A sofa bed. Now that’s one confusing piece of furniture. I mean, should it go in the lounge, or the bedroom, or just in storage as extra furniture? Maybe it’s best for a small room with little space. You never know.

It is more important than you think to buy the perfect sofa bed. If you make the wrong choice, it could just be an awkward thing lying around in a room with no particular use. That means a waste of money and space in your home. On the other hand, buying the sofa bed that’s right for you not only add style to your home but is also a very useful piece of furniture that has plenty of uses.

Below are some useful tips from experts in the field of buying the best sofa bed for any room inside the house.

1. Choose a sofa design you love

You can’t forget that most of the time, your sofa bed will be used as just a sofa. You’ll only be using it as a bed at night when you want to sleep. Hence, you need to pick a sofa bed that looks attractive and goes with the rest of the furniture in the room. A lot of people will compromise on looks and the style of the sofa bed since they focus more on the different functions that it can be used for. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a big mistake. You should never compromise on one thing or the other because it’s actually not so hard to find a sofa bed that looks good and performs well. So make sure you buy the perfect modern sofa bed for yourself, whether this is a corner sofa or something more standard.

2. Go for the best build quality you can afford

Of course, everyone has a limited budget for whatever they need to buy. The same goes for furniture. However, when it comes to sofa beds, you should try to buy the finest quality you can afford to buy. The best quality sofa bed frames are made of either kiln-dried hardwood or a mixture of furniture grade plywood and kiln-dried hardwood. Low prices can seem very appealing, but with low price comes low quality. This means sofa beds made of softwood which is not so durable to wear and tear, so it will not last very long. So think before making an investment, it may be worth it to spend more money in the long term.

3. Pick a smooth operating mechanism

The difference between this piece of furniture and others is its ability to transform from a sofa into a bed and vice versa. So when buying one, you should make sure the transition mechanism is smooth. This is easy to point out; a good sofa bed will not squeak or get stuck within the process. Make sure you check this while buying it. Try to find one which has an operating mechanism at the click of a button and can be locked once into its desired place. Another important thing, a sofa bed should be light enough for a single person can lift it at ease, at the same time having a good quality frame that does not wear down.

4. Test for excellent levels of comfort

This is a deal breaker. Even though many people won’t focus so much on comfort while buying it, all the other factors won’t matter if your sofa bed isn’t comfortable. It should be good enough to support your neck and back, with a good soft material to help you fall sound asleep. Some sofa beds provide trampoline like mechanism whereas better ones have a solid wood slate with a webbed sofa base which provides much more comfort. A good sofa bed will give good comfort both when lying down as well as sitting up, so much sure you check that before buying one.

5. Check the mattress for quality

A sofa bed’s mattress can be a tricky thing to choose. Since it has the function of a sofa to provide, unfortunately, most of them have thin mattresses which can be quite uncomfortable to sleep on. Hence, you need to be very picky about this since it is hard to find a good mattress. Find and buy a sofa bed with a spring or quality memory foam mattress. Make sure you give this factor importance, otherwise your sofa bed will lose its function of being used as a bed since it won’t be good enough to sleep on.

6. Don’t forget to measure up

Of course, you need measure the size of your sofa bed, as a rolled up sofa and a pulled out bed. This should be done to make sure that it fits accordingly inside the room you want to put it in; it shouldn’t be big enough to make the room look cramped, or small enough to look like a misfit. Generally, a 2 seat sofa can turn into a single bed and can easily fit two people. However, if you have a more spacious room you can always get a sofa with 3 seats that will have a bigger mattress so it is more snug and comfortable for two people to use.