If you walk into my bedroom, you might be under the impression that my husband, Chihuahua, and I sleep on a king-size Casper mattress balanced on a stack of shoeboxes. But lift up a corner of the mattress and you’ll see that they’re not shoeboxes but an interconnected cardboard honeycomb that folds out like an accordion. This is the Yona Cardboard Bed.
I didn’t set out to sleep on a cardboard bed. I had picked out my dream wood-and-rattan platform bed from CB2, which I was over the moon to find and placed an order for once it went on sale. As I waited for my dream bed to be delivered, our Casper mattress was on the floor — and sleeping on a mattress on a hardwood floor got old fast. I spilled coffee on our duvet and topper whenever I tried to step into bed. At night, I felt like our backs weren’t getting the proper support. Something had to be done.
After about a week, I furiously began Googling “temporary bed frames” and “fold-up bed frames.” And there it was: the Yona, a cardboard bed made of 99 percent recycled fibers and, according to the brand’s website, is 100 percent recyclable. “Cool, so once our CB2 bed comes, we can either fold it up or recycle it because surely it can’t last very long; it’s cardboard,” said my husband.
When it arrived, the Yona looked comically simple. Setting it up took three steps: You just open the box and pull out the Yona like an accordion, place your mattress on the accordion, and make your bed. The only thing that made it a little more difficult was that I had ordered a king — which is essentially two twin-size Yonas next to each other that I had to pull out and interlock with their notched cardboard edges. Still, it was pretty smooth sailing as soon as I pulled it out of its long rectangular box.
It lifts the mattress 10.4 inches off the floor, and I haven’t spilled any coffee in bed since I got it. The honeycomb design allows for good airflow, so we haven’t seen any mold or mildew even while running a humidifier next to the bed every night for months. It hasn’t attracted any bugs, either. Every three days, the Yona will drift a little on our hardwood floors, but I just kick it back into place against the wall. We haven’t folded it back up yet, though Yona’s website says people do so frequently — it’s like a more complex Murphy bed, I suppose.
The Yona isn’t a permanent solution, but it’s so comfortable and functional that I’ve stopped hunting down alternative dream beds. It’s perfectly, surprisingly fine. And it’s a great idea for small apartments. After all, what if we move apartments when our lease is up? The Yona would be my absolute dream bed to move.
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