Forget the sofa bed: This Ikea piece truly solves your space problem.

A new IKEA piece of furniture is currently generating a lot of buzz.

Anyone living in a city knows the familiar problem: you want a comfortable seat during the day and a guest bed at night-yet you still end up with a bulky sofa bed taking over the room. With a rather understated design, IKEA takes a different approach and demonstrates how space-saving living can work without backache or the usual frustration of wrestling furniture open.

Why this IKEA furniture can replace the classic sofa bed

In large cities-whether Berlin, Munich or Vienna (and increasingly London, Manchester or Edinburgh too)-studio flats and one-room homes are becoming the norm. With square metres at a premium, every furniture purchase needs to earn its place. That is precisely where the IKEA LYCKSELE LÖVÅS armchair with bed function comes in: it aims to deliver the benefits of a pull-out sofa, but without the drawbacks most people associate with them.

Instead of a hefty sofa bed: a slim armchair that turns into a proper single bed in seconds.

Where many sofa beds permanently swallow floor space, this armchair remains impressively compact day to day. Its profile is narrow and nothing feels oversized. It can sit just as naturally in a home office as it can in a small kitchen–living area or against a spare wall in a studio.

Switching from armchair to bed is refreshingly straightforward: no heavy metal frame, no snagging parts, no hidden levers to hunt for. A quick movement, pull the seat forwards, and the sleeping surface is ready. In tight rooms-where evenings can involve navigating between a sofa, coffee table and drying rack-that simplicity is a genuine advantage.

Design that doesn’t look like a compromise: IKEA LYCKSELE LÖVÅS

Visually, the LYCKSELE LÖVÅS keeps things intentionally restrained. Clean lines, a low overall height and the absence of chunky armrests help it blend into minimalist Scandinavian interiors just as easily as into a colourful house-share living room. Rather than looking like a “guest emergency bed” you would prefer to hide, it reads as a normal, everyday piece of furniture you can happily leave on display.

That makes it particularly appealing for home-working spaces: by day, it’s a simple armchair beside a bookcase or near the window; by night, the same footprint becomes a sleeping spot for visitors. For anyone living in a compact home, that can translate into a crucial extra metre of usable movement space.

Comfort without the usual compromises of multifunctional furniture

Many space-saving pieces demand a trade-off. You gain floor area, but pay for it with neck pain, sagging cushions and sleeping surfaces that feel too short or too narrow. The LYCKSELE LÖVÅS is designed to tackle exactly that pain point.

At its heart is a polyurethane foam mattress that has to perform double duty-supporting you while seated and providing stability when used as a bed. It is tuned to keep its shape even with frequent unfolding and folding back up. That means no obvious droop and no sense of a permanent “seat hollow” forming after a few months.

The mattress supports the lower back when sitting and helps keep the spine relatively straight when lying down-a rare claim at this price point.

In armchair mode, the back area is shaped to give targeted support around the lumbar region. If you regularly swap between desk chair and armchair while working from home, you quickly notice when furniture fails here. In bed mode, you get a continuous sleeping surface without hard breaks. For a night at a friend’s place, it doesn’t merely “do the job”: guests are far more likely to wake up feeling refreshed than they would after a sofa night with a rigid edge pressing across their back.

Who is this armchair best suited to?

• Single people in studio flats who don’t want to sacrifice open space during the day
  
• Couples who only occasionally host overnight visitors but still want to offer a proper sleeping place
  
• Parents looking to add a flexible extra bed in a teenager’s room
  
• Home workers who sometimes need to convert an office into a guest room
  
• House shares where the living room has to fulfil several roles at once
  

Important: this is a single bed. Two people can use it only as a stopgap. If you often host couples, a different solution will be more practical.

Removable covers: small effort, big impact

A major everyday benefit-often overlooked until you live with it-is the cover system. The full cover can be removed and swapped, which brings several practical advantages:

• Cleaning: the fabric can simply go into the washing machine, making coffee, red wine and food marks far less stressful.
  
• Changing the look: instead of replacing the whole piece, a different cover can refresh the room’s style.
  
• Family-friendly living: with children or pets, dirt builds up faster; washable covers make this easier to manage.
  
• Seasonal updates: a lighter, airier fabric for summer and a darker, cosier option for winter-using the same furniture.
  

The standard cover in a neutral shade works in most homes. If you prefer something bolder, IKEA offers a range of colours and textures. In very small rooms, a deliberate colour choice can be particularly effective: a pale cover can make the space feel larger, while a strong accent colour turns the armchair into a visual focal point.

For maintenance, it’s usually enough to vacuum the foam sections occasionally and wash the cover regularly. Done consistently, this noticeably extends the usable life-much like a well-protected bedroom mattress stays fresher for longer.

Price, guarantee and the sustainability angle

At €249, the LYCKSELE LÖVÅS sits well below the cost of many premium sofa beds, yet it is clearly positioned away from “disposable” furniture. In high-rent cities, every saved square metre matters twice: choosing one piece instead of a sofa plus a guest bed uses the room more efficiently and can even influence how much space you realistically need.

One piece, two functions, a ten-year guarantee-IKEA is clearly signalling long-term use.

A ten-year guarantee suggests IKEA has confidence in the product’s durability. For buyers, that reduces the risk of parts breaking or loosening after a short period. Spread over many years, the upfront cost can feel far more reasonable-particularly when compared with cheaper sofa beds that often need replacing.

The environmental argument also carries weight. Opting for a multifunctional item can reduce the production, transport and disposal associated with additional furniture. The replaceable covers strengthen this effect: rather than getting rid of the entire piece when the fabric looks tired, you can simply change the cover-saving resources as well as money.

Practical tips for using it in a small home

The armchair becomes even more effective when paired with a few simple layout choices. A folding side table that can be moved out of the way in the evening helps create a comfortable sleeping setup quickly. Lightweight stools instead of a heavy, immovable coffee table block keep the room adaptable.

If you like plants, placing the armchair beside larger greenery such as a monstera or ficus adds warmth and structure without making the room feel cluttered. Light-coloured walls, a rug that defines only the seating zone, and the compact armchair can create a small but clearly organised “living area” within a studio.

If you host overnight visitors regularly, it’s worth keeping a slim, roll-up topper pad to hand. It stores easily in a wardrobe during the day and can make the single bed feel noticeably plusher overnight-without needing space for a full spare bed.

A further practical consideration is clearance: before buying, measure the length needed when fully opened and ensure there is a clear pathway around it. In tight spaces, even small obstructions-radiators, skirting-board pipes, or a wardrobe door swing-can make nightly setup less convenient than it should be.

It also helps to think about bedding storage and airing. Keeping a breathable bedding bag nearby and allowing the mattress and cover to air after use can reduce stale odours and moisture build-up-particularly important in compact, well-insulated flats.

Conclusion for city dwellers with limited space

The LYCKSELE LÖVÅS shows that multifunctional furniture doesn’t have to be awkwardly large, unattractive or uncomfortable. It isn’t a luxury showpiece, but it’s also not a last-resort option dragged out from the bargain corner. For anyone in a small flat who needs a guest setup and is tired of wobbly sofa beds, this is a practical alternative with a sensible price-to-performance balance.

The key is still to buy with intention: decide exactly where the armchair will live, how often guests will actually stay over, and whether a single bed is enough. If those questions have clear answers, this IKEA furniture can become something far more useful than yet another compromise squeezed into too few square metres.