Modern Beds & Headboards

You spend a third of your life in this one piece of furniture and almost none of that time looking at it, which is a strange argument for buying a beautiful bed and also a very good one. The bed sets the whole room whether or not you are awake to notice.

A low platform leaves more wall showing and makes a small bedroom read as larger. A tall upholstered headboard does the reverse: it becomes the focal point, and it makes sitting up to read genuinely comfortable rather than theoretically possible. Solid timber frames from Copeland and Ethnicraft arrive heavy and square and stay that way. Greenington bamboo brings the same solidity with a lighter environmental bill and a warmer colour.

The details that matter are unglamorous. Slat spacing decides whether your mattress warranty survives, and foam and hybrid mattresses generally want slats no more than about three inches apart. Most modern platform beds need no box spring at all, which is why they sit low and look clean. Under-bed clearance is worth checking if storage is part of the plan.

Beds ship flat in several cartons, because an assembled frame will not go up most staircases. Assembly is bolting a headboard and footboard to side rails and laying in slats, usually under an hour with two people. The questions below cover sizes, room clearances and slats.