The best futons for your college dorm under $600
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Futons are versatile space-saving pieces of furniture that double as a couch and a bed. If your dorm room or first apartment has limited space, adding a futon is an easy way to add seating and a sleeping space for guests. We've rounded up five great futons for less than $600. The Hudson Futon is our top pick because it works equally well as a pull-out bed and a couch.
Dorm rooms and small apartments are the perfect spots for a futon. After all, living spaces for college students are typically very small, so having a two-in-one piece of furniture is extremely beneficial. Plus, the dorm room with the futon is the one where people hang out. A futon may be perfect if your student is a little shy and nervous about heading off to school. Conversely, if your student is already outgoing, the right futon might make him king of the dorm floor or even the entire building.
Futons are handy pieces of furniture because they double as a couch and a bed. The same mattress works as a seat cushion and a bed mattress, depending on the configuration of the frame. However, there’s actually a lot more to finding just the right futon than looking for the piece with the most comfortable cushion. Some futons are better served for dorm rooms or apartments than others.
Use cases for futons
When picking a futon for a dorm room or apartment for a student, think about how the student will use it. Different futons are better suited for different tasks.
- Sitting: If the futon will primarily be used as a couch and only occasionally as a guest bed, look for a model that has legs, armrests, and a backrest that’s part of the frame for the most comfort.
- Sleeping: As Slumberland discusses, some futons take up a lot of floor space when they’re unfolded. So if you plan to use the futon as a guest bed on a regular basis, you’ll need to have clear space around it. You don’t want to put it in a spot where you constantly have to move other furniture in order to unfold the futon. If you plan to use the futon for sleeping regularly, you’ll want a thick and comfortable mattress on the futon, along with a supportive frame.
- Mixture: If the futon will be used for both sitting and sleeping equally, look for one that’s easy to convert from couch to bed and back again. A loveseat style futon tends to provide the best versatility for mixed uses in a minimum amount of floor space, according to Futonland.
Key considerations for futons
Once you’ve figured out how you plan to use the futon, you then can hone in on the specific features you want. A futon for a dorm room needs to be more sturdy — actually a lot more sturdy — than what you might need for your home, for example.
- Bifold mattress: Most futon mattresses are bifold cushions, meaning they fold once when used in the couch setup. However, a few cushions are trifold, which can be a little trickier to set up and use.
- Easy to clean: Pick a futon mattress that has an easily cleanable surface material. After all, there is a tiny chance the futon in the dorm room could have something spilled on it at some point. And by tiny chance, we mean 99.9%. As The Spruce says, using a removable futon cover is a good solution, because it’s easy to throw in a washing machine.
- Frame construction: For a futon that’s easier to move around, it’s helpful if the frame can be taken apart for transport and reassembled later. This can be especially handy for moving a futon into a dorm room in the fall and out again in the spring.
- Frame materials: Futons are available with wood or metal frames. Overstock says metal frames offer more durability and a lower price point than wood frames, making them a great choice for a dorm room futon. Wood futons often fit better into the décor of a room.
- Innerspring coils: For the most comfortable sleeping type of mattress, one with innerspring coils inside — similar to a traditional bed mattress — is the right choice. Some futon mattresses are filled with foam or cotton batting, which isn’t as comfortable for sleeping.
- Size: You can pick different sizes of mattresses with futons, based on your sleeping needs. Futon Life offers a great list of futon mattress measurements to help you decide what size you need.
- Weight: If you want to move the futon and mattress regularly from room to room, you don’t want an extremely heavy frame. Innerspring coil mattresses are heavier than foam as well.
If you're headed off to college, you can also find more great back to school content on Insider Picks along with our guide to all the school supplies your K-12 student needs and all the college dorm supplies your college kid could possibly want. Read on to learn all about our top futon picks.
Although the Hudson Futon is our best futon for students pick, for various reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the Kodiak Futon Lounger, the Dorel Madison Futon, the Room Essentials Grey Linen Futon, and the Jerry Sales Montreal X Espresso Futon.
The best futon overall
Why you'll love it: The Hudson Futon works equally well as a sleeper bed and a couch, giving it the kind of versatility that works perfectly in a dorm room or small apartment.
