I thought I’d left it too late to order a sofa bed in time for Christmas – this is where you can still buy one in time for festive hosting

by Furnishly | Nov 23, 2025 | Design Inspiration

In my opinion, there are two types of people in the world. Those who get Christmas planned, prepped, and sorted before October is even over. And those who begin to think about the festive season, say, about now.

I am firmly in the second camp, and whilst starting to think about the festive season in mid-November doesn’t in any way qualify as ‘last minute’, it does throw up one problem if you have guests coming to stay this Christmas and you don’t already have one of the best sofa beds in place.

Many sofa beds are made to order with long lead times. I’ve learnt during my time as Ideal Home’s Sleep and Sofa Bed Editor, that by now (mid-November), we’ve passed the cut-off point for ordering a new sofa bed that will arrive before Christmas at many retailers. Luckily, there *are* still places you can shop for quick delivery sofas and sofa beds right now; you just need to know where to look.

At this time of year, my top recommendation for pre-Christmas delivery is always Swyft. The brand’s sofa bed collection is stylish, practical, and its website handily sorts its range into Swyft sofa beds that are available with pre-Christmas delivery, and even Swyft sofa beds that have *next-day* delivery. Trust me, next-day delivery is pretty much unheard of in the world of sofa beds!

Swyft’s website also makes it very clear exactly when the delivery of each upholstery option is available from, so you know exactly what you’re getting before you shop.

This is in contrast to many retailers, where that info can be kept a little vague until *after* you’ve placed your order. And that’s pre-Christmas stress no one needs.

However, Swyft isn’t the only place you can score a sofa bed in time for Christmas. There’s a useful ‘In Time for Christmas’ filter on John Lewis’ sofa bed collection, with many options available with seven-day delivery times, and Habitat flags its sofa beds with quicker delivery times with an ‘In time for xmas’ badge.

I’ve rounded up three of my favourite styles below, but there are plenty more quick delivery options on all of these retailers’ websites right now.

Sofa beds with pre-Christmas delivery

Aldi is launching a £35 sofa bed today – there’s a catch, but it could still be the answer to Christmas hosting

by Furnishly | Nov 20, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Aldi has just launched a £34.99 sofa bed, and although it does come with a catch, this bargain piece of furniture could make Christmas hosting *much* easier.

As Ideal Home’s Sleep Editor, I’ve spent the past four years putting the best sofa beds on the market to the test, and one thing I can tell you for sure is that I’ve never come across a sofa bed as cheap as this before.

Generally speaking, the most affordable sofa beds on the market start around £250, and a model with all the bells and whistles can cost upwards of £3000.

In comparison, Aldi’s £34.99 sofa bed is a complete steal. The catch?… This sofa bed is inflatable! But here’s why I think that could be a real plus point.

Available in stores from 20^th November, the Aldi Inflatable Pull Out Sofa may not be a permanent piece of furniture, but that could be a good thing.

The festive season sees all sorts of things occurring that don’t take place the rest of the year, such as multiple friends and family descending on your home all on the same day.

Yes, a sofa bed can be a great solution, but if you don’t use it for the rest of the year, that’s a big piece of furniture taking up a lot of real estate in your home. An inflatable sofa bed can simply be deflated and packed away until next year.

Plus, as I’ve mentioned, ‘real’ sofa beds are expensive. If your Christmas gatherings involve lots of young children or teenagers, then you *might* not want them sprawled all over your brand new seating, or to be worrying about sticky fingers on your new upholstery.

Opting for this Aldi inflatable offers extra seating with the peace of mind that you can wipe it clean as many times as needed during the festivities, and just like one of the best air beds, it can be transformed into extra sleeping space that the littlest ones in your Xmas gathering will love. After all, what kid doesn’t love a campout in the living room!

And although Aldi isn’t the only place you can buy this sort of inflatable multifunctional furniture, it is the cheapest. Argos sells the Intex Flocked Inflatable Pull Out Camping Sofa for £75, and Amazon has the same Intex Inflatable Sofa Bed on sale for under £55, as of writing. At full RRP, that’s nearly twice the price of this Aldi bargain.

That said, you don’t have to go inflatable, of course. There are affordable sofa beds out there if you’d rather host your Christmas guests on something a little sturdier. I’ve included my top recommendations below for comparison.

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At just £299, this is John Lewis’s most affordable sofa bed – its 5-star reviewers say it’s ‘exceptional value for money’

by Furnishly | Nov 4, 2025 | Design Inspiration

The festive season is rolling in fast, and if you need a budget-friendly way to host overnight guests this Christmas, I recommend getting John Lewis‘s most affordable sofa bed on your radar pronto.

