It is in a den with a flat screen tv sitting on the back half. The front half folds open to be the bed frame. There is a trifold memory foam mattress inside - very comfortable, you cannot feel the separations while sleeping. The bottom is a drawer where I store the linens.
Murphy beds have always seemed appealing to us. But… you have some closet space (or a trunk or something) to hold bedding stuff. In our current house/den, it was better to do the twin bed with pop-up trundle underneath (sheets on mattresses, blankets under daybed cover, pillows in shams). Still I like seeing the links because someday we might be in situation where murphy bed is the better solution.
Air mattresses- on camping trips- we put them on a blue closed cell foam thing (like a Pilates mat but a $5 purchase at Walmart). It keeps the cold ground from seeping into the air mattress.
Also, a thick fleece blanket on top of the air mattress works wonders for staying warm. As opposed to just laying on a sheet. (this was indoors).
S bought a futon sofa a few months ago and had it shipped to us in HI with a friend who was being stationed here. It required assembly but was pretty easy (otherwise I couldn’t have helped do it). It wasn’t ikea brand but I can’t remember brand name. S and fiancée sleep on it when they visit and seem to find it comfortable enough.
Friends have an air mattress that has a frame in their NYC apartment. We have slept on it and it is quite comfortable and nice not to be on the floor. Works well for them in a 1-bedroom space.
We still have not picked out a bed for our guest bedroom/office. I thought I had H convinced that we should get a murphy bed in a wood case, but he doesn’t think he wants that.
I guess we will look for a nice sofa sleeper instead.
We may have a boomerang kid in about six months - not sure of this but I need to be planning for it.
Our study doubles as a guest room. We currently have the Friheten sofa from Ikea in it.
We bought it in 2016, and it is still in one piece and works, so I would give it a qualified 4 out of 5. We are hard on furniture, live in the woods, have cats and big dogs, etc.
The Friheten: The slipcovers and cushions are washable, but the first time I washed them (in cold water, and drip-dried), the main sit-on slipcover shrank and no longer fits correctly. There are replacement slipcovers for this sofa available at a decent price on Etsy, however.
The mattress part (under the slipcover) has a flimsy white fiber batting covering that has degraded over time.
And my daughter spent an entire pandemic term + summer sleeping on it, and says it has lost firmness. It also creaks a bit now.
So while I don’t think it works for constant, long-term use, it looks good enough for a guest room, is easy to set up and has no uncomfortable metal sofa bars. If you’re just gonna use it for occasional visitors, I’d recommend it for sure. If you’re a family like us, be aware that you can wear it down faster.
I am really a goldilocks about this: futons are a royal pita to set up/revert to sofa style, and they are bricks to sleep on. Daybeds are mostly twin size, and really uncomfortable as sofas, and just look like beds anyway, no matter how they’re gussied up. Air mattresses aren’t good for long term and I’ve never been able to sleep on one; every time I turn over, the motion wakes me up - goes double for sleeping with your partner. Murphy beds won’t work in our space because of low windows, and seem like a whole lot of mechanical and quality issues just waiting to happen.
Which brings me back to just a regular bed or a sleeper sofa.
Argh.
Maybe I should be happy that any sleeper sofa lasted for six-plus years in our rough-and-tumble family, and just go buy another Ikea sofa.
My s decided in HS to convert his bedroom into a study/guest room and had us buy a futon for it that converted pretty easily to a bed. After 20+ years of use when he’s come down for visits, he decided to buy us a better futon and we gave the old one to D’s friend, who just bought a house.
S and fiancée slept on the new futon for a week when they were here in Nov and again in Dec and then S slept on it another week when he was just back in Feb. S considered all the options and decided he like a futon the best. We used to have a futon also as our living room couch but decided to get a more comfortable couch and donated the futon to a neighbor.
I think it really matters how comfortable the mattress is!
We have a den where murphy bed might work, and we’ve always thought they looked cool. But our twin bed with pop up unit (and excellent mattresses has worked well), dressed up as a daybed. I put pillows and extra bedding in the matching shams. If we got a murphy bed, I’d have to find space for the bedding.
Hubby still seems intrigued by murphy beds. He’s suggested one for our son’s old room, which is now his den.