I remember the exact moment I realized my tiny city apartment had a serious storage problem. My mother announced she was coming to visit for a week, and my heart did not leap with joy. It seized with panic. My living room, all 18 square meters of it, contained a sofa, a tiny coffee table, and a stack of books that served as a side table. Where was she going to sleep? More critically, where was I going to put my winter coat, three throw pillows, and the seven different cable chargers that were currently living on the floor? I had mastered the art of visual tidiness, but my closets were a crime scene. The real issue was that I had designed my space for a single person sitting upright, not for a guest who needed a horizontal surface and a spare towel.

The solution for the guest problem turned out to be the same as the solution for the storage problem. I needed a sofa bed. But I had learned from a previous disaster that not all sofa beds are created equal.