porch and carried the individual pieces into the living room by myself. It took three of us to take my old couch out that was about the same size as this one. What a mess that was. It took me three hours to put the couch together by myself and there were no real problems of any kind. Taking into consideration the fact that I am 75 years old, someone younger could probably do it in half that length of time. There are probably better convertible sofas available, but I can pretty much guarantee that by the time one gets them delivered, they are going to cost at least twice as much. No one is going to believe me when I tell them that this couch came in a box and I put it together by myself. Simply amazing. My wife thinks I am some kind of genius, but in fact, it really wasn't that big of a deal. I couldn't be more pleased. " – John L. Bowen
Convertible sofa beds are simple to set up and can usually be very easily done by only one person. Just remove the cushions, grab a hold of the small center handle thing and lift up and toward you. Viola! Out pulls a folded bed that can then be made up and used. Like my youngest daughter says, “Easy peazy, orange squeazy.”
Now, on to two of the downsides of convertible sofa beds. First, I can, with complete confidence, assure you that you will not really want to move one of these beasts. They are heavy! Sometimes extremely heavy. My oldest son and I famously delivered one to a college girl who, when asked about the details of where the thing had to be delivered, assured us that, “Oh, it is just up some stairs and directly into my apartment.” Well, talk about hell on earth. Super narrow stairs, lots of them, an actually narrower entrance into her apartment, a funky landing at the top of the stairs with a reduced ceiling overhead and an almost impossible angle into the apartment. And it didn’t help that it was as warm as Hades outside, no breeze, and probably one of the heaviest convertible sofa beds we had ever delivered. After about an hour of trying every possible solution, we finally managed to get it in. I pity the bad fool that ever has to remove it.
Second, convertible sofa beds actually aren’t the height of comfort. You do get what you pay for, and you can find ones that have comfortable mattresses inside. It’s sort of a trade off between convenience and comfort and price.
So weigh your needs. Think about the pros and cons of convertible sofa beds. Decide if what you purchase is going to give you what you want to get. And remember, you can usually pay for delivery!
The author has written more about castro convertible sofa bed and convertible sofa bed on his site, check them out: http://www.convertiblesofabed.org/ and castro convertible sofa bed.
