Best Loft Beds for Adults and Kids – Buyer’s Guide

When searching for a bed, all too often people have a tendency to focus on the mattress. While this may make plenty of sense considering it is the mattress which you sleep on, just as important to the process of finding the right bed is finding the right bed frame. For some people though, this can be its own challenge as they are limited in space.

This is where the best loft beds for adults and kids can come into play. A loft bed is inherently designed to save space, and there are plenty of different types of loft beds that go even further to that end. With the bed raised off of the ground, a loft bed is able to open up a space for multiple uses which can be specialized depending on the age of the occupant or their specific needs.

Best Loft Beds of 2021

Of course, figuring out which loft bed is actually the best can be a difficult and confusing task. That is why we have put together a list of the 5 best loft beds for adults and kids, highlighting what each one does best. Then we provide a helpful buyer’s guide, so you can find the best loft bed to suit your needs.

1. DHP Abode Full-Size Loft Bed – Best Budget Loft Bed for Adults

Dorel Home Products, or DHP, is not a brand that has made a huge name for itself, but it has still positioned itself as a serious maker of furniture for all parts of the home. While this means that DHP may not specialize in beds generally or loft beds, in particular, they do still offer excellent furniture and boast over a dozen retailers of their products. That said, this brand is definitely consumer-minded in regards to how they price their products.

Frame

Space

Another quality that is vital to an adult loft bed is the space. Considering the average sleeper will not only be heavier than younger potential occupants but larger in general as well, it is important that an adult loft bed offers enough space for the sleeper to be comfortable. Thankfully, the DHP comes with a full-size frame which should be large enough for most people. On top of the full-size frame, the DHP loft bed also comes with a decent office space. This space comes with a desk to hold your laptop or other business equipment as well as two corner shelves which are surprisingly strong.

2. Coaster Loft Bed – Best Performing Loft Bed for Adults

Like many of the other companies on our list, Coaster Fine Furniture is a manufacturer of wholesale furniture. Though they do not specialize in beds or bedroom accessories, this brand does offer a wide range of furniture and accessories for the entire home.

When it comes to an adult loft bed, we did not find one that ranks superior to the Work Station loft. In fact, there are few issues with this bed, and they could arguably be called “nitpicky”.

Frame

Space

Like most of the adult loft beds on our list, the Coast Work Station is also interested in ensuring that the space under the bed is best utilized. To this end, the Coaster Furniture offers an office space. Unlike some of the other adult loft beds we reviewed, the space under the Work Station features a slightly higher clearance. Beyond that, the design also provides for a more open space though this does not actually affect the footprint of this loft bed’s profile. Still, the office space does come with built-in shelves that can be arranged as desired. Even better, this loft bed also features a full-size mattress frame.

3. Franklyn Twin Loft Bed – Best Wooden Loft Bed for Adults

Furniture of America is certainly not the oldest company on our list, but neither is it the most recent. Still, it has had plenty of time to figure out what makes a solid loft bed and has used that knowledge to put forth an excellent entry for the best wooden loft bed for adults. That said, this bed is not without its faults, though it is arguably the easiest adult loft bed to modify costing little additional time, effort or money.

Office

Limitations

As good as the office is, this adult loft bed will not be suitable for all adults. In fact, this is likely better served as a loft bed for a teenager or a woman since it has the lowest maximum weight capacity out of all the adult loft beds we reviewed. While that may not inherently be bad, the weight capacity sits at a paltry 150 pounds. In fairness, most of this limitation is due to the supporting slats not being strong enough. As such, it is likely you could increase the maximum weight limit by purchasing sturdier slats to support the mattress and sleeper.

4. DONCO KIDS Twin Tent Loft Bed – Best Loft Bed for Kids

When it comes to a loft bed for kids, you better make sure that the bed offers the child something more than simply a place to sleep. There are numerous beds out there that can technically provide a safer sleeping experience for a child than a loft bed, so a loft bed for kids will definitely need to stand out. One of the common ways of accomplishing this task is by making the loft space and the bed itself part of play equipment something the Twin Tent easily achieves.

