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Sometimes it’s really useful to have a spare bed. We live in a small flat, and we don’t have much space. We also have a daughter, Little C, which means at some point there will be sleepovers.
We don’t go camping <shudder> so don’t have an extensive array of air mattresses etc. for cosy floor sleeping. Up to now, our sleepovers have been a couple of duvets on the floor of Little C’s room, with pillows and then sleeping bags on top. As you might expect, it’s not that comfortable, and each time the two girls have ended up sleeping head to toe in Little C’s bed.
Now, don’t do a ton of sleepovers, or have many guests, but it strikes me that it’s always useful to be prepared. Or at least allow your kid’s friends to have a little more space when they come visit.
With this in mind, I’ve been eyeing up Bundle Beds on Instagram for a while. They appeared to be a useful answer to the problem of comfortable sleeping for extra people. It’s advertised as an actual bed rather than a sleeping bag, and includes mattress, duvet, pillow, and bedding.
But I have to admit that I was nervous about the price. If you don’t mind about quality, you can pick up camping stuff which doubles as sleepover stuff for pretty cheap.
A Bundle Bed costs £199.99 plus a fiver shipping, and I just couldn’t quite bring myself to spend that much right away, especially as I would probably want to buy two.
BUT a little while ago I saw they were having a clearance sale. The beds on sale were described as ‘factory seconds’ that were structurally sound with no defects but the finish wasn’t quite as they wished. As they were half price I decided to take the plunge and buy two.
This review will only show the one we’ve used so far. They are both identical except for the colour.
So in the interests of full disclosure, I did buy these at a discount, but it was a publicly available discount, I bought the beds as a person not a blogger, and I didn’t get and haven’t had any special treatment or freebies at all. This review is all my own personal opinion, no one’s paid me or encouraged me to say anything nice.
As it happened, the first use wasn’t for a sleepover after all.
Little C injured her foot, which meant she couldn’t climb the steps to her high sleeper bed. So it was serendipity that we had this extra bed all ready to go.
One more thing. These pictures were taken during the actual process of setting the bed up for use. The overhead lights were on, which is why there are lots of weird shadows and the lighting isn’t great.
Let’s take a look!
Here it is all rolled up. It has a handle on the top, and also a detachable shoulder strap.
It’s of a reasonable size, 60 x 30 x 30cm/24 x 12 x 12 inches and it weighs 6.5 kg. It’s fairly comfortable to carry for short distances, though I don’t think you’d want to hike with it!
The bed consists of a mattress, sheet, duvet, and pillow, all contained in a zippable cover.
It’s kept rolled shut with sturdy webbing straps and strong metal clasps. No flimsy plastic, which is impressive. The straps are also adjustable, so when you’ve rolled it back up you can pull them a tighter.
The metal clasps are slightly tricky to open, but it means they’re not going to give way at the wrong moment. And once I’d worked out how to open the properly, they were much easier.
There’s a handy instruction sheet, though once you’ve done it you won’t need it again, as it’s all very simple and obvious.
After you’ve unclipped the straps and unrolled it, the whole thing is neatly zipped into its case.
Here I’ve just unzipped the very top, and that’s the pillow you can just see peeking out.
The two round zips above the pillow are to unzip the mattress out of the outer cover.
The air mattress is self-inflating, so once you’ve unrolled it and laid it out, you need to locate the valve.
It’s on the top left corner (if you’re facing the bed) and you simply twist to open.
It doesn’t take long to inflate, and you can also pump it up a little extra by blowing into the valve.
Once it’s inflated to your liking, simply tighten the valve to seal.
Even though I know it was supposed to be self-contained, I was still pleasantly surprised to see the inside once it was all unzipped and inflated.
There’s the pillow on top, and the orange duvet, and a bottom sheet.
I have to add here that all the Bundle Beds bedding is 100% cotton.
This makes me very happy. I have a horror of polycotton, dreadful sweaty stuff, so knowing that this is cotton is very reassuring.
It’s totally washable just like regular bedding. Just unbutton and unvelcro it all and throw it in the washing machine.
The cover is removable and wipe-able, as is the mattress.
The bedding is arranged in a very clever way, so it doesn’t move around.
The bottom sheet has velcro along each side, which attaches to the mattress cover. It won’t shift.
There are also two buttons at the top and bottom of the bed.
The top two buttons allow the top of the sheet and the pillow to be fastened down. No movement.
At the bottom, the sheet and the bottom of the duvet attach the same way.
See how the orange duvet is buttoned in there? Again, they’re not going to move no matter how wriggly the kids are.
I also discovered two little zip pockets at the bottom of the cover. I don’t know what they’re for, but they don’t take up any space or get in the way of anything, so you never know when they might be handy! I stuck the instruction sheet in one of them for safekeeping.
