Sleep Easy Knowing You Have the Yona Cardboard Bed

I think we can all agree that one of the many pains of moving houses is dealing with your bed and bed frame. Having to manoeuvre a bulky frame up and down stairs is not a fun thing to do. That’s where Yona comes in with its cardboard bed base that’s both easy on you and on the environment.

Not only are traditional bed frames pretty expensive, but they can also take a village to set up. Sure, you can build some on your own, but that takes time and effort.

With Yona, however, you don’t need to assemble anything and there are no tools required to set up the frame. It’s also 100% sustainable, which makes things even better.

Lifehacker Australia had the opportunity to test out the Yona cardboard bed base and see if it’s worth your time.

About Yona

For those of you who don’t know, Yona is an Australian-made and owned company founded by three friends.

The inspiration behind the company came when the three spent lots of time moving between share-houses and apartments, struggling with the endless cycle of having to buy and build (and move) furniture constantly. What they noticed was that the hardest thing to move was the bed.

So, Yona was born to provide people with a product that would ‘break this cycle’ and save them the hassle.

The bed frame is just a start, however, Yona hopes to move on to other furniture products to make your moving process as seamless as possible.

Yona’s sustainable bed frames

We hear a lot about sustainable products these days, especially sustainable furniture. But just how sustainable are these beds?

Well, according to Yona, the cardboard beds are predominantly made from recycled cardboard that has been diverted from landfill. It’s also got original paper fibres from sustainable forestry. Yona says that this balance in using recycled and new cardboard means the beds can be made strong, so they can be used for years and continue to be recycled.

This means that Yona’s cardboard beds are made up of 70% recycled fibres and are also 100% recyclable. How cool is that?

To show even more love to the environment, ever since its beginnings, Yona has been 100% carbon neutral. Meaning that for all the energy used to make the beds, ship products and power computers at the company’s headquarters, Yona uses renewable sources or offsets emissions. The company also minimises its use of plastic packaging.

Yona’s entire supply chain is here in Australia, meaning it can easily ensure that partners comply with high ethical standards, which is something I haven’t seen many other brands do.

A cardboard bed… really?

I know what you’re thinking, a cardboard bed frame? Is it stylish? Is it comfortable? Will it hold me? Is it strong enough?

These are all valid questions and questions that I had when I first got the Yona cardboard bed base.

Obviously, you’re going to put a mattress on the bed base so the comfortability factor depends entirely on your mattress. But I can help answer the other questions.

According to Yona, the beds are made with an innovative patent-pending design that allows for up to 3,200 kg in total. That’s one strong cardboard bed frame, that’s for sure.

And yes, you can do the deed on it. Yona even tested that out to put any doubts to rest, literally.

In terms of design and feel, it’s cardboard, so don’t expect too much glamour. However, I got the black bed base to match the black furniture I have in my room and let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised.

It actually doesn’t really look like cardboard unless you’re up close and examining it. It does, however, feel like cardboard, obviously. But that wasn’t a deterrent at all. In fact, I actually quite liked how it looked and it complimented my room nicely.

What I liked most about the Yona cardboard bed was that it didn’t take up too much space nor did it pull immediate focus, which is something you want from a bed frame.

To me, it served its purpose simply by being a functional bed frame that held up my body while I slept. What more could you ask for?

Setting up the Yona bed frame

Something that honestly baffles me is how easy it was to set up this bed frame.

I’ve been victim to many bed frames that take hours to set up with 5 million tiny screws. Yona’s cardboard bed, however, took me 5 minutes to set up and there was not a single screw or Allen key in sight.

There is a QR code you can scan on the box the base comes in which will take you to an instructional video for setting up your Yona bed base. In saying that, you don’t really need it, because the process really is that simple.

Basically, all I had to do was open the box (important), take out the cardboard bed base and pull it out until it stretched out to its full size. Then, I had to connect all the side pieces so the frame was reinforced.

And that was it, literally didn’t have to do anything else. That’s all it took to have a supportive, stylish and eco-friendly bed frame.

If you want to move the frame or need to pack it up, all you have to do is push the base back towards the other end so that it folds in on itself. From there you can move it wherever you need to.

You could also use the Yona cardboard bed as a guest/spare bed too. If you don’t have enough space to get an extra bed frame, having one like Yona’s that can easily be set up and packed away is incredibly convenient.

The renter’s dream bed frame

If you couldn’t already tell, the Yona cardboard bed frame is perfect for people who rent and constantly have to move or even those who are a little strapped for space.

The seamless and simple design means that the Yona bed is perfect for any bedroom and can blend into any atmosphere you have. It’s also got a bunch of different colour options to choose from so you can get one that fits the general vibe of your room, which we love.

The Yona cardboard bed retails between $149 to $199 depending on what size you need. Even the price itself is incredibly reasonable and much more affordable than other bed frames.

I really loved my time with the Yona cardboard bed base. It’s hard to go past a product that’s good for the environment and only took me five minutes to set up.