Studio Apartment Guest Bed Ideas

1. A roll-up mattress in a closet — zero permanent footprint

The only option here that costs nothing at all when it is away. A MAXYOYO floor futon is four inches thick and comes in real mattress sizes — twin 39 by 80 inches at 10 pounds, queen 60 by 80 at 14.5.

The measurement: the clear floor where it will be laid, which is the mattress size plus a walkway. And somewhere to store it — a wardrobe floor or behind a door.

The cost: four inches on a hard floor, and getting up off it. Put it on a slatted roll-up base if it stays down more than a night, or it traps moisture. Floor futons.

2. A tri-fold mattress standing in a wardrobe

A Milliard tri-fold folds to 31 by 25 by 18 inches, so it stands upright on a wardrobe floor and needs no strapping.

The measurement: 31 inches of wardrobe floor width, and 75 by 31 inches of clear floor when in use.

The cost: cot width. 31 inches is seven inches narrower than a twin, and the two fold lines are findable through six inches of foam if you sleep on your side.

3. A rolling cabinet bed pushed into a corner

The Costway folds to 34 by 17.5 by 41.5 inches and sits on four castors, two of them locking. It is the only guest bed on this site you can move with one hand, which in a studio is worth more than it sounds — the same object can be beside the sofa this week and in the corner next.

The measurement: 86.5 inches of length to unfold into, and 34 inches of depth.

The cost: cot size again, and a four-inch included mattress. 485-pound capacity, 15 birch slats.

4. A cabinet bed used as a console

A Night & Day Cube is 64.1 by 26.4 by 36.6 inches closed — about ten square feet, and roughly console-table proportions. It holds a queen sleeping surface and opens to 80.3 inches deep. Nothing is drilled.

In a studio this is often the smartest single purchase: it works as a media console, a sideboard or a room divider all day, and it becomes a real bed at night.

The measurement: about 110 to 116 inches of depth in use (80.3 open plus 30 to 36 of walkway), and a delivery route for 170 pounds of assembled furniture that does not come apart.

The cost: the weight, and a six-inch tri-fold mattress rather than a conventional one. Cabinet beds.

5. A daybed as the sofa, with a bolster

A daybed is 41 inches deep permanently, which is a lot in a studio, and it gives you a conventional eight-inch mattress with no mechanism. With a firm full-length bolster it is genuinely sittable.

A lower frame matters here more than anywhere: a 34-inch wood frame reads as a sofa back where a 41-inch metal one visually divides the room.

The measurement: 41 inches of permanent depth, plus a trundle’s width again if you want two beds.

The cost: it looks like a bed, and it always will. Daybeds for studios.

6. A convertible sofa you actually sit on

If you already have your own bed and the guest bed can be your sofa, a split-back convertible is the straightforward answer. Look for published seat figures — the Serta Chelsea states a 7.1-inch seat cushion, the Rane a 19.8-inch seat depth and 15-inch seat height — because in a studio you sit on it every day.

The measurement: 33 to 35 inches closed, 37.6 to 44 inches open, plus 30 inches of walkway.

The cost: a fold seam under whoever sleeps on it. Futons for studios.

7. A wall bed over a sofa — the best answer if it fits

The Bestar Pur 78W drops a queen bed over a sofa that never moves. A real sofa and a real queen mattress on the same floor, and the cleverest solution in this whole category.

The measurement: 91.1 inches of ceiling at the wall — 7 ft 7 in, the highest requirement anywhere on this site — and 92 inches of extension from the wall.

The cost: the price, a dual-mount installation into wall and floor that most leases prohibit, and a sofa warranted for one year against the bed’s ten. Sofa combos and what a lease allows.