One thing that made me slightly anxious was the metal clasps scratching the floor. It wouldn’t matter on carpet or a rug, but if you have wooden floors it’s something to think about.
There is a simple solution to this.
We put the Bundle Bed on top of Little C’s rug, and I also folded the cover back under the bed. This kept the cover out of the way and also protected the floor from the metal hardware.
This is all very nice, but is it actually comfortable?
Yes!
I had a little snuggle to see what it was like, and I was really impressed. It’s not like sleeping on a conventional mattress, of course, but I was very pleased with the softness.
The attached duvet is really useful, no worries about pulling it up and getting cold toes.
At this point Little C kicked me out because she wanted a go. She clambered in, snuggled down, and pronounced it extremely comfortable.
Little C spent two weeks in total sleeping in this bed, and she had absolutely no trouble sleeping at all.
In fact, she enjoyed it so much she complained about going back into her normal bed!
The only addition we made was adding Little C’s regular pillow. The included pillow is fine, but I think it’s pretty reasonable to want a bigger one if it’s available. She didn’t want her own duvet though, she was perfectly happy with the Bundle Beds duvet.
Making the bed in the morning was very easy. As the duvet was attached, it just needed to be pulled straight, which took about three seconds.
If it needed to be moved out of the way for more play space, I just zipped up the cover, folded the whole thing over, and propped it against the wall.
When it finally came time to pack the bed up, it was again very easy.
All the bedding detaches for washing (unbuttoning and unvelcroing), and when it was dry I just put it all back.
The only thing I had to watch out for was making sure the velcro strips on the sheet were the right way round. At first I wondered why it wasn’t sticking propery, then realised I had it upside down, oops. It was actually easier to button the sheet at both ends, then smooth the velcro into place.
The duvet was also easy to put back in the usual way, and then just reattach at the bottom.
Tuck it all in, zip the cover around it, and roll up.
Now, when you roll it you need to open the valve so the air gets squeezed out.
It does take a bit of effort as you have to keep the pressure on as you roll to make sure it doesn’t start taking in air again! You need to roll a bit, press down, roll again, press, roll, press. At the end I ended up sitting on it for a couple of minutes to get it as deflated as possible before quickly sealing up the valve again.
Sitting on it also helped keep it rolled to do up the metal clips!
I then used the compression straps to pull it all a bit tighter.
I was quite impressed as to how much it squashed down. I was expecting it to end up much bigger than before, but it actually got pretty close to the original size.
On the right (orange) is the bed we used after I rolled it up, and on the left is our other bed which hasn’t yet been used. Not much difference, huh?
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I’m so, so glad I bought these.
The design and quality is tremendously impressive.
It’s comfortable, and really very easy to use. I would be more than happy to sleep on one of these myself!
It is the length of a normal single bed, though a little narrower. There was lots of room for Little C, and I found it perfectly acceptable size-wise. My 6’2″ and quite wide husband found it a little on the narrow side, but even he said it would be OK
They do take up some space, but certainly no more than all the separate components might be, and probably rather less.
The zippable cover is very clever, especially being waterproof. It keeps everything together neatly. I can also imagine it would be very useful when camping, to protect the bedding from grubby little people climbing around the tent.
Another handy thing that I haven’t yet tried but looks really cool is converting the two single beds into a double. Of course you can just put them side by side, but Bundle Beds sells a double sheet too. You take off the single sheets and use the velcro strips to stick the mattresses together. Put on the double sheet using the regular velcro/button method and there you have it!
I’m looking forward to the next sleepover with much less trepidation now I know guests are going to be much more comfortable. The Bundle Beds are also small enough to throw in the car if we’re visiting friends and an extra bed might be welcome. As well as sleepovers and regular camping, Bundle Beds are perfect for festivals.
Aesthetically, they also look great. I love the bright colours of the duvets and the contrasting stripy pillowcase.
UPDATE: I asked Bundle Beds why this was a ‘factory second’. Apparently it was because the embroidery on the logo wasn’t up to scratch. Frankly I can’t see anything wrong with it, but I have to say that if they’re this meticulous about something that’s purely aesthetic, I have total and complete confidence that their quality control for the functional elements will be exceptional!
The half price deal meant I could effectively buy two for the price of one, but if I’d paid full price I’d be equally happy. I couldn’t have afforded to buy two at the same time, but I would have bought one then another one at a later date. Yes, they are not cheap, but I think you get an awful lot of value.
Bundle Beds are well made, look attractive, and are very comfortable. I’m looking forward to getting a great deal of use out of these portable beds.
An excellent investment, especially for a family, and highly recommended!
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