If you're looking for a way to host overnight guests in your home without a dedicated guest bedroom, then a sofa bed is a brilliant solution.
As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, I've spent the past five years testing and compiling my shortlist of the best sofa beds on the market, and if you choose wisely, I think this piece of multifunctional furniture can be a great investment.
However, like many of us, I have a very small home, and even the most compact sofa beds, and likewise the best chair beds, can still take up a lot of floor space. But I think there's a solution, and that solution is the bed-in-a-box.
What is a bed-in-a-box? Well, it's a guest bed that folds up into a 'box'. And that 'box' is usually in the form of an upholstered ottoman or padded footstool.
Much like sofa beds, these bed-in-a-boxes can either feature a pull-out mattress or a series of folded foam cushions that create the sleeping area once extended.
And their main benefit? They usually take up *far* less space than a sofa bed or even a chair bed, making them an extremely useful option for a small home.
The one downside is that, currently at least, a bed-in-a-box can be a lot trickier to find than a sofa bed. However, I've tracked down six great options which I'll share below.
Six of the best bed-in-a-box
Sold at Argos, amongst other retailers, this compact and budget-friendly single bed-in-a-box comes in 12 upholstery options and is one of the most affordable I've found.
Alternatively, Loaf's Chesterfield-style Bed in a Button is available in a single or double size, and comes in 32 great fabric and colour options.
Darlings of Chelsea's single-sleeper Barnet Bed-in-a-Box comes in a whopping 170 upholstery options and features a choice of pocket-sprung or memory foam mattress.
Sofa.com's Kya Bed in a Footstool is one of the most traditional-looking ottomans, featuring a loose fabric cover in over 100 upholstery choices.
Or, you could opt for Sofa.com's Jack in a Box bed-in-a-box, which offers a double-sized sleeping area, and a great choice of linen and velvet upholstery options.
Alternatively, this Kaikoo option is the budget option, but it's a really useful extra sleeping area if your guests don't mind camping out on the floor.
As you might have noticed, the one thing that many of these bed-in-a-boxes have in common is that they come in a wide array of upholstery options.
To my mind, this is great news if you're looking to blend an occasional guest sleeping solution into your main living area as you're far more likely to find a colour and fabric that complements your sofa and armchairs.
And although it will cost you more, you're also not limited to a single sleeping space if you opt for a bed-in-a-box. Some options deliver a double-size sleeping area so you can host two guests at once.
If you have a small living room, or a compact home office, playroom, or kids' bedroom that needs to double up as a guest sleeping space occasionally, I definitely think a bed-in-a-box is a brilliant hosting solution that can give even the best sofa beds a run for their money.
