Everyone seems like to love the “top list” kind of posts, so I thought I’d join the bandwagon and write something like that about futon mattress covers. So turn up the drum roll in your head while reading these words out loud as if you were an announcer at a 4H fair…”Without further ado, I present to you, my list of 5 great futon mattress covers!”

First off, we have “Bamboo Island” futon cover. I’m pretty much a fanatic of any kind of bamboo furniture, be it bamboo lamps, bamboo rugs, or a printed cover for the futon showing bamboo style art. This set comes with the slip cover as well as a two pillow set. It currently sells online for $70 – not a bad deal. Check out Bamboo Island for a high quality, good looking futon cover set made of cotton and polyester with a 3 sided zipper to secure it correctly to the futon mattress and futon frame. For the ambitious amongst you, there’s also a cool Bamboo Island matching chair set from Target as well.

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Next off we have a very elegant, classical looking cover that can absolutely transform a less than stellar mattress into a great looking sofa futon. This is the “Brushed Cotton Twill Futon Cover”. Take a look at the photo here showing the khaki model and tell me you don’t like it – I dare you! Just from looking at this full futon cover, I can imagine how soft and nice it would feel to the touch of my fingertips. This is a very soft, beautiful cover to slip nicely over your futon – and the good news is it costs less than $50.

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Here we have a very cool take on the futon cover – faux leather! If you’re looking for some cool leather furniture mock ups,  check out the Faux Leather Futon Cover from Loft New York. This is a full size cover and will transform any futon into a leather couch! Can’t be that cheap right? It runs about $60, a modest price for a high quality cover if I do say so. Note that this is made of polyurethane. It’s also a good style to use if you’re worried about cleaning up any spills or messes – just wipe it clean and you should be OK for the most part. This also has a zipper (of course) for easy fastening.

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Take a look here at this nice set from Southern Textiles. Here we have full size Beige futon cover and matching 2 pillow set to boot, all for under $100. This is the most expensive item on this list, but, you get what you pay for – and in this case, you get a great looking futon slip cover and matching beige pillows. The cover has a solid zipper for securely fastening itself to futon mattresses, and it’s made of cotton and polyester.

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Last we have one for those who just have to get something tacky. I’m including it on this list to mock you. It’s a futon cover showing a boat scene. I guess this would work for the boating enthusiast, beach house, summer home, or someone with just bad taste, eh? It costs a mere $25 bucks and… yea. I’d go with something from one through four if I were you!

Ikea is one of the most hip, popular brands in the world.

And…so is Target, right?

Well, not exactly, but it’s no secret that anyone who has an eye (and a wallet) for high quality products is going to be hip to both Ikea and Target, although Ikea certainly has the edge for being cooler.

Either way, what I want to look at in this article is reasons for buying either an Ikea futon cover or a Target futon cover.

First of all, Targets are everywhere. I mean everywhere. And how many Targets are there? According to Wiki Answers, there’s 1724 Target stores. Not sure if that’s in the USA or everywhere, or if it includes Super Targets. To tell you the truth, this number actually seems small to me, as just my area has something like 5 Targets that are all within a 15 minute drive of one another. Either way though, nearly 2,000 Target stores – holy cow batman, that’s a lot of Target stores! For someone shopping, that makes things easy. Yes, sure, websites are wonderful to look at but for lots of things – especially home decor style type items – don’t you want to hold them in your hands and look at them? What about the benefit of being able to look at multiple items at once in person and do on the spot comparisons to decide which is best? This is going to be one of the biggest perks that Target has over Ikea – it’s everywhere, and people know it, and this means you can easily go into the store, take a look at the futon covers for sale, and decide what futon cover suits you and your sofa bed the best. You can likely even touch the actual fabric and get an idea of how it’s going to feel to sit on your new covered sofa bed futon with a brand new futon cover.

Compare this to Ikea, which has, according to the Ikea wikipedia entry, a comparatively measly 301 stores globally, in 37 countries total. In the US, there’s only 35 IKEA stores to choose from in all 50 states. So unless you happen to live in one of the few places that have an Ikea, your only option is to look at the different futon cover types online or in a print catalogue (Ikea make fantastic print catalogs still!) and order it without seeing it or touching it in person. That would be my only option, unless I want to drive 3 hours to get the nearest IKEA (which recently opened and amazingly, I hear about many people who do just that!).

Blah blah blah – you might be saying. This is just shennanigans. It’s no big deal to buy online versus in store.

Okay – we’ll give that one up for now, but Target secretly gets a +1 so far if you’re keeping score.

Now onto maybe what you’re really looking for: What about the actual products for sale? As in, what is different about the futon covers at Target or Ikea? Are they cheaper in one store versus the other? Are they nicer at one store versus the other? Does one store have a better selection than the other? Because that’s what it all comes down to really… price, quality, and selection. Soooo…. let’s go through these three questions in regards to Ikea futon covers and Target futon covers.

Are the futon covers nicer at one store versus the other?
I’m gonna have to go with Ikea on this one. Ikea has nicer futon covers than Target. Your intuition already told you that though, right? T’is is true. Ikea sells lots of slick looking, artsy, hip furniture, and this includes the sofa covers, futon covers, sofa beds, and so on too.

Can you get a cheaper futon cover at one store versus the other?
Yep. Ding, ding, ding – Target wins this round. Target has a futon cover selection that comes at a cheaper price that Ikea. You can find good deals for futon covers at both places, but by and large, Target is going to have more competitive prices for their futon cover products than Ikea will. This is usually for any product when it comes to Target versus any store, thus the reason they have nearly 2,000 stores and growing, right!

Does one store have a better selection of futon cover products over the other store?
You would think that Ikea wins this round, you would think that Ikea would have a really rocking selection of futon cover and soda slip products but… actually, they don’t. Not compared to Target at least. Target has more of a selection if you looking to buy a futon cover than Ikea.

The Results: Buy your futon cover at Target if you want to find a better price and a better selection of different futon covers to choose from, and you can easily size this purchase up in person. Buy your futon cover from Ikea if you want to spend a little bit more money on a select futon furniture and futon cover types, probably though mail order