The best sofa bed is a great upgrade from the Saggy College Futon (2023)

Another one we'll put in this category is the lighter sofa bed. These can come in many forms: recliners that are very light but have questionable support and convertible sofa beds that convert into a double or queen bed, with or without castors.

Then there's the "extra couch," usually a sectional that's long and comfortable enough to get you through the night. We'll even recommend certain recliners here, as long as they're comfortable enough for guests to sleep in - trust us, they're out there, and we have one! These are perfect for someone who wants to keep their moves as simple as possible and wants to fill the space with a low maintenance space. FYI, they may not be suitable for heavier people or supines who need extra support.

While we haven't tested all of them ourselves, we've picked out a few of our top picks (covering all the different styles and price points) that are adjustable and functional, but also don't look like you're just buying from Available on Facebook Marketplace. We look for variability and high quality material, and we put everything that has negative reviews. Here are the best sofa beds for every style and budget.

Best All-Around Sofa Bed: Albany Park Albany

Albany Park is a new D2C furniture brand aiming to design better sofas for flat tongues. Its Albany Sleeper Bed has a sturdy hardwood hearth and comes in a variety of colors and fabrics (from velvet to vegan leather), with a choice of mid-century wooden legs and shiny metal. All upholstered elements of this sofa are high-density foam suitable for mattresses, and the top cushion folds down into a futon, allowing your guests to lie flat and sleep. At just over $1,000, it's somewhere between the high-end options on this list and the inexpensive Tarjé sofas, plus the brand's lifetime warranty (covering repairs and defects) helps ensure this Albany will last, not just It's a good time.

Prettiest Pullout Sofa Bed: West Elm Shelter Queen

If your guest room gets almost as much traffic as Airbnb, it might be worth investing in just legal pull-out beds and mattresses. This West Elm model is one of the best designed models we've seen. It leans towards the medium-soft stuff, which is the ideal padding for your butt and extremities, whether you choose to sit or lie down. It also has a solid handcrafted frame and handcrafted interiors for a more bespoke feel. When the trundle bed is out, the sturdy support legs support a two-layer 5-inch gel memory foam mattress with a cover made of breathable knit.

Best-Looking Futon Bed: Blu Dot Thataway

Many Design Y brands bypass most standard daybeds and simply offer streamlined futon daybeds—daybeds that only require a little disassembly and rearrangement to convert into a bed. This slightly sloping Blu Dot model is utterly minimal in design, with just a low frame made of solid wood and a foam-filled sofa and bed. Its thick but soft seat cushion tilts forward to create a flat sleeping surface, keeping the bed area stable while you sleep.

Best Velvet Sofa Bed: Rove Concepts Milo

Rove Concepts is one of ourfavorite placeWindow shopping for upscale people,advertiseHome travel-like designs, but also one of the best places to buy beautiful, well-made sofas under $3,000. This velvet number comes in a variety of shades, like this soft robin's egg blue number, and sits low on the ground to make your small urban studio feel much larger than it is. A hidden zipper on the back of the sofa conceals a pull ring that unfolds the top layer of the sofa to the full length of the mattress. Best of all, the mattress cover can be completely removed for washing if your last guest was a drool or a dog. The only downside here is that the couch is super long (nearly 100 inches), so you'll need ample room to park it.

Best Luxury Sofa Bed: Gus Rialto

The best-selling Gus daybed features a Scandinavian design. It's curvaceous, minimal, spacious and pleasing to the eye. The bed also doesn't reveal that it hides a steel bed frame inside that easily unfolds to support a full-size foam mattress with curved plywood slats and support straps. If you want an ultra-stylish sofa that has a pull-out mattress detail in mind, this is the sofa for you. It's a bit more expensive than the other options here, and comes in around 200 pounds in packages, but the upside is that it looks good in any room you put it in and lasts a long time.

The Best Recliner Day Bed: Board and Board Oxford Pop-Up

The ideal daybed situation is one that looks good for sitting or lounging during the day and doesn't reveal the fact that it's hiding an entire "second bed underneath". Styled in stylish French terry, this look from Room & Board won't look funny in a home office, and the front rail unfolds to reveal a trundle bed that supports a queen-size mattress. It's 87 inches longer than average, so make sure you have room for your new sleeper.

Best Design for an Affordable Sofa Bed: Croydon Klick-Klak

If you're obsessed with owning one of Togo's coveted and "grammar-friendly" Ducaroy sofas, we've found a cheaper, similarly styled one in an unlikely place: Raymour & Flanigan, your grandparents (probably ) prefer furniture chain stores. This one is on legs so it doesn't sit directly on the floor like the Togo, and it has an adjustable frame that makes the sofa surface perfectly flat for sleeping. The sturdy wood and coil spring construction can support up to 900 lbs, so it should provide decent support for most people too.

