Sofabeds and Competition - Comfort, Convenience and Price
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After Covid, my wife and I decided to convert our guest room into an office from which I could work when home. The room is pretty small and the queen sized bed that we had in there was cumbersome. We decided that we had to get rid of the bed. The problem is that we often have family and friends stay with us and we need a comfortable place for them to sleep. We really only had two options: A murphy bed or a sleep sofa.
A murphy bed combines real comfort with convenience. The mattress is a real mattress and while there are no springs, it rests on a platform providing solid support. The problem for us was two-fold as a murphy bed: 1) would have made an already small room feel smaller, 2) would be very costly with a base price of more than $5,000. We also couldn’t take it with us if we moved.
We thoroughly researched sleep sofas, looking hard for one that had all the advantages that Julian’s had in Paris. We couldn’t find any. The overwhelming majority of sofa beds sold in the US are of the type shown below and are not only inconvenient but known to be uncomfortable.
As one expert writes, these:
Sofa beds are notorious for being cheaply made and uncomfortable. Mattresses are made using low-quality materials, bad designs, lack of support, cheap foam — and more! — all contribute to feeling the coils poking and jabbing through.
Since we value our family and friends and want them to feel welcome in our house, these mainstream sofas were definitely not the answer.
We found two sofa beds that promised to be comfortable and somewhat attractive. The first one (link here) is made in the USA and might be comfortable. However, the base model sells for over $4,000 (on sale), and as the picture below shows is totally inconvenient. The cushions have to be removed and the bed needs to be made and unmade every day. Further there is no place to store pillows or comforters.
The other product that we found is one by an Australian company called Koala. It is not dissimilar to the one above in terms of product features and is considerably less expensive at $2,200 (link here). It is in many ways a modernized version of a futon. But it too has none of the convenience features that we were seeking.
The Matera Sofa and Bed is a significantly better product than either of the “best in class” products identified above. It is a real bed with a very strong frame and a very thick mattress. The patented mechanism and custom made mattress are used by tens of thousands of people throughout Europe as their everyday bed. It is designed to keep the “time to pillow” at less than three seconds with a) no cushions needing to be removed, b) easy one pull opening and c) pillows and comforters right at hand.
A murphy bed combines real comfort with convenience. The mattress is a real mattress and while there are no springs, it rests on a platform providing solid support. The problem for us was two-fold as a murphy bed: 1) would have made an already small room feel smaller, 2) would be very costly with a base price of more than $5,000. We also couldn’t take it with us if we moved.
We thoroughly researched sleep sofas, looking hard for one that had all the advantages that Julian’s had in Paris. We couldn’t find any. The overwhelming majority of sofa beds sold in the US are of the type shown below and are not only inconvenient but known to be uncomfortable.
As one expert writes, these:
Sofa beds are notorious for being cheaply made and uncomfortable. Mattresses are made using low-quality materials, bad designs, lack of support, cheap foam — and more! — all contribute to feeling the coils poking and jabbing through.
Since we value our family and friends and want them to feel welcome in our house, these mainstream sofas were definitely not the answer.
We found two sofa beds that promised to be comfortable and somewhat attractive. The first one (link here) is made in the USA and might be comfortable. However, the base model sells for over $4,000 (on sale), and as the picture below shows is totally inconvenient. The cushions have to be removed and the bed needs to be made and unmade every day. Further there is no place to store pillows or comforters.
The other product that we found is one by an Australian company called Koala. It is not dissimilar to the one above in terms of product features and is considerably less expensive at $2,200 (link here). It is in many ways a modernized version of a futon. But it too has none of the convenience features that we were seeking.
The Matera Sofa and Bed is a significantly better product than either of the “best in class” products identified above. It is a real bed with a very strong frame and a very thick mattress. The patented mechanism and custom made mattress are used by tens of thousands of people throughout Europe as their everyday bed. It is designed to keep the “time to pillow” at less than three seconds with a) no cushions needing to be removed, b) easy one pull opening and c) pillows and comforters right at hand.