As Ideal Home’s Sleep Editor, I’ve tested numerous sleeper sofas for our guide to the best sofa beds money can buy, and one thing I can tell you is this multifunctional furniture is *expensive*. It isn’t uncommon for a top-of-the-range sofa bed to cost well over £2000.

In contrast, the John Lewis Clapton sofa bed costs a very welcome £349, and the even better news is it’s currently on sale, so you can snap up the sofa bed that 5-star reviewers have dubbed ‘exceptional value for money’, for just £299 right now.

The Clapton sofa bed is a part of John Lewis’s more affordable ANYDAY range, and having tested it in store, whilst it does look and feel a little basic compared to the brand’s more expensive designs, it still feels like a solidly built option.

If you’re looking for hosting solutions for a small guest bedroom or bijou home office, its compact footprint and armless design also make it a brilliant space-saver.

Another bonus is its angled backrest, which has two back positions so that it can be adjusted to suit upright sitting or lounging.

It comes in three colourways – including steel grey and a natural cream upholstery – but, like many of the sofa bed’s 5-star reviewers, I loved the teal upholstered option. In person, this colourway is a far richer and deeper jewel tone than it looks online, and makes this look a much more expensive piece of furniture than its £299 price tag might suggest.

‘Great quality product,’ says one 5-star reviewer on the John Lewis website. ‘Really like the fabric and sturdiness of the sofa bed. It’s comfortable as a sofa, looks more expensive than it is, and converts easily into an almost double-sized bed.’

‘Looks more expensive than the price tag,’ agrees another happy owner. ‘Perfect for me and for when my family stays over at Christmas.’ ‘Well-made and attractive,’ shares a third owner, ‘exceptional value for money.’

As a fellow 5-star reviewer sums up, ‘I had researched sofa beds for ages, but so many had bad reviews. This one is good quality and a fair price. It’s firm with a slight bounce to sit on and quite firm to lie on.’

In my testing experience, that firmness is standard for a sofa bed under £1000, and it’s nothing some of our top tips for how to make a sofa bed more comfortable can’t sort out.

As with any sofa bed, I recommend snapping up one of the best mattress toppers on the market in the upcoming Black Friday sales to use on top of it. That will also help to mask the join between the seat and backrest when this click-clack sofa bed is folded flat.

‘The seat is lovely and firm, and conversion to a sofa bed is very easy,’ says one final happy owner. ‘The sofa is light enough for me to pull it away from the wall to convert. It will need a topper… for sleeping, as you can feel the join, but I expected this. It’s a great size for a single occupant. I love the colour. This is exactly what I wanted, at a great price.’

However, if you’re not convinced the Clapton sofa bed is the option for you, fear not, this isn’t the only affordable sofa bed on the market. I’ve included two more of my tried-and-tested recommendations below for comparison.

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I visited Swyft’s first standalone store in London – now you can finally try out all their most popular sofas and sofa beds in one place

by Furnishly | Oct 28, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Last Saturday, Swyft’s first physical store, named Store 01, opened in London’s Angel. I popped in on the launch day to see and experience this new shop of one of my favourite brands of sofas and furniture for myself. And I’m so glad this store now exists so you and I can see and try all of Swyft’s popular sofas and sofa beds in one place.

When I was doing research for Ideal Home’s best sofas and best modular sofas guides earlier this year, I had a hard time tracking down all the different Swyft sofa models that I wanted to try in person. Even though John Lewis stocks the majority of the styles, only a fraction is available to see and test out at the retailer’s physical stores, so I had to sift through all the various little stockists that have one or two models on show to track down the ones I wanted to see.

But with Swyft’s new Store 01 now on the scene, that’s a thing of the past for all Londoners, myself included.

The store spans two floors at Islington Square shopping centre – the full address is at Unit G17, Islington Square, 129F Upper Street, N1 1QP – which is a perfect location if you ask me as it offers a lot of space and the likes of Arlo & Jacob and The Lounge Co are Swyft’s new neighbours, with a Loaf store also in the neighbourhood just a five-minute walk away. So if you’re shopping for a new sofa or sofa bed, you can hit up multiple sofa stores in one go.

‘Store 01 – Angel marks a really exciting moment for Swyft,’ says Ben White, trade sales manager at Swyft. ‘It’s our first physical space and a true reflection of who we are as a brand. We wanted to create somewhere that feels welcoming, relaxed, and design-led; a place where customers can experience the quality, comfort, and craftsmanship of our furniture in person. Angel, and Islington Square specifically, felt like the perfect fit with its vibrant, creative community that mirrors our own values. The store is designed to feel like a home, not a showroom, giving customers the chance to see, touch, and imagine Swyft pieces in real life.’