Best DIY Day Bed: Burrow Arch Nomad

Sometimes you really just want a couch to slap onarkUp, no tie rods involved, call it a day. Burrow just got it set up (focus groups are already spoken!), which includes a customizable sectional sofa — chrome it or get it a bold brick red — and an additional sleeper kit, including a custommemory foamTop hats, bedding and even eye masks. This might sound silly in theory, but it's ideal if you're really looking for a sofa without most of the extra pull-out options. With everything packed away when not in use, the memory foam comforter is sure to be a lot more comfortable than an air mattress that isn't deflated in the early morning.

Best couch that doubles as a bed: Floyd 2-seater sectional

Isabella Boylston Balletget it"I've always loved a sofa that doubles as a bed but doesn't pull out and still looks chic," she told us in 2020 about her extra-long sectional. That's the potential of this Floyd sofa, which is fully modular, so you can stretch it extra long, or pull separate sections of the sofa to opposite ends of the room when you get bored. An extended daybed or sectional sofa bed usually means it's easier to pack up in your apartment, luckily this daybed is designed for comfort, no matter the shape, thanks to the double layer foam cushion Provides softness and support.

Best Recliner Chair: Hem Palo

Stockholm-based brand Hem has absolutely nailed the slim, ultra-thin seating market, and its Palo sofa is no exception. Taking a similar cue from Floyd above, you won't find any actual pull-outs here: the best are sofa surfacesyesbed. But you'll find that there's no shortage of comfort in a foam-centric sofa like this one, and the abundance of options on offer at Hem means you can choose between a chaise lounge design with room for you to lift your feet up and a traditional sofa with both sides. Armrests that can be grouped together while watching reruns, or a floating stool at the end. The frame is heavy powder-coated steel, but if it fails you in the future, you can count on the company's five-year warranty for tweaks and your money back.

Best looking retro sofa bed: Joybird Korver

If you are shopping for a sofa, you might as well choose a brand that specializes in sofas. Take this Joybird option, which looks like it's been time-traveled in someone's 70s carpeted house. Inside there is a queen-size mattress that can be pulled out and rested on stable support legs. Luckily, the design details are flexible (it can be as eye-catching as you want it to be – use wallflower blue or gray instead of the orange here), and its rave reviews are certainly enough to swallow the high price. If for any reason you're not happy with the way your sofa holds up, there's also a lifetime limited warranty to get you help with repairs and defects.

Target's best sofa bed: Target Room Essentials

Unlike everyone else's bad experience with a futon for the first time, Tarjé was the writer's first time using her college daybed as her sister's heirloom: a long week of exams, basically the envy of the hall, and the This structure has helped it survive several draws. It's been over a decade since then, but we think sofa bed prices are still better than ever out there. Take this Scandinavian-inspired figure, which has stubby birch plywood legs and a beautiful gray exterior. It lays flat to fully sleep one or two guests, and reviewers note that it requires little assembly or manipulation. Some say the pillow falls on the firmer end and takes a bit of getting used to, but if comfort is an issue, there are always cheap mattress toppers that can fill the void. With a one-year warranty on top, you're looking at a very solid (in every sense of the word) starter sofa bed investment.

Wayfair's best sofa bed: AllModern Elsmere

Wayfair isn't the best destination for stylish furniture, but you can find gems everywhere, and this AllModern lounge chair is just that. With clean lines, creamy fabric and soft foam, this remarkably simple sofa acts like a pillow-top chaise longue that doubles as a sleeping surface (just, um, be sure to put a pillowcase on that suction cup) when you have guests impromptu past. There's no need to pack it, and its water-resistant finish also helps prevent accidental spills. You wouldn't buy an Elsmere if you had kids or pets running around, but it's an elegant choice for a guest room or study and will help you avoid having to go out and find an entire sofa bed.

Best IKEA Sofa Bed: Ikea Friheten

Many of us have been moved by IKEA sofas from apartment to apartment, much to do with their ease of use, affordability, and innocence. You've probably owned a version of this Friheten sofa before: it's a lift-and-lift sofa that hides cushions and blankets, and the surface of the sofa itself can be turned over to create a stable surface on which you can spread a bed sheet. Reviews say it's actually quite comfortable and is a slightly larger size than a queen, ideal if you're couch surfing with friends and don't want to sleepreturnOK, the 10-year warranty is also a great consolation if you have longevity issues.