Play

Build

While children’s loft beds do not need to be as sturdy as an adult loft bed, it does still need to be sturdy enough to put a parent’s mind at ease. Thankfully, the DONCO KIDS Twin Tent uses solid Brazilian pine wood as the material. This allows the bed to offer a robust 160-pound maximum weight capacity. This could conceivably support the child well into their teens though you may want to remove the slide and tent at that time. Still, with surrounding guard rails, this build is perfect for keeping your kid secure.

5. DONCO KIDS Louvered Low Loft – Best Performing Loft Bed for Kids

Of all the brands on our list, DONCO KIDS is by far the most recent, but they have wasted little time in identifying what their target audience both needs and wants in their products. As such, it should not come as much of a surprise that DONCO KIDS can put forth the exact same bed with a notable absence and still manage to sell the product well. In fact, we would argue that this is the best performing loft bed for kids.

Build

Design

Unlike one of the other loft beds for kids on our list, this model is a bit more straightforward in its design. While it is intended to be used as a playbed, it is not meant for the entire bed to be part of that play. While this could be seen as a fault, the absence of a slide from the Louver bed might make this bed a bit safer. When you also consider that this bed comes with surrounding guard rails and still features the tent design for the space underneath the bunk, this playbed may offer a more comfortable option for parents and children alike.

Best Loft Beds – Buyer’s Guide

The size of the loft bed will generally determine who the bed is meant to sleep, though manufacturers are not always clear on that point. Specifically, plenty of makers of loft beds are more than happy to recommend a bed made for a teenager or younger to a full-grown adult. That said, the true test of whether a loft bed is capable of sleeping someone is the weight capacity. Still, the size of the bed can make that rest more or less comfortable.

Size

Twin – This is the standard size for most lofts which should not be that surprising considering one of the primary purposes of a loft be is to assist in saving space. Since a twin is the smallest sized bed that is ostensibly still large enough for a grown person, it only follows that the twin size bed will help you save the most space. Of course, with a mattress that is just over 3’ wide, the idea of a twin mattress being large enough for a wide margin of adults should be considered with suspicion.

Instead, a twin size bed is better appreciated as a mattress size that is appropriate for teenagers and young children though plenty of college students are likely able to sleep in a twin size bed comfortably enough. That said, the majority of loft beds that are twin size are made for children and potentially adolescents. It does not help that twin size loft beds have a tendency to provide a maximum weight capacity that is often far less than the average weight of adults.

Full – A full-size loft bed is likely the only size loft bed that you should purchase for an adult occupant. First, this bed is significantly larger than a twin size, with a width of almost 5’ that’s nearly 2’ wider than the twin size mattress. Of course, the width of the bed merely relates to the comfort level larger people or those who toss about in their sleep will experience. Still, you may want to avoid such a large bed for smaller sleepers like children since they also happen to regularly be situated high off the ground.

The true value of a full-size mattress comes from the fact that these beds are often designed to sleep larger people. As such, a full-size bed will often be made with larger, and heavier, people in mind. Whereas a twin size loft bed would do well to provide a maximum weight capacity above 200 pounds, a full-size loft bed will regularly surpass that twin size maximum by 50 percent to double.

Type

With a loft bed, it is more or less expected that the space under the actual bed is available for use. This is by design as a loft bed is intended to save space in an area that does not have much to give. That said, the space underneath the loft bed can either be designed with a specific intention in mind or it can be left open to the user to decide how the space should be utilized. The target audience of the loft bed will very likely influence how the space is designed as well considering children often have very different ideas about what is a good use of designated space than teenagers or adults.

Standard – This is the loft bed whose space has not otherwise been marked for a specific use. The bed itself will generally be made for either a teenager or older as children’s lofts are quite often designed with the space to be utilized for play. The good thing about a standard loft is that you can conceivably use the space underneath the bed for whatever you want.

