Futon tech: make a futon smoother to lay on

Unless you have an expensive tatami futon bed, in most standard futon frames the futon pad itself rests on slats of wood which run the length of the frame and are spaced a few inches apart.  However I have found that even with a thick futon mattress like a 6″ cotton/foam hybrid one, its still possible when laying on the mattress to detect the depressions between the slats of wood where the mattress sags slightly

Even a little bit of sagging is noticeable and unpleasant. The most logical way to suggest itself to remedying the problem would be to lay plywood on top of the slats thereby forming a solid surface beneath the futon mattress, eliminating the unpleasant gaps.

I found an even better solution: instead of plywood, use pegboard. Pegboard is fairly inexpensive and not too heavy. Because the slats are slightly lower than the frame I needed to stack two sheets of pegboard together to get the right thickness to make them level with the edge of the frame.

The frame consists of two sections. When its folded into the sofa position one section becomes the back support, the other the seat. It therefore took four sheets of pegboard to make this solution: two for the back support part of the frame, and two for the seat part. On my futon frame the dimensions for the back support and seat sections of the frame are different. I had to measure them very carefully with a tape measure down to 1/8″ resolution.

To make this work then requires two cuts per piece of stock pegboard to match the dimensions of the frame.

To make the effort of cutting the pieces easier at the builder’s supply I had the guy stack the two sheets of stock pegboard for each section together and make the cuts. Since they charge for each cut this saves money. It also made sure that the holes between the two pieces line up perfectly.

The total cost for this whole project then is for 4 pieces of stock pegboard@$20 each + 4 cuts. The total was very close to $100 but well worth it since now the bed is totally smooth.

The reason I choose pegboard was not only because its light, but also because the holes will allow the futon mattress to get some air also. If you cut the pieces right the holes should line up between the stacked sheets.

In the below image you can see the two sheets stacked on top of one another and how they are almost exactly level with the frame: