Chai Microsuede Sofa Bed

After reading many of the reviews, we decided to test our fate with this sofa bed. It's a good buy and suits our purposes well. It looks good and is very functional. We just received and assembled it today, so we haven't slept on it yet, but it's comfortable (and firm) to sit in and we expect it will be the same for sleeping. It's bigger than a twin but smaller than a queen, so perhaps it's closest to a double. In terms of assembly, we found other reviewers' comments to be true but would have appreciate more detail. The assembly is pretty straightforward but the instructions are lacking, although they help enough to figure it out. Some valuable tips we learned when assembling: When using the three bars to attach one sofa cushion to the other, the key is getting the holes to line up (and they aren't drilled precisely. You may want to switch the bars around until you find the best alignment, and be sure to have the side with the grooved holes up, so that the screws can function.) Put the three bars in on the same side, lining up the holes, and lightly put the screws in to hold the bars in place. Then attach the other sofa cushion. To get all of the holes lined up so that you can fit in all of the screws, you'll have to pull and tug at the bars, so drop the screws in the rest of the holes but don't tighten them all the way, just enough so that they're in the grooves but so that there will still be some play/wiggle room. Once you have them all in, go back and tighten them all. It's easy to figure out how to move the back of the sofa up (just lift it up, you'll hear it ratchet and it will stop in the various positions.) It's also easy to recline it, but figuring out how took some trial and error. If you're standing behind the sofa (the movable cushion) PUSH the cushion down as far as you can, then pull it back. (It will release and then come back all the way flat.) Alternatively, you can stand in front of the sofa and pull the cushion all the way down, and then push it back flat (falling on top of the sofa as I did in trying to figure it out!) Hope this helps other buyers figure out the assembly quicker than we did. Still, it was pretty easy overall.

• Would you recommend this to a friend? Yes

I bought this based on the reviews in here. In the 'couch' position, the seat isn't deep enough for anything resembling comfort, and it's too low to the ground to artificially extend the depth with an ottoman.. (To save anyone else from making the same dumb mistake that I did - that '38 inches deep folded up' applies to the entire thing, not the seat depth.) If you have long legs, this will be unusable as a couch, period. As a bed - it's waaaay too hard, unless you're a fan of extra-extra-extra firm mattresses. Or sleeping on the floor. It's actually less comfortable than the sofa-bed-with-back-killing-middle-bar that it replaced. I suppose you could buy a mattress pad, but then you have to remove it to use the 'seating' position, and if you're buying this to save on space you probably don't have a handy mattress-pad-cupboard. I would recommend this only if you're furnishing a guest room for guests who you hope don't visit all that often. This would do the trick nicely, in that case.

• Would you recommend this to a friend? No

I purchased this couch because we wanted a futon for its multipurposes. This couch is beautiful and very firm but comfortable. I am short legged and I was able to sit all the way back on the couch and still touch the floor. My husband liked the couch becauses it was firm and allowed you to stand up without having to de-suction yourself from the cushions first. The only draw back is the instructions. It was unclear how you fold and unfold the couch. Thankfully, the couch sounds like a lawn chair when you fold it, which clued me into the mechanics. The only other problem was one of the holes did not line up properly and I used a drill to fix that small problem. I would suggest this item to others and tell them to have two people to put the two halves together. Also a little trick to putting the halves together is to get them together slightly and tip the couchup on its side to let gravity help.

• Would you recommend this to a friend? Yes

THIS TOOK NO MORE THAN 30MIN TO PUT 2GETHER BY MYSELF. QUALITY LOOKS & FEELS GREAT AND FITS PERFECTLY IN MY LIVING ROOM SINCE ITS NOT HEAVY,BULKY, OR OVERSIZED AS A REGULAR COUCH WOULD BE. ALSO VERY EASY TO MATCH IN THIS LIGHT BUT NEUTRAL COLOR. I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS SOFA/BED AND ALTHOUGH MY PURPOSE 4 IT IS MAINLY TO USE AS A SOFA IN A SMALL LIVING ROOM I ALWAYS HAVE THE OPTION OF USING IT AS A BED SHOULD I HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY AND WITH NO DOUBT ITS XTRA COMFORTABLE!! (+ I SAW THIS EXACT SAME ONE RETAIL FOR $799.99 SO THIS IS A BARGAIN!)

• Would you recommend this to a friend? Yes