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lkplatow

Making a futon mattress more comfortable?

lkplatow
14 years ago

We had our first overnight guests (my inlaws) on our new Ikea Beddinge futon. They said that the bed mattress was really hard and uncomfortable. I've laid on it before and didn't think it was that bad, but I've never tried spending the whole night.

I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make it more comfortable. It is not the bottom of the line mattress (the beddinge comes with several different mattress choices and we have one of the mid-grade ones) but it's basically a big slab of foam so I could see how it might feel much harder than a regular mattress. I was thinking about getting a memory foam topper or egg crate thing or maybe a blow-up airbed for on top (it is raised off the ground but still lower than a regular bed, so I can add a good bit of height without making the bed look weird. I would like something that isn't huge to store, as we don't have a lot of room (which is why we went with the futon-style in the first place - I didn't want to store a big rollaway blowup bed.) I'm a bit concerned that the egg crate or memory foam is going to be a big bulky thing to store, and I'm worried that a blow up mattress will slide off the top of the futon.

Surely I'm not the only person with an uncomfortable futon? Has anyone else had this problem? Were you able to find something to make the bed comfier? Any suggestions are most welcome! We have a second set of guests coming over New Years, so I'd like to get something soon! Thanks!

Comments (10)

  • mildredpots
    14 years ago

    I'm not familiar with Ikea futons, but form the website it looks like the ones without the coils already have a memory foam layer? Not sure adding another would help or not. Would you consider a featherbed? That should not take up a lot of space folded up.

  • queenofmycastle0221
    14 years ago

    I am not familiar with the Ikea brand either but my son (12) and I have been having a huge disagreement about his futon. He has a twin over futon bed that I disassembled and moved to the basement when I thought my father in law was coming to live with us. He wants it brought back up. His other bed is a wonderful solid wood twin size captains bed with a matching night stand and bedside table. I don't want the solid wood set going to the basement but as I talked about in another post, it doesn't seem like the best idea to have a twin size bed in a guest room and I still haven't made the decision as to whether I want a devoted guest room or a home office.

    I had purchased one of the Northnights 5" baffle box featherbeds from QVC but to me it just doesn't offer much support for his growing back. It does seem more comfortable though!

    Good Luck!
    Alicia

  • momfromthenorth
    14 years ago

    Our futon is a full size when open. I did buy an egg crate topper and actually I just left it on when I put the sofa cover on it and then folded up the futon back to sofa style. It's still comfortable to sit on. And that solves the storage issue.

    My feedback from those who have slept on it is that the egg crate helps alot.

  • Shades_of_idaho
    14 years ago

    I have also added an egg crate topper with same comments. It helps. I also leave it on when the mattress is back as a couch.

  • cindyxeus
    14 years ago

    I bought the memory foam matress for my futon and my RV bed. I love them. Made a huge difference in the comfort.

  • dontcallmeshirley
    14 years ago

    My This-End-Up futon is divided into three sections which fold to become the back of a sofa and flip out to lie flat on the floor. It is too low and the creases are uncomfortable so I place a feather bed on top of the futon. I am anxious to replace it with a decent sofa bed.

  • karinl
    14 years ago

    We slept on a futon for years and have concluded irreversibly that they are just a very flawed concept in bedding! Ours was given to us and we needed a fold out so it suited us too well for years to replace it... we finally have. Not for a perfect solution yet, but honestly, it couldn't possibly be worse. Maybe OK for a 12-year old boy but not for people who have hips or shoulders.

    Put something soft on top, definitely. I guess it has to pad at the pressure points while supporting the spine in between... memory foam does flatten with use, and is very heavy for you to handle in between visitors. Eggcrate, regular foam, or a latex topper would probably all be easier.

    KarinL

  • justgotabme
    14 years ago

    Well by what I saw at ikea I can't tell what under the mattress. I'd say get a three or four inch memory foam (four or five pound rating) and a very large Spacebag that you suck the air out of with your vacuum. Or even a construction grade trash bag and lots of duct tape and suck the air out of it. That way it won't take much space to store it.

  • xantippe
    14 years ago

    We have a nine year old top-of-the-line futon mattress that was starting to not feel so top-of-the-line. We had actually budgeted to replace it, but bought a Costco memory foam topper instead. Boy, are we glad we did! For about $160, we now have a bed that is more comfortable than any bed we've ever slept on. The caveats are: (1) the memory foam stinks to high heaven for about three days, so air it out for sure and (2) it's pretty thick, so I don't know if your futon would still fold up with the memory foam on it.