Futons provide one of the best sleeping surfaces available today. Whether you choose a softer mattress or a firmer one, your futon will give you proper back support. Also, most importantly, compared to the price of conventional bedding of comparable quality, futons are an outstanding value.
Futons can also be combined with a convertible frame, creating one of the most versatile pieces of furniture in your home. With a choice from a diverse array of broadest designer fabrics, the covers are removable for cleaning and add to the versatility.
In our store, we offer 9 choices in mattresses, over 1,000 choices in covers, and 18 high quality North American hardwood frames in many shapes, sizes, and styles, giving our customers a great deal of choice at a range of prices. Through the web, we only sell items that can be safely and reliably shipped to individual customers.
During our 35 years in business we have become careful shoppers. This assures that our customers will get many years of satisfaction from any futon they purchase from us. With just a little time given to these considerations as you shop, you can make your purchase confident that you will receive many years of good service and comfortable satisfaction from your futon.
Futon mattresses are made of polyester and/or cotton batting, perhaps with one or more layers of foam, wrapped in cloth ticking material. This is tied down (tufted) at regular intervals so the batting won't break apart and get lumpy.
Ticking and Tufting -- On a convertible couch, your futon bends often. Tufts, sewn in every few inches, stop the batting from shredding and getting lumpy. All our futons are tufted with professional quality cording looped over heavy canvas ticking (the fabric shell of the futon) to stay secure.
Cotton, Foam Core and Other Materials -- The resiliency of a futon comes from the natural curl built into cotton fibers. Cotton dust, picked from the floor at the gin mill, has no curl. Layers of cotton batting must contain fibers. A sheet of foam rubber as the center layer of your futon will keep the layers of batting on either side smooth and fluffy, and provide the mattress with firmness. Some of our futons contain two or four layers of foam. Even one layer of high-density foam (1.8 pounds per cube or more) will hold up longer than thin double layers of low-density (1.2) foam.
Fleecy polyester layers can make a mattress softer for a very long time. Polyester comes in coarser and fluffier varieties. Mixing them in different combinations gives the mattresses differing resiliencies from soft to firm.
Futon sofas, chaise lounges, loveseats, and chairs convert into flat beds. This gives you a comfortable place to sit and a quality bed all in one. Other futon frames stay flat and look just like a regular bed. When choosing frames, whether inexpensive or of heirloom quality, we look at:
Wood -- All our wood frames are constructed of quality North American or imported hardwood. Soft woods such as pine and lower quality tropical woods are not strong enough to stand up to the stresses futon frames are subject to during sitting, sleeping, and churning about.
Quality of Construction -- All our wood frames are manufactured by firms with woodworking traditions. We see that key joints are fastened with screws and dowels (or, on more expensive pieces, mortise and tenon joints) rather than staples, bi-fold backs have extra support pieces, glides are constructed of nylon or other nonabrasive materials, surfaces and corners are properly finished, metal parts are double-welded and supported with tubular (not flat) cross members.
If you spill a drink on a futon it may soak into the cotton and the smell will stay with you night and day. A removable cover can be taken off for cleaning. The covers we include in our package prices (for frame, 6 inch foam core mattress, and a removable cover) come in a choice of 20 colors and are made of heavy twill fabric - not lightweight sheet muslin. As upgrades, we offer some additional choices on this web site.
Finally, as one of the oldest futon retailers in the U.S., we are keenly interested in the reputation of the companies with which we do business. We recognize that a warranty is only as good as the willingness of the company to back it; even a "lifetime warranty" means the lifetime of the firm you and we are dealing with. We assist customers in getting satisfaction on manufacturer's warranties, which are usually for specified lengths of time.
When buying a futon from a retailer, ask yourself:
How long have they been in business?
Can they give informed answers to questions about the products they sell?
Do they stand by their promises?
Do they make an effort to be helpful?