How to Choose a Bed Frame: A Complete UK Guide

After twelve years of designing interiors, I can tell you the bed is the one piece people rush and later regret. It is the largest thing in the room and the first thing you see when the door opens, so it sets the tone for everything else. Get it right and the room falls into place around it. Get it wrong and no amount of styling fixes the feeling that something is off.

So here is how I think about choosing a bed frame, and what I tell clients to consider before anything else.

Start with the room, not the bed

Everyone does this backwards. They fall for a bed, then try to make the room accommodate it. Do it the other way round.

Measure properly. Note where the door swings, where the windows sit, where the radiators are. Walk the routes you take around the bed every day and make sure there is real space to move on both sides, at least 60cm, ideally more. A bed shoved against a wardrobe to fit an oversized frame will annoy you every single morning, however beautiful the frame.

Once you understand the room, the right scale of frame becomes obvious. Smaller room, lower headboard, lighter presence. Bigger room with height to spare, something taller and more architectural that can actually hold the space.

Headboard height matters more than you think

The headboard does most of the work in setting the mood of the room, and height is where people go wrong. Too tall in a low room feels oppressive. Too low in a room with height feels timid and unfinished.

As a rough rule I aim for a headboard that reaches around a third of the wall height behind it. But it is a starting point, not a law, and the room always leads.

The Portobello Bed is my go-to when a room wants calm. That curved, arched headboard with the piping detail feels soft and enveloping rather than imposing, and you can specify the piping in a contrasting fabric if you want a quiet bit of definition.

Why I nearly always specify upholstered

An upholstered bed brings a softness a timber or metal frame simply cannot. The fabric absorbs light and sound and gives the room that hushed, restful quality a bedroom should have. It is also just nicer to lean against when you are reading in bed, which matters more than people admit.

Fabric is where you set the mood. A soft neutral, cream linen, chalk linen, a warm boucle, keeps things calm and lets the room breathe. A deeper tone like espresso linen or chocolate velvet makes a stronger statement and anchors the room, which suits bedrooms with more architectural character.

If you want the bed to be the whole story, the Artesian Bed is it. Upholstered base and headboard with four Poplar burr veneer posts. It is genuinely architectural, and in a room with the height to carry it, it is a quietly confident statement.

On sizing, be honest about the trade-off

Bigger bed, better sleep, less floor space. That is the trade every time. A double suits smaller rooms and cosier setups. A king is the right balance for most main bedrooms. A superking is heaven to sleep in but needs a room that can take the footprint without feeling crowded.

Because we make every bed to order, you are not stuck with standard sizes. If your room falls between sizes or has an awkward constraint, talk to us and we will work out what actually fits.

Do not forget what sits around it

The bed does not live alone. The bedside tables, the bench at the foot, the lighting, they all matter. A bench at the end of the bed finishes it visually and earns its place practically, somewhere to sit, somewhere to lay out clothes. The Blenheim Bench or Chepstow Bench, in a fabric that relates to the bed without matching it exactly, is what turns a bed in a room into a proper, considered bedroom.

The short version

Understand your room, be honest about how you use the space, and choose a frame whose scale, material and character suit both. Do that and you will happily live with it for years, which is the whole point.

Have a look at the full bed collection, and order swatches so you can see the fabrics in your own bedroom light before you commit. If you want to talk sizing or something bespoke, get in touch.