Should you have a sofa bed or an actual bed in a spare room? Help us settle the debate

When I first moved in with my partner, we were adamant that we needed two bedrooms, so we had a spare room for a home office/extra wardrobe space/guests. The size and multi-purpose nature of the room meant it was a no-brainer to opt for a sofa bed over an actual bed.

However, three years later, I've moved into a flat with a more spacious spare room, and a lot more guests to put up. So it got me wondering if the time has come to upgrade my guest bedroom ideas with an actual bed?

Spare rooms are rarely just for guests anymore. They've become multi-purpose spaces as homes have gotten smaller and working from home has become the norm. So, although I have the space to fit a bed, the room is still used for so many other things that a full-sized bed would get in the way.

On the other hand, if you regularly host out-of-towners like I do, it would be nice to be able to offer up a proper, comfortable bed. My Made.com Haru sofa bed gets mixed reports on its comfort levels, with the average review from my guests being, 'well, it's not a bed.'

While I could invest in a more expensive sofa bed to fix the comfort and space issue in one swoop, the best sofa bed could end up costing me more than a basic bed frame and budget mattress.

Ideal Home's Managing Editor, Thea Babington-Stitt, had a similar debate with herself when she was deciding on what to put in her spare room. ‘While I would love to have a real bed in my spare room, space is at a serious premium in my flat.'

'My spare room has to act as my office, play as a home gym when needed and have space for my clothes horse, so a bed would’ve simply taken up too much space. My sofa bed folds out to a double but fits like a dream and doesn’t visually dominate the space either,' she adds.

However, if you have the space and bed already, there are huge perks to having a spare bed ready to go. 'We had a spare bed that we still really loved but didn't fit in our bedroom due to the headboard being too high for our ceiling height,' says Jenny McFarlane, Ideal Home's Senior Digital Editor.

'We really didn't want to get rid of it as it's a lovely Loaf bed. It's actually been super handy for when friends and family come to stay as it's super comfy, and especially during those musical bed nights with the kids.'

I know that my flurry of guests this summer will be petering out in the next few months, and I'll want the floor space back, so I've opted to stick with a sofa bed in my spare room.

Have you opted for a bed or a sofa bed in your spare room? Let us know in the comments below.