Buying a wooden bed should be fairly straightforward, but there are a few decisions worth getting right. Beyond choosing the size and a design you like, you'll need to think about the timber, overall dimensions, height, storage and how the bed will actually work in your room.
Some details are easy to miss. A king-size bed frame, for example, will be larger than a king-size mattress. The depth of your mattress can completely change the finished height of a low bed. Even the position of the slats can affect how the finished bed looks.
We make our wooden beds from solid timber in our North Yorkshire workshop, so we've brought together the things we'd recommend checking before you order.
Start With the Timber
Not every bed described as ‘wooden’ is made entirely from solid wood.
Depending on the manufacturer, a wooden bed may use solid timber, veneers, MDF, chipboard or a combination of materials. If you're specifically looking for a solid wooden bed, check the product specification rather than relying on the product name or appearance alone.
A few things worth checking are:
- Main Frame: What timber is used for the structural parts of the bed?
- Veneers: Are any visible or structural components veneered?
- Slats: What material supports the mattress?
- Specification: Does the manufacturer clearly tell you what you're buying?
Our wooden bed frames are made from solid Scandinavian pine or solid European oak, with solid timber slats.
Wooden Bed Company Tip: Look beyond terms such as ‘oak bed’ or ‘wooden bed’. A good product specification should tell you whether you're buying solid timber, a veneer or a wood-effect material.
Oak or Pine?
Both oak and pine can make excellent wooden beds, but there are good reasons for choosing one over the other.
|
Timber |
European Oak |
Scandinavian Pine |
|
Timber Type |
Hardwood |
Softwood |
|
Appearance |
Distinctive grain and natural variation |
Lighter natural appearance with visible grain |
|
Density |
Denser timber |
Less dense than oak |
|
Price |
More premium |
More accessible |
|
Best Suited To |
Buyers who want the natural timber to be a prominent feature |
Buyers looking for solid timber at a lower price point |
Our oak bed frames make the grain and natural variation of European oak a prominent part of the finished bed. Because real timber varies from board to board, no two oak frames will look completely identical.
Solid pine beds provide a more affordable way to choose solid timber. Pine also works particularly well with different finishes, giving you plenty of scope to change the natural colour of the wood.
Which Timber Should You Choose?
If you love visible grain and want the timber itself to be one of the main features of the bed, we'd lean towards European oak. If budget is more important, or you're planning to choose a darker or painted finish anyway, Scandinavian pine can make more sense.
The important thing is to look at the quality and construction of the complete bed rather than assuming oak automatically means ‘good’ and pine means ‘basic’.
Choosing the Right Bed Size for Your Room
This is one of the easiest areas to get wrong when buying a bed online.
Mattress dimensions are standardised, but they only tell you the size of the sleeping surface. The complete wooden frame will take up more room.
Here are the mattress sizes our standard beds are designed around:
Single: 90 × 19m (3'0" × 6'3")
Small Double: 120 × 190cm (4'0" × 6'3")
Double: 135 × 190cm (4'6" × 6'3")
King: 150 × 200cm (5'0" × 6'6")
Super King: 180 × 200cm (6'0" × 6'6")
Emperor: 215 × 215cm (7'0" × 7'0")
Remember: Side rails add width, headboards and footboards can add length, while four poster beds have their corner posts to account for too. Before ordering, find the external dimensions for the exact bed you're considering and measure these into the room!
Measuring the Available Space
Don't just ask whether the bed physically fits. Think about whether the bedroom will still work comfortably around it.
Check:
- Walking Space: Is there enough room to move around the bed?
- Wardrobes: Can doors and drawers still open fully?
- Bedside Furniture: Is there enough space for tables or other furniture you want to keep?
- Windows and Radiators: Will any part of the frame obstruct them?
- Plug Sockets: Will the sockets you regularly use remain accessible?
- Ceiling Height: Are there sloping ceilings or restricted areas to consider?
