In my opinion, there are lots of advantages to having a small home: less cleaning, lower heating bills, and far less furniture to buy. However, as we all know, there are also some downsides. For me, the main problem with my small house is the lack of space to host guests.
I spend my working life reviewing the best sofa beds, but can I fit one in my own home? No. For the most part, once they're extended, a sofa bed is too large to fit in my small living room or guest-bedroom-slash-home-office.
Thankfully, all is not lost. I've put a roster of the best chair beds through their paces, and am happy to report their smaller scale is perfect for those of us with limited floor space. The only problem is that chair beds tend to be a lot harder to find than sofa beds.
That's why I was so pleased to see DUSK's new Soho Chair Bed launch. At first glance, I wouldn't have had any clue it hid a single sleeping space under its seat, and even better, this multifunctional hosting solution is only £379.
There are some great chair beds on the market, but one of the common themes is that – at least at the more affordable end of the price spectrum – they tend to be very modern and more suitable as accent chairs rather than seating you can cosy up on.
DUSK's new Soho Chair Bed offers a much more classic design, and at a price that won't break the bank.
The armchair is designed in a similar style to the brand's bestselling Soho seating collection, and features generously proportioned seating, armrests, and padded back support.
It would look great styled with the rest of the furniture set in a larger home, but for me, it's the perfect solution for my small guest bedroom that also doubles as my home office.
This room gets swamped by a full-size single bed, but a chair bed is the perfect solution for hosting occasional guests, while allowing me more space to use the room for other purposes once it's folded away.
And by the looks of it, transforming this chair from sitting to sleeping is super easy. You simply pull out the lower trundle section to create the single sleeping space.
My colleague Thea has the DUSK Hudson Sofa Bed in her own home, and although she says it feels quite firm for sitting and sleeping, it's nothing a good mattress topper can't solve. At this price, I imagine the Soho Chair Bed will have a similar feel. And, like all of DUSK's furniture range, it offers very stylish design considering its budget-friendly price tag.
The only downside is that there are currently lead times for this product. The natural beige colourway is available from April, but the olive green and grey upholstered options aren't available in May. Perhaps not ideal if you have guests coming to stay this Easter.
I've rounded up some in-stock alternatives below, but if you're looking for an affordable chair bed that offers a classic 'traditional' armchair design, I think DUSK's new launch is well worth having on your radar.
Shop alternatives
This bestselling Habitat chair bed is more affordable than DUSK's Soho armchair, but it's a lot more contemporary in style, and lacks the armrests that the DUSK option offers.
