A deep, fold-out sofa bed that can fit through a tiny door

May 29, 2020 2:57 PM

I have abandoned the sectional couch for a sleeper sofa. I'd like to pay under $1000, looking for a seat depth of 23'' or more, 80'' or longer, fold-out mattress (so not a futon), and it's got to fit through a doorway that is 25'' wide. Or should I throw out the sleeper idea altogether and just get an air mattress?

Right now I'm now down to this Katie queen sleeper from Bob's Discount Furniture (a customer rep told me it can fold to 20'' without the legs). I'll go with it if I have to but surely there are other options? The weight limit on the Katie is only 300lbs.

I've scoured Wayfair but it's difficult to filter for things that require assembly. I'm wary of the IKEA HOLMSUND and FRIHETEN because they don't appear to be true fold-out mattresses--won't the part of the "mattress" that you sit on eventually become more squishy than the part that forms the back? American Leather and Room & Board are all out of my price range.

Alternatively: should I just abandon the sleeper idea altogether and get an air mattress for guests instead?

posted by anonymous to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Just my personal opinion: I've never, ever slept on a sleeper sofa that was markedly better than a really good air mattress. And they're SO HEAVY to move. So heavy.
posted by cooker girl at 3:17 PM on May 29, 2020

So, we bought a well-reviewed "gel" sleeper sofa mattress on Amazon to replace a 20 year old one that was crappy old foam. Unfortunately, you can feel the bar through the new sleeper mattress. BUT our solution has been amazing: we put our blowup air mattress (<$100 at Target) on the pullout sofa frame, under the pullout sofa mattress. A little work to set up but it makes an AWESOME bed. It's a case of 1 + 1 = 3.
posted by amaire at 3:26 PM on May 29, 2020

I would never get a sleeper sofa again, not under any circumstances. They're insanely heavy (I feel like Superman trying to move kryptonite), and even under ideal circumstances, they're only passable beds. And if you think crumbs and debris are hard to get from a regular sofa, sleeper sofas are a special sort of hell. I'd choose a regular couch + good quality air mattress combo Everytime.
posted by Aranquis at 3:43 PM on May 29, 2020

La-Z-Boy makes apartment-sized sleeper sofas with integral air mattresses - maybe one of its models will suit your needs.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:03 PM on May 29, 2020

Sleeper sofas are sort of notoriously bad and Bob's is not the best quality, to put it gently.

If I were you, I'd buy a nice air mattress and then after buy whatever the nicest sofa is that your budget allows. You *can* get a reasonable sleeper sofa, but probably not even at twice your budget.
posted by Betelgeuse at 6:47 PM on May 29, 2020

I don't have specific recommendations, but if you are looking for exact dimensions, you can filter for those on Wayfair.
posted by pangolin party at 5:37 AM on May 30, 2020

I am using an Innovation Living soda as both a comfortable sofa and my only bed. It took me years of searching and I think this is the only brand I would trust with this right now. I got a deluxe excess model but it was actually a little softer than I realized and took some getting used to. But I prefer a truly firm mattress. If you like a firm mattress, I think you can get away with the deluxe models, which are somewhat cheaper.

I got mine on sale from Futonland and paid for delivery and setup. I love it. even on sale, I don’t know if you’ll be able to make $1k price point for a deluxe mattress model, especially with set up.

Maybe on Kaiyo or Aptdeco or otherwise secondhand?
posted by Salamandrous at 10:29 AM on May 30, 2020