The Hudson Futon is a versatile futon that works well as both a fold-down sleeper bed and a couch. The mattress is eight inches thick, which makes it really comfortable for sleeping, as one Sears buyer mentioned in a review. Because the mattress is finished on both sides, it can be flipped over if one side wears out or gets stained.
The Hudson looks great, with wood finished armrests that also make it comfortable for sitting. The sides of the futon have pockets for storing books or other small objects, which is helpful in the tight space of a dorm room or first apartment. A few reviewers at Sears said it was easy to assemble after it arrived, so you won't have a headache after setup.
You’ll appreciate the easy-to-clean microfiber cover on the mattress, which catches spills before they can soak into the mattress. It's a great feature for a dorm room. However, one Sears reviewer said the cover doesn’t come off easily, so keep that in mind.
The Hudson Futon is 82 inches in width, so it may not fit in smaller rooms. It weighs 120 pounds, which is another drawback for carrying it in and out of a dorm room. But if you have the space for this futon and the muscle to move it, it’s a tremendous piece of furniture.
Pros: Versatile futon that works equally well as a bed and as a couch, furniture looks great and is well-built, easy to assemble, microfiber cloth catches spills and is easy to clean, storage space in armrests
Cons: Large and heavy futon may not fit in small dorm room, cover is difficult to remove
Buy the Hudson Futon from Sears for $349.99
The best modern futon
Why you'll love it: The Room Essentials Grey Linen Futon has a minimalistic look with silver cylindrical legs and a modern design.
For a modern-looking, minimalistic futon, you will like the Room Essentials Grey Linen Futon with its simple cylindrical legs and basic gray button tufted cushion. It’s a simple design that still makes a statement.
The sturdy frame on the Room Essentials futon is made from wood, and the six legs are made of metal. The fill material in the cushion is foam, making it comfortable to use as a bed for children or smaller adults, according to one Target reviewer. It may not be as sturdy as some futon mattresses since it lacks springs.
At 70.5 inches in width, this futon should fit in most dorm rooms, while still accommodating three people for seating. It only weighs 63.6 pounds, which makes it easy to transport the futon in and out of the dorm room. A Target customer said the futon is very easy to assemble as well.
When sitting on this futon, though, the foam isn’t quite as comfortable because it has a limited amount of support for your back. Additionally, this futon has no arm supports, which reduces its comfort for sitting for long periods of time, as one Target buyer pointed out. However, for a stylish dorm room futon on a budget, it's a decent deal.
Pros: Good size for a dorm room, futon has a minimalistic and modern look, reasonable price point, lightweight frame is easy to move, thick foam cushion, cushion can be spot cleaned with a brush
Cons: Not comfortable for sitting on without armrests, fold out bed is smaller than an average futon
Buy the Room Essentials Grey Linen Futon at Target for $239.99
The best futon with cup holders
Why you'll love it: The Dorel Madison Futon has built-in cup holders, so you'll always have somewhere to place your cans and bottles, even if you don’t have a coffee table.
Because you don’t have a lot of extra space in a dorm room for a coffee table, having a futon with a built-in place to put cans and bottles is helpful. With the Dorel Madison Futon, the cup holders are hidden in the back of the middle cushion, which you’ll fold down to gain access to the cup holders.
As a downside, you lose some seating area when the cup holders are out because the futon turns into a two-person sofa. At 72 inches in length, this futon works as a three-person couch with the middle back cushion upright.
One Sears buyer likes how easy it is to fold down the back of the sofa to create the bed with a twin mattress. However, it’s not obvious by looking at the Dorel that it’s a futon with a fold-down bed. It looks more like a standard couch.
The versatility of the Dorel futon makes it a great option for students, according to one Sears reviewer. However, because this sofa has no armrests, it’s not quite as comfortable for sitting on as it could be.
The black faux leather surface of the sofa is extremely easy to clean. And with a mattress thickness of at least 6 inches, this is a pretty thick mattress to use for sitting or sleeping. However, a few Sears customers didn’t think the mattress was comfortable enough.
Pros: Cup holders are hidden behind middle back cushion for use as needed, faux leather cover is easy to clean, easy to fold down into a bed, works well for multiple people to sit on at once, inexpensive futon
Cons: Mattress isn’t very comfortable, no armrests when sitting on couch, you lose middle seating area when using cup holders
Buy the Dorel Madison Futon with Cup Holder from Sears for $199
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