Convertible Sofa Beds - The Pros and Cons

What are convertible sofa beds? I used to own a furniture store and have lots of experience with this rather unique piece of furniture. Since I am an expert on this I wanted to offer some pros and cons of owning one. Most of us understand what a convertible car is: I'm thinking 1950's corvette, beautiful blonde, huge white framed sunglasses, maybe a pony tail and a ball cap, a scarf, and a drive on some beautiful coastal highway just for fun. A sofa isn't quite as picturesque, but is certainly something we all understand and have common experience with. And last, but definitely not least, is the bed. Sadly, not everyone has a bed, but everyone knows what one is. When you combine these things together you get a unique and useful piece of furniture that allows you to convert what appears to be a normal sofa into a bed.

The thing I would identify as the main good aspect about owning one of the convertible sofa beds is their obvious utility. Most people I sold these critters to called them hide-a-beds. And that's exactly what they are. The bed hides away inside what appears to be a normal looking couch. If living space is limited, and the need exists for another bed for a guest to sleep on, then this makes a nice alternative to setting up a separate bed when it is only going to be used occasionally. You sort of get the best of two worlds. Full use of a sofa couch, and use as a bed. Pretty cool!

Convertible sofa beds are simple to set up and can usually be easily done by only one person. Just remove the cushions, grab a hold of the little center handle thing and lift up and toward you. Viola! Out pulls a folded bed that can then be made up and used. Like my youngest daughter says, "Easy peazy, lemon squeazy."

Now, on to two of the downsides of convertible sofa beds. First, I can, with complete confidence, assure you that you will not want to move one of these beasts. They are heavy! Sometimes very heavy. My oldest son and I once delivered one to a college girl who, when asked about the details of where the thing had to be delivered, assured us that, "Oh, it's just up some stairs and straight into my apartment." Well, talk about hell on earth. Super narrow stairs, lots of them, an even narrower entrance into her apartment, a funky landing at the top of the stairs with a low ceiling overhead and an almost impossible angle into the apartment. And it didn't help that it was as hot as Hades outside, no breeze, and probably one of the heaviest convertible sofa beds we had ever delivered. After about an hour of trying every possible solution, we finally managed to get it in. I pity the poor fool that ever has to remove it.

Second, convertible sofa beds really aren't the height of comfort. You do get what you pay for, and you can find ones that have comfortable mattresses inside. It's sort of a trade off between convenience and comfort and price.

So weigh your needs. Think about the pros and cons of convertible sofa beds. Decide if what you purchase is going to give you what you want to get. And remember, you can always pay for delivery!