Sleeping sofa as a guest bed: also for the holidays

At Christmas and New Year’s Eve, everyone wants to be together. Your parents stay for two nights, your brother stays with his partner after the Christmas dinner, and after New Year’s Eve, your friends no longer have to drive. Then you suddenly need extra sleeping space, even if you don’t have a guest room.

A sofa bed Forget that. Your living room, study or hobby room simply retains its function during the day and transforms into a sleeping space in the evening. What you need to check in advance: who is sleeping and for how long, what size bed is suitable, how much comfort is needed, whether the sofa can be opened when it gets crowded, and how you set up the bed.

Who stays up and for how long?

One adult staying for one night places different requirements than two people That one continues from Christmas Eve to the second day of Christmas. So start by asking who is sleeping and for how long.

If your parents stay for two nights around Christmas, you need a bed for two consecutive nights, with a good mattress and sturdy support. If your brother or sister and partner are staying after the Christmas dinner, then especially enough bed width for two people is needed for one night.

Are children or grandchildren staying with you for a few days over the Christmas holidays? Then the bed is put together and taken down every day, so it has to be quick and easy. Are friends staying with you after New Year's Eve? Then they go to bed late for one night, and the bed has to be ready quickly.

What size sofa bed do you need for your guests?

With the holidays approaching, your home is filled to the brim with holiday decorations. There’s a Christmas tree in the living room, extra chairs at the dining table, and gifts. The workroom is filled with coats and luggage. Therefore, before the holidays, check how much floor space the sofa bed needs when it’s open: the length, the depth, and a path to the sofa. This way, after a long Christmas Eve, you won’t have to move furniture first before someone can go to bed.

Also pay attention to the direction of folding. In a compact room, it matters whether the bed folds into the room or lies along the wall. For example, look at the sofa beds that fold forward and compare the space that such a model requires with the space in your room. Also check if a cabinet door, radiator or coffee table is in the way.

Determine how much comfort is needed

A guest who stays for one night can spend less than a family who stays for several days in a row. The mattress, support, and mechanism make that difference. Sofas are not all equally suitable for use as a bed. Easy Living therefore distinguishes between systems for occasional, regular, and daily use.

Occasional use is appropriate for friends who stay overnight once after New Year's Eve. Regular use is appropriate for parents or children who stay overnight several nights each year, and for guests during the Christmas holidays. Daily use is important for a sofa that also serves as a bed outside of the holidays. For daily use, the quality of the mattress and the ease of the folding mechanism are especially important.

A sofa bed is therefore not just a makeshift solution for one night. There are simple models for occasional overnight stays, but also models with a separate mattress and a mechanism that is suitable for several consecutive nights. The comfort varies per model: choose based on who is sleeping and how long.

How quickly is the bed ready?

Around the holidays, you already have enough to do: welcoming guests, cooking, cleaning up, and preparing again the next day. A folding bed with many loose parts is then inconvenient. Therefore, pay attention to how many steps it takes to convert the sofa into a bed, and whether you need to remove the seat and back cushions first.

Bedding and preparation

Make sure everything is ready before the guests arrive. Check beforehand whether the duvet cover fits the mattress of the sofa bed. Also consider where the bedding will stay during the day. Some models have storage space in the sofa bed and in some systems the cover can remain in place when you fold the sofa back up. This is useful if the same set-up remains in place for several nights and the sofa is used as a sofa again during the day.

Turn a multifunctional room into a pleasant place to stay

You don’t need a separate bedroom to provide your guests with a comfortable place to sleep. With a sofa bed, you can continue to use a home office, hobby room, or living room during the day and transform it into a sleeping area at night. This way, you make optimal use of the available square meters, without having to leave a room empty for most of the year.

Make sure your guests have enough space to put their belongings down, such as a bag or suitcase. Having a nearby power outlet for a phone charger and enough room around the unfolded bed make the stay much more comfortable.

Try it out before the holidays!

Don't wait until your guests are standing at the door. Roll out the sofa a few weeks early and see how it works, how much space it takes up and how the bed fits. Check if the closet doors can still be opened and if the bedding fits. Then you'll find out now, and not on Christmas Eve.

Not sure which sofa bed suits your living situation? The Easy Living showroom in Amsterdam has more than 50 sofa beds for you to view and try on. There you can see the difference between bed sizes and mechanisms, and test whether comfort, size, and operation are suitable for your home and the guests you expect to visit. View the range of sofa beds!