The Best Upholstered Daybeds

What is actually under the fabric

Four frames, four different constructions, and one of them publishes a capacity figure nearly three times the next.

Read the Bellemave row honestly: polyester, MDF and foam over a wood frame, with no published weight capacity. That is the normal construction in this price band and it is why the frame weighs 41 lb rather than 100. It is a perfectly good guest bed and a perfectly good piece of seating; it is not a frame we would put two adults on, and no figure on the listing suggests otherwise.

If the published number is what you care about, the answer on this page is the ONBRILL — which is really a steel frame with an upholstered headboard rather than an upholstered daybed. That is a fair thing to buy, and it is ranked properly among the metal frames.

Velvet, linen, polyester or faux leather

The fabric decides how the daybed survives the household, and the four here behave very differently.

Velvet — the Deolme. It looks the most expensive of the four and it is the worst with pets and small children: it shows every mark, it holds hair, and it cannot be taken off and washed.

Linen — the Virubi. The most forgiving to look at, because the texture hides wear, and the most absorbent, which matters if anybody eats on it.

Polyester over foam — the Bellemave. The most practical of the four and the least characterful. It is also the only frame here that puts the charging point in the armrest rather than under the bed, which is a small thing you notice daily.

Faux leather — the DHP Astoria. Wipes clean, which no other fabric here does, and gets cold in winter and tacky in summer. If the daybed is in a kids’ room or a rental, that trade is usually worth making.

None of these frames comes with a removable, washable cover. If that is a requirement, the honest answer is a daybed cover over a plain frame rather than an upholstered one — the options are in the best daybed bedding.

Drawers, a trundle, or neither

An upholstered daybed usually sits in a room that needs the furniture to do two things, and the space under the frame can only do one of them.

Drawers. The Bellemave puts two pull-out drawers in the base. That is where the bedding lives, which is the single most useful thing about a daybed used as a sofa — otherwise the duvet lives in a cupboard across the room. What it costs you is the second bed: drawers take exactly the space a trundle would.

A trundle. The Deolme, the Virubi and the ONBRILL all sleep a second guest. The Deolme and ONBRILL trundles pop up level with the daybed; the Virubi’s twin trundle rolls out under a queen frame. What it costs you is storage, and about 39 inches of clear floor beside the frame that none of these makers publishes a figure for.

Both, sort of. The ONBRILL is the only frame here with a pop-up trundle and two storage drawers on wheels. The price is depth: 47.24 inches with the trundle stowed, six or seven inches more than an ordinary daybed.

Storage-first frames are ranked in the best daybeds with storage, and trundle-first frames in the best daybeds with a trundle.

Making an upholstered daybed sittable

Here is the thing almost every photograph of a daybed quietly lies about. The picture has five cushions on it. The box has none.

An upholstered daybed gives you a padded rail at the back, and a padded rail is a better thing to lean on than a bare slat — but at 39 to 41 inches of depth you are still sitting on a bed, with nothing behind your shoulders. What fixes it is a bolster or a wedge: a 36-inch foam wedge, five inches at the top and nine at the base, turns the back rail into a sofa back. Two of them span 72 inches of a 75-inch daybed.

The cost is depth. A nine-inch wedge takes a daybed from about 39 inches of usable depth to about 30, which is roughly a sofa seat. That is the trade and it is worth making. Our picks are in the best daybed bolster pillows, and the broader question of making one comfortable is in how to make a daybed more comfortable and are daybeds comfortable for adults.

Who should buy which

Buy the Bellemave upholstered twin if one person sleeps there and the bedding has to live inside the furniture. Two drawers, USB in the armrest, 80 inches long, 41 lb to assemble. Accept polyester, MDF and foam rather than hardwood, no published capacity, and no second bed.

Buy the Deolme twin to king as the budget pick and the smallest footprint here. Velvet over solid pine with 13 slats, a pop-up trundle that levels, USB and Type-C in the right armrest. Accept 135.1 lb, an uneven capacity split of 300 lb against 250, no published mattress thickness, and velvet in a house with pets.

Buy the Virubi queen if the room is a spare bedroom and you want a queen with a twin trundle under it. Linen, USB in the arm, no box spring needed. Accept 63.75 inches of depth, 120 lb, and no published weight capacity.

Buy the ONBRILL if you want fabric at the headboard and steel underneath: over 880 lb published, a pop-up trundle and two storage drawers in the same frame. Accept 47.24 inches of depth and no published mattress thickness.

Buy the DHP Astoria if the daybed needs to wipe clean — a kids’ room, a rental, a basement. Black metal with a faux leather finish, 40 inches tall, roll-out trundle. Accept no published capacity, and faux leather’s summer-and-winter temperament.

Want the same look in timber instead? Go to the best wood daybeds. Working to a tight number? The best daybeds under $200 has three of these five frames in it.