That said, this may be easier said than done as a loft with an undefined space may not take using the space into account during the design phase. As such, a standard loft can either be the most versatile and use type of loft bed or it can simply be a single, raised bed that does little more to save space than provide a reduced profile and make a smaller footprint.

Office – Out of the adult loft beds designed with a space made for a specific purpose, the office loft is by far the most common though this makes sense when you think about it. More than anything else, adults will regularly need a space that they can use for work or other projects. While it is more than possible to use this space for entertainment purposes, chances are an adult will prefer a larger space for that purpose.

That actually brings to the potential drawback of an office type of loft bed: predestination. Considering the space is designed to be used as an office, most people will naturally gravitate towards that end. However, quite often the designed office space underneath an adult loft bed will not necessarily be large enough to comfortably accommodate all adults. Much like the different size beds, the office underneath an adult loft bed may be too small.

Nook – The nook type of designated loft bed space is actually quite similar to the office type of designated space in some respects. Both of those types of designated spaces are generally intended to be used for adult loft beds though it is not inconceivable that a loft bed with a nook space could be used with older children and younger teens.

Still, a nook space underneath a loft bed will not be a suitable place for younger children to play. Generally, this space features some form of a desk or another surface that will split the space. On either side of the surface will be two seats or a place for such. While this space may also potentially be used for an office, its true purpose is to provide seating to eat further saving space by eschewing the need for a dining room.

Playbed – When it comes to lofts made for children, playbeds are by far the most common type. In fact, playbed lofts are a more common type of loft for children than standard lofts though this makes a fair bit of sense when you think about it. If you simply leave an unoccupied space for children to designate, they will almost always choose to define it as a play space. As such, by beating them to the punch, a manufacturer is able to identify the space as a play space and work to ensure that it is suitable for such. That said, it is important to make sure that a child’s playbed loft is designed with play in mind to help prevent accidents.

When it comes to playbeds, there are a couple of approaches that manufacturers commonly take. The first is to simply cordon the vacant space with some form of covering. This makes the space perfect for a fort or a designated zone the child can go to be alone or play. The other common type of playbed loft will involve either a slide or some other type of equipment to further enhance the loft bed’s ability to assist in play.

Storage – This is the last type of loft bed and can be used for either children or adults. This type of loft bed seems to be more popular for adults, but there are still plenty of children’s loft beds which are designed to store clothes or toys underneath the loft bunk. That said, this is actually one of the less common types of loft beds sitting just above the nook type in terms of popularity.

Regardless, this type of loft bed does appear more with adult loft beds than it does for those designed for children. For an adult, a storage loft bed will often include drawers and shelves which could potentially take the place of furniture used to store clothing and hold books. Depending on the design of the space, this type of loft bed may provide an abundance of storage space or may simply offer enough of a supplement to eschew a single piece of furniture.

In Conclusion

In the end, there is not going to be a single loft bed that all adults or children find to be the best. This is especially true of adults who are liable to either have stricter requirements about what the space underneath the bed should be used for or who simply require larger dimensions and capacities to safely and comfortably use the loft bed in question. Still, we have found great loft beds on both fronts.

For adults, we recommend the Coaster Furnishings Work Station loft bed. Though its angular frame may give some people misgivings about this loft bed, its maximum weight capacity of 400 pounds is by far the largest on our list. On top of that, the full-size mattress will offer plenty of room, while the office space below is ideal for the college student or home professional alike.

For children, there really seems little reason to opt for the Louver loft bed over Tent Twin. Both products are essentially the same thing, except the Tent Twin comes with a slide as well. Even better than that, this bed is made of solid pine wood that provides a maximum weight capacity of 150 pounds which should be more than enough for most children who are not yet teenagers. As icing on top, this bed is also nearly identical in cost to the Louver as well.