The spare room that isn’t really a spare room is one of the most common problems in British homes. A space that needs to work as an office, a reading corner, a place for guests who turn up twice a year. A sofa bed is the honest solution, but most of them ask you to make too many compromises. Uncomfortable to sit on, awkward to open, thin mattresses that nobody actually sleeps well on. We’ve been looking specifically for the ones that don’t do that. Pieces that earn their place as proper sofas first and function as a real bed when it matters. Frame quality, seat depth, how the mechanism actually operates, whether the mattress is something you’d be comfortable offering a friend rather than quietly apologising for. Style has to be part of it too, because this piece will be on permanent display. These are the sofa beds we’d put in our own homes without reservation.