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Posts Tagged ‘futon mattress’

Most people have at least heard of a futon and have some idea of what they are.  Some of these same people either own one or have or have some other opinion of them.  If you’re like many people, you might have heard some bad stories about those old futons.  The older styles were quite thin, poorly made and were a not the most comfortable night’s sleep you’ve ever had.  But now, all this is changing.  What we have now are options that are much more user friendly, if you will.

In fact, you might even be hard-pressed to differentiate the disparity between the conventional versus the futon mattress with your eyes closed.  And, this will actually be the case since you’ll be sleeping with your eyes closed – unless you’re a creepy eye-open sleeper!  All kidding aside, futons come with inner coil spring, latex mattress and memory foam options now.  You might not have known that if you hadn’t been aware of the changes that have come to the futon market.

Speaking of futons you’ve likely never heard of, let’s talk about the traditional or Japanese futon mattress.  These futons are actually made of two parts.  What they use is a softer, quilted upper portion, called a kake-buton.  This piece is more like what we might consider a duvet or similar equivalent.  Then, the lower portion is the mattress portion to this and is known as the shiki-buton.  Together, they form that traditional futon bed.  Sometimes, these terms use the word by itself as in ‘the shiki’ or use the suffix futon instead of buton, but they are all still the same thing.

If you’re shopping for a new flexible couch-sleeper option for a guest room or home office, a futon is a great choice.  While futon mattresses might have gotten a bad rap in the past, today’s versions are much more comfortable and enjoyable.  The beauty is, they are still much less expensive than their conventional mattress cousins.  You can pay 30-50% more for a similarly sized conventional mattress with the same features as a futon mattress.

If it has gotten to the stage where you think you need to replace that old worn futon in your bedroom, then chances are that the point when it actually needed replaced has long since past. In a survey done in the last few years, it was discovered that the normal American keeps his or her bed for two years longer than is ideal. That is a pretty long time to use an old ratty bed. This will roughly work out to be 5600 hours of sleep, if you sleep 8 hours a night for two years.

First things first, do you want to replace the bed you already have or upgrade it. Is the mattress you have now the one that you still need? If you can find the receipts, use them to help you find a similar specification bed.

Like most people it will be around 10 years since you bought your current futon, so the way that beds are made will have moved on a bit since then. Taking this time into consideration, do you need to change your mattress as well? Mattress technology has changed too, so you can get a better quality mattress for less money. If you have recently started to notice some back and neck problems, then you will want to get a different style of mattress anyway.

If you need to change the futon bed frame then you have to consider whether it will be used as a sofa or is it going to be a guest bed in the spare bedroom. The fantastic thing about futons is the fact that they are really versatile. If you wont be using you futon as a sofa and it will be your primary bed, then save money and buy a futon fixed bed frame.

Using a hardwood for the frame is a good choice. Pine is a very popular option, but it is cheap and soft, and over time it will get damaged and lose its good looks. If you can, spend a little extra money on a hardwood, avoiding pine and particle board, this way you futon frame will last much longer.