Swyft is most known for its quick-delivery sofas and sofa beds which can be with you within 24 hours after you place your order which is pretty unheard of, since sofas famously come with long-lead delivery times of several weeks. Another great thing about Swyft’s best sofa beds and sofas is that they arrive flatpacked in a box but are also super easy and fast to assemble.

But as already mentioned, the one downside was the difficulty to try the products out IRL before purchasing. But that’s no longer the case as the store’s two floors showcase the brand’s sofa and sofa bed designs, as well as its beds, ottomans, coffee tables, dining furniture, cushions and rugs – even I didn’t know how many different rug designs Swyft sells, it might just be one of my new favourite places to buy rugs.

One wall is also dedicated to all the different fabrics you can get your sofa or sofa bed in, including Swyft’s collaboration with Morris & Co. that launched earlier this year.

Top Swyft picks

The store is now open every week from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 7pm – are you planning a visit?

I just discovered Loaf has launched two new flatpack sofa beds – they’re ideal for anyone with awkward delivery access

by Furnishly | Oct 25, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Loaf has just launched two new super-stylish sofa beds, and their flatpack builds are specifically designed to help those of us who struggle with awkward delivery access.

If you’re currently searching for the best sofa bed for your home, I think you’ll definitely want this multifunctional seating on your radar.

The two new sofa bed designs are based on two of Loaf’s most-loved sofas – the fantastically named Squishmeister and Squisharoo.

These have always been my two favourite Loaf sofa designs, so it’s brilliant to see the flatpack Squishmeister and Squisharoo sofa beds added to the three new Loaf sofa beds the brand launched this summer.

Loaf is known for its laidback designs, and when I was researching where to buy a sofa for Ideal Home’s best sofa guide, I found the brand does mean that quite literally.

Most Loaf sofas have *very* deep seats, which means your body lies back rather than sitting upright. In contrast, the Squishmeister and Squisharoo sofas feature slightly shallower seats and more supportive backrests. I found this a much more comfortable sitting experience: there’s still plenty of room to curl up, but it’s also much easier to sit more upright if you want to.

The other bonus for those of us who need to think more carefully about small living room ideas is that the Squishmeister and Squisharoo have smaller footprints and take up less floor space than most of Loaf’s range.

The new Squishmeister and Squisharoo sofa beds are identical in design to these sofas, and their flatpack design is another nod towards those of us who aren’t blessed with wide hallways and commanding living rooms.

‘It’s all to do with access,’ explains Laura Burnett, category lead on made-to-order upholstery at Loaf. ‘We introduced our flat-pack sofa bed designs in response to real customer feedback about access challenges.’

‘Many homes, particularly in cities, are smaller apartments or have narrow hallways and tricky staircases – we wanted to ensure everyone could enjoy a seriously comfy sofa bed, no matter their space. The clever flat-pack design simply makes delivery smoother and stress-free.’

And, thankfully, the flat-packed designs don’t mean you’re left with any time-consuming DIY to do once the delivery team leaves.

‘Our Room-Ready Delivery Service means customers don’t need to worry about any fiddly assembly,’ says Laura. ‘Our two-person team sets it up in the room of your choice and takes away all the packaging, so you can just put your feet up.’

If you don’t need to take advantage of the flat-packed delivery, then both the Squishmeister and Squisharoo are available in non-flatpack options as well.

And whether you opt for flatpack or ready-built, both sofa beds feature sink-in cushions that make these two sofa beds that are *actually* comfortable enough for everyday use as a standard sofa.

Plus, both have 12cm deep pull-out mattresses hidden under those seat cushions. That makes them the thickest sofa bed mattresses on the market, and unlike standard foam options, the mattresses are handmade with proper pocket springs.

Shop flatpack sofa bed alternatives

Loaf’s Squishmeister and Squisharoo aren’t the only flat-packed sofa beds on the market – I’ve rounded up three alternative options below – but, in my opinion, they are two of the most comfortable *and* stylish options you could consider.

In comparison, with prices starting at £3295, Loaf’s Squishmeister and Squisharoo sofa beds certainly aren’t cheap.

However, they do come made-to-order in over 140 upholstery options, and if you’re looking for a sofa bed that can take pride of place in your living room – rather than being hidden away in a home office – I think both the Squishmeister and Squisharoo are worth the investment.