When is a sofa not a sofa.….when it’s a bed!
We’ve all had unexpected guests and had to run around in a panic quickly making up beds, changing sheets or even blowing up air beds! So what is the alternative to all this rush and hassle? The obvious answer is a sofa bed, particularly one that can be used equally well as somewhere comfortable to sit and relaxing to sleep on.
But who invented this clever piece of furniture? During the late 1800’s there became a boom in sleep innovations with an American, Leonard Bailey, taking out a patent for making the first ‘folding bed’ in 1899. His idea was a metal bed frame, which could be folded with the mattress bending and the whole unit closed for use as and when needed. This became known as a ‘hide-a-bed’.
In contrast to the sofa bed is the futon. Futons are traditional Japanese bedding which can be rolled up during the day when not being used. A futon is basically a padded mattress, called a shikibuton, which is used with a quilt, and a pillow filled with beans, called a makura.
If you have bad memories of a lumpy, bumpy sofa bed you need to try the latest models. Russell Francis of Market Harborough has models in their bed studio. You can experience the comfort and you can see how simple the mechanism is to create a comfortable bed in seconds.