As the name suggests, a sofa bed is a piece of furniture that can be used both as a sofa and a bed. When one needs to use it as a bed, all that has to be done is to pull out the bed from under the sofa, and voila, a bed is ready for sleeping!

When buying a sofa bed, it is better to consider the size of the sofa bed that will best suit you—in other words, you need to determine who is going to use the bed, that is if it is a couple or an individual. The size of the room also has to be taken into consideration and of course if you have sheets to fit it. Make sure that the screws of the legs are rightly screwed in and that the corners are made from wood and with corner blocks and glue. It is of no point to buy a sofa bed with nailed, stapled or unbraced joints as these may only loosen and wobble. Upon removing the cushions of the sofa bed, you should not be able to see any wood, but instead, smooth, upholstered surfaces. If the wood can be seen, the sofa bed will not prove to be comfortable. To check on the comfort of the sofa bed, it would be better to sit on the center cushion and on the end cushion for a few minutes and to lie on it as you would once you buy it, to make sure that both spots of the sofa bed are comfortable for you.

Another important feature of the sofa bed is if the bed can be pulled out smoothly. If it can’t, you might as well continue looking for a sofa bed. It is always better for the skeleton of the sofa bed to be made of large diameter tubing as this provides the necessary strength. The mounting plate of the sofa bed should also be bolted and not screwed on to the sofa’s frame for additional strength. The ultimate test for the comfort of the sofa bed would to have a large companion test the mattress of the sofa bed; he would indeed be able to tell if the mattress if inferior if he can feel the uncomfortable support bar of the sofa.