Futons & Daybeds (Sofas & Sectionals)

Two hinged halves of frame and one mattress laid across both make up the entire machine. Lower the back and the halves come level, so the pad you were sitting on becomes the surface you sleep on. Nothing folds away inside, which is why the piece weighs 60 to 120 pounds against 250 for a sleeper and costs about a third as much. Its cousin the daybed skips conversion altogether: a twin frame with a back and two sides, used sideways as seating and lengthwise as a bed.

Frames hinge once or twice. A bifold folds at the middle and puts one crease in the mattress. A trifold folds twice for a smaller closed footprint and leaves two. Mattress construction is the whole purchase, because cotton batting compresses into a hard flat slab inside a year while a foam core wrapped in cotton at 6 to 8 inches thick sleeps close to a budget mattress. Metal frames cost and weigh less, hardwood lasts longer and wants its bolts retightened. Pads follow their own sizing, so a full futon measures 54 by 75 inches.

Sleeper sofas do the same job with a sprung mattress on a steel mechanism, sit like real furniture and cost three to five times more, at a weight nobody carries up a walk up. Daybeds sleep better nightly and look like a bed parked in a living room. A plain three seat sofa is far more comfortable to sit on and sleeps nobody at all. What no other convertible matches is the five second, one handed fold, which is why rooms that change use daily end up here.

Studios, dorms, first apartments, kid's rooms and offices that host once a month are the home for one. Tight budgets and stair turns push the same direction. Living rooms meant to look finished do not suit it, since a futon reads as temporary however good the cover is. Adults over about 6 feet should measure first, because a full pad at 75 inches long leaves their feet over the end. Nightly sleeping for years wears the pad out and your back with it.

Lie across the fold line rather than beside it, as that crease is the difference between a nap and a bad night. On a thin pad it lands mid back. Work the hinge several times and feel for it catching. Inspect the deck under the mattress, since closely spaced slats or a metal grid hold a thin pad up while widely spaced bars print through by morning. Flip and turn the pad monthly, because the fold takes all the abuse. Air it outdoors twice a year, and tighten the frame bolts each season.