Where to find the best guest beds: from foldaway beds to airbeds and sofa beds
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Having guests to stay? Options for an extra bed start with neat foldaways. Then there are blow-up beds, beds in boxes and finally full-scale sofa beds.
Youngsters can go low on a thinner surface than older guests — the Duvalay all-in-one sleeping bag/duvet comes in a choice of colours, foam thicknesses and duvet togs, handy later for festivals, from £99.95.
The über-overnighter is a sofa bed with its own unfolding mattress. A three-seater settee will sleep two and it’s best to test for comfort and to see if the mechanism is smooth and easy.
Find sofa beds, plus stools that unfold into a mattress, at Loaf stores in Battersea, Spitalfields and Notting Hill.
Furniture flagships in Tottenham Court Road include Bensons for Beds, Dreams, Raft, Highly Sprung, Dwell, Argos, DFS, an Ikea “boutique”, and more.
Futon Company does impromptu sleeping well (with more stores in Battersea, Chiswick, Swiss Cottage and Muswell Hill). Its bed-in-a-bag is a popular choice.
Shop in Heal’s at 196 Tottenham Court Road for the sheer delight of being in this glittering store of gorgeous homeware and a huge array of reasonable prices.
Heal’s sofa bed offers start with the simple Tilt, now £639 (was £799) to the luxurious Thora reduced to £1,439 from £1,799, order before Dec 6.
Lucky enough to have a spare room? Maybe test-sleep the sofa bed for comfort, and add a mattress overlay if necessary.
For a linen upgrade, aim for a 400-plus thread count and check out The Sleep Shop at M&S, with downloadable brochure packed with info.
An all-season duvet suits everyone: a 4.5-tog duvet for summer connects with a 9-tog duvet for autumn, to give winter’s 13.5 tog.
If you have the time and money, add a padded headboard to your spare room bed. They fix to divans with standard struts — or wall-fix or rest on the floor.Try Just Headboards.
Director Steve Cowan, with a network of UK suppliers/makers, also runs Just Ottomans if you need a blanket box at the foot of the bed to store the spare bed linen. Or try Just 4ft Beds for doubles in tight spaces.
How to make your guests feel welcome
If you want your guests to enjoy a perfect night’s sleep, you’ll have to think about the little things.
- Head to John Lewis in Oxford Street or Peter Jones in Sloane Square, for clothes hooks and coathangers, and a nice tray or basket for small possessions, such as jewellery, watches and wallets.
- Cosy up a wooden floor with a small rug, to be kind to bare feet.
- A small mirror will also be much appreciated.
- Check out your bedding now. A decent duvet and pillows make all the difference. Fitting a duvet cover after a night of partying can be a bit of an adventure, so you might invest in John Lewis’s Night Owl “coverless” duvet. However, you have to wash the whole thing.
- How warm is the room? Consider a portable plug-in radiator. And an easy portable way to hang guests’ clothes is a ladder-type leaning shelf. Buy at Heal’s online. Futon Company’s mini-dressing table, £85 (down from £95) might also be useful.
- For a quick window fix, blackout roller blinds in many colours can come from blindsdirectonline.co.uk within a few days. A tension rod in a recess will hold lightweight curtains, such as voiles, if it’s privacy your guests need. Get quick delivery on five sizes of extendable tension rod priced from £2.80 to £17.20 at woodyattcurtains.com (watch their video first).
- Fabric designer Clarissa Hulse layers bedding with cushions and throws so guests feel pampered.