Avoid Making Your Futon Look Like It's From Your Dorm Room With These Styling Tips

Futons are excellent multi-functional furniture in a home or apartment since they can work as both a bed and a couch. When you don't have grand living rooms, a traditional couch or sofa can take up a lot of space, but futons are smaller, allowing them to be superb space makers. Plus, futons are typically cheaper than couches, so you also save some money. You can put them in a home office and turn the office into a multi-functional room when family stays at your house. While they prevent your home from feeling claustrophobic, they can look dated and unflattering if they aren't chosen or styled adequately. When you hear the word "futon," you might think of a stiff mattress on a thin metal frame that looks like it'll break just by you looking at it.

However, futons have been redesigned to be sturdier and more comfortable for homeowners and guests, regardless of where you set them up. They're still lightweight, so you can move them around your home effortlessly. Styling them to match your interior can help make them look less like dorm room furniture and more like they belong in your home. In addition, choosing the right frame and mattress can help spruce up the look, as can adorning it with multiple accessories like pillows and blankets. When styling your futon, think about how you'd dress up a traditional couch and apply those same ideas.

Futons are made with wood or metal materials, sometimes both, and they have mattresses made of materials like cotton, polyester, wool, latex, and foam, which determine your futon's weight and comfort level. When choosing the frame and mattress, consider how you want to use the futon. If you plan to use it solely as a guest bed, you might choose a metal frame with a mattress with pocketed coil springs for a contemporary look that offers support and comfort for your guests since it resembles a bed mattress.

If you want your futon to be truly multi-functional as a couch as well, a metal frame is versatile for any living room, whereas wood would look best with other wood furniture in a farmhouse-style or rustic space. A multi-functional futon might have a block foam or polyester-cotton blend mattress that's comfortable and supportive to sit and lay on. The mattresses also come in various thicknesses, giving them different appearances. For a couch illusion, opt for it to be between 6 and 8 inches thick. You can always add a mattress topper for extra comfort.

Further, the mattress color should complement the rest of your interior if you don't plan to add a cover over it. You have a multitude of colors to choose from, so pick a shade that will work for your space.

Once you find the right futon for your guest room, home office, or living room, decorating it with throw pillows, blankets, and other furniture is vital to elevate its look. You can take a mundane, dorm room-looking futon and turn it into a stylish furniture piece with one throw blanket and a couple of pillows, especially if you place it in your living room to serve as your couch. Adding pillows gives the futon a polished and comfortable look. If the seat cushions are firmer, throw pillows will provide support with their plushiness. Implementing throw blankets enhances the futon's appearance by giving texture and extra coziness. There are many ways to style and arrange a throw blanket, like draping it over the backside or folding it and placing it on a single side. Play around with the placement so it complements the rest of your décor. 

You can also style your futon with other pieces of furniture. If you have your futon in your living room, add a coffee table in front and a couple of end tables next to it to give it more of a couch effect. Or, if you place it in a guest room, add nightstands on either side. Take the décor a step further and adorn the tables with trinkets, such as books, candles, or lamps for a unified look.