Sofa beds

Why our approach to sofa beds is different

We decided to make 2-seater, 2.5-seater and 3-seater sofa beds as the ones we’d been subjected to over the years were either seriously uncomfortable or didn’t cut it in the looks department. When we did our research to find out why so many sofa beds were like this it soon became clear. Nearly all quality sofa beds in this country are pieces of furniture that use pull-out mechanisms from Italy or Belgium. Now, these aren’t the cheapest manufacturers in the world, but they do make pieces of kit that work really well and will stand the test of time (unlike the Chinese versions that we tried). But there are two drawbacks. The first is that they tend to come complete with their own mattresses which are cheap (and therefore uncomfortable) to make up for the fact that the metal frames are quite pricey. The second is that the pull-out mechanisms are rather large beasts which allow very little room for thick padding and cushions which are what make the beds comfy. So, to build our own seriously comfy sofabed we knew we needed to use our own special handmade mattress and to ensure our bed design allowed plenty of room for deep-filled cushions.

Our gorgeous sofa bed

On a trip to Paris we saw an absolutely beautiful 2-seater sofa that had just one long seat cushion (as opposed to the normal two) and was so deep that it demanded you dive onto it and snuggle up. Right there and then we decided that this was the combination of beauty and comfort that would make our beds so special. It wouldn’t matter whether customers wanted a single, double, king size or super king bed, it would always look elegant and be perfect both for kicking back and watching TV, and for getting one’s head down for eight hours’ kip.

So we jumped on the Eurostar to come home and got to work. Two weeks later we had built our solid beech sofa bed frame capable of withstanding all sorts of wear and tear. We then tried out loads of cushions to get the right combination of comfort and ease-of-use (who wants cushions you have to plump up every five minutes?) and decided on our feather-filled back cushions and feather-wrapped seat cushion (this is a piece of high-quality foam which is surrounded by a thick layer of feathers). All that remained was to find the right natural fabric of brushed linen/cotton mix to make removable covers, which we eventually located from an amazing mill in Italy. Hey presto our perfect sofa bed was born. And having tested it thoroughly there was only one name for it: the Loafer sofa bed. We’d done it!

You can now buy one of these sofa beds here on our website. We keep them in stock in four colours: Slate, Oat, Fresh White and Drift Wood. And if you want us to make up a cover for you in a totally different colour or your own fabric then we can do that for you very easily. Each bed also comes with an option of snug side cushions.

One thing worth noting is that these bed sizes tend to have different names. Some people refer to a single, double, king or super king bed. This is fine and we do too as it fits in nicely with our bed size descriptions on the rest of our website. But strictly speaking sofa bed mattresses do not come in the same sizes as standard UK bed or mattress sizes (this is because the bed pull-out mechanisms come from continental Europe). So you can call a small sofa bed, or a single sofa bed, a 1.5 seat or “one and a half seater” sofa bed. A double sofa bed is normally referred to as a 2-seat or “two seater” sofa bed. And if it’s a large bed you’re after, then you’ll need to equip your vocabulary with “2.5-seat” (aka “two and a half seater”) and, you guessed it…."3-seat" or “three and a half seater” bed. Boring, we know, but when you talk about soft furnishings all day like we do you can get quite carried away!

So, if you’re looking for a 1.5-seater, 2-seater, 2.5-seater or 3-seater sofa bed that’s seriously comfy and with a 14-day money back free returns policy, you’d do well to check out our ones for sale at The Sleep Room. Handmade in the UK by experienced craftsmen, you can be sure that our beds are more comfortable and better looking than most ordinary beds for sale.