When I started shopping for a daybed three years ago, my intention was to have a place to seat guests in my bedroom without taking up the space of multiple pieces of furniture. It also provided me a place to both sit and sleep. Before my daybed, my guest bedroom served double duty as my office (aka junk drawer for things that didn’t have homes elsewhere).
My actual bedroom felt extremely cluttered. Fast forward to my sister announcing she would be spending a week with me. What better place to put her than on my new daybed?
Because my guest bedroom/day office featured a bulky desk, I began researching daybeds that would allow me to provide my sister with alternative sleeping quarters. After looking at several options online, I stumbled across a daybed that was only about 4 feet long. (Think length of a loveseat, but designed to fit in smaller spaces.) It was against a wall at the foot of my bed and before I knew it, I was using it.
Selecting the right daybed starts with finding something that won’t shout out, “I’m trying too hard to look like a hotel room!” I opted for a medium grey linen-esque coloured fabric. (It’s really a cotton blend, but washes beautifully.
Ask me how I know that it washes beautifully.) The fabric wasn’t an exact match to my walls, but it wasn’t so far off that it looked funky. I went with a daybed that also had a low-profile frame. Mine is about 30 inches tall at the back post, so it doesn’t tower over my bed.
I frequently add throw pillows to the top of the sofa during the day. Typically, I go for an assortment of textures that feel cozy. Chunky knit pillow?
Cheque. Velvet pillow in navy? Cheque.
Maybe a small lumbar pillow? Cheque! This allows me to create a styled, yet low-effort look.
Here’s the fun part. When my sister came to visit, I quickly learned that this thing could actually fit a human to sleep on it. She’s 5’6” and said it wasn’t super comfortable because it was not as roomy as a regular mattress.
But hey, it was better than the air mattress we used before! The pillows were firm enough that someone could sleep on it, but not so firm that you couldn’t casually sit there during the day. I keep an extra blanket and pillow in my closet for guests, so it takes me about two minutes to convert the seating area to a sleeping area.
Originally, I pushed it all the way up against the wall. Buuuuuuuut it looked lonely. Like furniture you’d find in the waiting room of your doctor’s office.
So, I pulled it about six inches away from the wall. Behind it, I added a slim console table. The console was actually just an IKEA table that I painted white to match my trim.
Suddenly I have a spot to rest a small lamp (a necessity for reading), to place a plant that doesn’t need direct sunlight and even a spot to plug in my cell phone every night. Lighting was also key. I didn’t want overhead bedroom lights for reading.
And I didn’t want a table lamp eating up my table real estate. Enter: The table lamp. Not only can I direct light exactly where I want it on my book, but I can turn it down low if I want to relax and read before bed.
You Might Also Like
It also helped define the corner as its own little sitting area, rather than “oh, yeah. There’s a sofa in my bedroom.” One other element I didn’t think about was storage. Underneath a daybed really doesn’t offer you a ton of room.
However, you can fit a cute storage basket to keep extra blankets for future guests. Ok, so it’s not the most attractive solution. But hey, it works!
The basket sits low enough that you don’t even notice it peeks out from under the sofa. What has surprised me the most is how often I USE the daybed. Majority of nights, you can find me lounging on it reading, scrolling through my phone, or catching up on work on my laptop.
It’s become my way to de-stress at the end of the night. Sit down with a cup of tea and plot out my day or stare out the window. With designated seating in my bedroom, my bedroom now feels intentional.
It doesn’t feel like “just the room I sleep in.” Plus, when guests do come over and we’re hanging out in my room before heading out, it’s the perfect extra seating instead of someone having to sit on the floor. If friends spend the night, they never have to sit on my bed. I never felt comfortable with that before.
And when I have overnight guests, they have their own space and don’t feel like they are intruding on my spot. Price-wise, I actually thought my daybed was reasonably priced. I spent about £280 dollars on the daybed itself.
You can find similar options for cheaper if you’re willing to wait for a sale or browse around. I would estimate I spent another £100 on accessories to style my little nook. (lamp, pillows, basket) but I didn’t buy everything at once. If I could go back, I would have measured twice before ordering.
The daybed I got is perfect length wise. It’s just a hair too deep. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t create any issues.
But it does make my room feel slightly more crowded than I originally intended. So if you’re really trying to maximise space, pay attention to how deep the sofa is in addition to how long. You will also want to pay attention to the height of your bed in comparison to your daybed.
Luckily for me, they’re practically the same height.
But if your mattress is much higher (or lower) than your daybed, they may not proportion nicely. So far cleaning has been easy.
The fabric can handle normal wear and tear. The pillows haven’t flattened. I will flip them every once in a while, but I probably don’t need to.
The base of the sofa feels very sturdy. No signs of sagging or weird creaks three years later. Would I buy another day bed?
In a heartbeat. Daybeds have solved multiple problems for me while only taking up the space of one piece of furniture. It’s given me a seating area, guest sleeping quarters, a reading nook and some much needed storage.
Best of all, it made my bedroom a place I love to spend my free time.
