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!

It’s challenging to divide all the different futon covers out there into types, as this isn’t a product that lends itself easily to that type of categorization, as opposed to say, something like types of art to hang on your walls, or types of antiques to collect. But this won’t stop me from trying. Let’s take a look at some of the more broad types and styles of futon covers out there on the market to get an idea of what’s available and what you’d like to see on your futon frame + futon mattress at home.

I suppose we can start with the basics – the materials used in covers. In this area you’ve got the microsuede futon cover, microfiber futon cover, cotton futon cover (usually blended with polyester), and even weird things like a vinyl futon cover (“What the…”) or a denim futon cover, of which I suppose would make an awesome style to compliment the resurgance of the 1980′s jean jacket, and presumably the forthcoming mullet trend to go with it.

Beyond these, you also can find faux leather or fake leather futon covers, too, which, in this authors opinion, rock.

Next I’m going to point out something so obvious I risk losing your respect as reader, but since this is a guide, I want to discuss it all. I’m talking about futon cover colors. Popular colors include black, green, red, blue, beige, and khaki. Weird yet available colors include hot pink and bright yellow. (Egad!) Out of all these, the classiest in my opinion are are the solid black futon cover followed by beige and khaki.

Beyond this, how can we differentiate between the different slips and covers available? You can break them down into full futon cover, king sized covers, twin slipcovers, and the ever popular queen futon cover size too.

You can also start looking at features to gauge the different types out there in the home and bed market, such as waterproof covers, covers that are sold on the feature of being washable or just more easily washable than others, and futon slip covers that are made to be easily cleaned, such as those made from faux leather.

At this point, all that’s left to categorize (or nitpick) is the actual designs on the covers. Most designs come in a solid color, as mentioned, but you can find interesting things such as tropical futon covers, sports logo futon covers, and kids futon covers with cartoons and popular kids stuff (movies, toys, etc) on them.

What this all means for someone trying to decorate their house is that a futon is like a canvas: you can mask it with any kind of slip or cover you need to make it part of the painting that is your living room. Have fun and remember – to get a “new futon”, all you really need is a new futon cover!