How to make the IKEA sofa bed more comfortable

Are you wondering how to make your IKEA HEMNES day bed sofa bed more comfortable?

 

Disclosure: Gifted items mentioned

Making your guest bed more comfortable for visitors, or even for yourself if you use it as a spare bed is really important for a quality night sleep. There is nothing worse than dealing with aches and pains in a morning after sleeping on a mattress which doesn’t support you…or losing your pillow down the back of your bed in the middle of the night!

This blog post will give you some realistic, affordable and helpful advice to make your bed more comfortable…

The IKEA HEMNES extendable day bed

We originally bought this bed as a sofa for our bay window in our lounge, which could then be used as a guest bed for my late Nanna when she came to stay. As a single bed, two mattresses are stacked on top of each other so this is a good amount of foam and support to keep the bed comfortable. The problem arose when using the bed as a double bed (or rather, a king size bed as it is bigger than a double!) for pairs of guests. The single IKEA mattress alone isn’t great for grown adults looking for a supportive night sleep, and there are other issues to consider such as lack of a headboard for one sleeping partner too…

Here are my recommendations of how to make the guest bed more comfortable:

An extra headboard for the IKEA HEMNES bed

I really wish that Ikea would make a headboard solution for the ‘pull out’ side of the extendable day bed, but until that day comes, I have 2 very quick and easy fixes for you:

• The IKEA foldable gym mat - if you fold the gym mat so that you have two folds on one side and 3 folds on the other side, you can slot this down the back of the bed (providing you’re near a wall) and it makes a brilliant, and comfortable, headboard for your guests and means that their pillow won’t fall down the gap. Currently these gym mats come is pink or green
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
• A child’s safety bed bar - admittedly there is a little bit of an overlap, but it actually doesn’t matter or get in the way. This option works whether you have a wall behind the bed or not, as the bed bar stays in place by the bars that’s are underneath the mattress. If you can get a white one like we have, it fits in nicely with the bed. Of course it is also easily removed if you want to turn the bed back into a single or a sofa.
  
   
  
  
  

Replace the IKEA day bed mattress

What size is an IKEA day bed mattress?

If you’re planning on keeping your guest bed as a double rather than a single bed, then you may wish to simply replace the mattress with a better quality or more supportive mattress which will stay in place long term. The Ikea single mattress is 200cm x 80cm, which means two side by side when pulled out makes a total mattress area of 200cm x 160cm.

Now, in the UK, a King sized mattress is 200cm long and 150cm wide - making it 10cm shorter than the IKEA. A super-king mattress in the UK is 200cm long and 180cm wide - meaning it is 20cm wider than the IKEA. For this reason, if you’re looking to get a UK mattress from elsewhere it is best to choose a King Sized mattress so that it still fits within the frame, and the beauty of the HEMNES day bed is that you can push that extended bed frame back in a little so that it fits your new mattress. We plan on swapping out our current IKEA mattresses for a new King Sized mattress and I will link a mattress review here for you to read once we have tested this out!

Adding a mattress topper

If you’re looking to make your guest bed more comfortable but still want the option of being able to move it back to a single bed, then a good quality mattress topper is your answer! This will add an extra layer of support and comfort to your current mattress, without the commitment and expense of a brand new mattress. This is something we have recently done with our IKEA Hemnes guest bed, and using the measurements above we decided to go for the king sized topper. Although the topper js ever so slightly narrower than the mattress underneath, it is minimal and not noticeable at all when in use. If you later decide to buy a new mattress too, then your topper will fit perfectly.

 

Our chosen mattress topper is from Simba, a hybrid mattress topper, and arrived rolled up in a box. Upon opening and unrolling the mattress topper, it will inflate itself over a couple of hours until it is at its optimal level of ‘bounce’ and comfort. This was so easy, and Annabelle made herself right at home on the bed straight away, exclaiming that it was “comfy”! Of course we had to test it out on Daddy too (who has had previous surgery for a bad back) and he spent a couple of nights in there and said the topper made a real and noticeable difference to the support and comfort of the bed.

Do give yourself time to allow the topper to inflate and to 'breathe' a little after opening. It is normal to notice a slight chemical type smell in new foam mattress toppers but this isn't offensive and does go away quite quickly!

Do you have any other suggestions or hacks for how to make your guest daybed more comfortable?

Sarah x