I lived in an efficiency apartment for a couple of years and lacked a sofa or a bed which would fit the space I had. So I bought a futon. I bought quality, which didn't come all that cheap, but if I had to buy a decent sofa, queen-sized bed, and innerspring mattress, I would have spent at least that much.

I got a Mission-style hardwood queen-size futon with a strong hinge mechanism. The mattress is from Sealy and is an innerspring mattress with a five-year warranty. The futon functioned admirably then as both bed and sofa; the futon frame sits in my guest room (awaiting guests someday) and the mattress continues as what I use on my platform bed now that I have room to use it.

Negatives? Someday someone like Todd Oldham will do for futons what he did for recliners. At least for furniture-style futons (not the $99 Wally World kind), no one seemed to be making anything but "contemporary" or Mission-style futons. Finding good ones can be difficult. Some regional chains carry futons, but the best-constructed ones I found (hardwood all over, strong hinge mechanisms, etc.)(and the futons on which you could specify things like the finish stain and options like magazine racks on the ends) came from tiny chains or individual stores in town which had the word "Futon" in their names. Good luck!

Thanks steve o! And, you just jogged my memory that there is a futon specific store not too far away (I just never paid much attention to it).