It's particularly worth doing this if you're moving from a double to a king or super king. Those extra centimetres can have a bigger effect on the layout than expected once the dimensions of the complete frame are included.
There's one more measurement that's easily forgotten: the route to the bedroom.
Our beds arrive flat packed, which makes getting substantial solid timber frames into the home considerably easier. Even so, narrow staircases, tight landings, doorways and larger components such as headboards are worth considering before delivery day.
If standard dimensions don't work for your room or mattress, we can also manufacture bespoke wooden beds to suit particular requirements.
Choosing the Right Bed Height
Once you've worked out how much floor space you have, consider the height of the frame. Our low bed frames are typically around 20cm high, compared with approximately 40cm for our standard-height frames, before the mattress is added.
When Does a Low Bed Work Well?
A lower frame can be particularly useful when:
- Furnishing a loft or attic bedroom
- Positioning a bed beneath a window
- Working around a sloping ceiling
- Trying to keep a larger bed lower within the room
- You simply prefer a lower-profile design
Our low wooden beds include designs with and without headboards, including our Japanese-style low bed. A standard height bed, at around 40cm before the mattress is added, gives you a more conventional bed profile and positions the mattress further from the floor.
Remember to Include the Mattress
A ‘low bed’ doesn't necessarily mean the top of your mattress will be particularly low. The final sleeping height depends on three measurements:
Bed frame height + slat position + mattress depth
A deep mattress on a low frame may therefore result in a much higher finished bed than you imagined from looking at the frame alone.
The position of the slats matters too. On our beds, you can choose whether the slats sit level with the sides of the bed or are recessed further into the frame, allowing more of the mattress to sit within it.
Wooden Bed Company Tip: If bed height matters to you, work out the finished height using the depth of your actual mattress. Don't make the decision from the frame measurement alone.
Should You Choose a Headboard?
A headboard changes the proportions and appearance of a wooden bed, but the room itself may also influence the decision.
A solid timber headboard provides a surface behind your pillows and can be useful if you regularly sit up in bed. It also puts more timber on display, giving the bed greater visual presence within the room.
You might prefer a bed with a headboard if you:
- Have plenty of clear wall space behind the bed
- Regularly sit up against the head of the bed
- Want a solid surface behind your pillows
- Want the timber and finish to form a bigger part of the room
Our wooden beds with headboards include standard-height, low, ottoman, four poster and live edge oak designs.
Going without a headboard can make more sense where:
- The bed needs to sit beneath a window
- Ceiling height is restricted
- You're working with a loft or sloping ceiling
- You prefer a simpler profile
- You don't want to cover a feature wall
Our platform beds are designed without headboards and include standard-height, low, Japanese-style and ottoman options.
If you're undecided, measure the available wall height as well as the floor space. A bed can fit perfectly at floor level but still clash with a window sill, shelf or sloping ceiling once the headboard is included.
How Much Storage Do You Need?
Storage shouldn't automatically push you towards a storage bed. Start by thinking about what you actually need to put away. If the bedroom already has enough wardrobes and drawers, choose the bed you prefer without worrying about incorporating additional storage.
For occasional items, an open bed frame with boxes underneath may be enough. Remember to check the clearance beneath the side rails before buying your boxes, particularly with a lower bed.
If storage is at a premium, an ottoman storage bed makes better use of the space already occupied by the bed. The mattress and slatted base lift to reveal a concealed compartment within the frame.
Because access is from above, you don't need to leave additional room beside the bed for drawers to pull out. Our standard ottoman beds provide around 22cm of storage depth, with increased-height versions available where additional capacity is a priority.
What Will You Be Storing?
Make a quick list before deciding how much storage you need. Spare bedding, duvets, seasonal clothes and suitcases require considerably more room than a few pairs of shoes. Knowing what you actually want to store will help you decide whether simple underbed storage is sufficient or whether a dedicated ottoman compartment is worth having.
It can also stop you paying for storage functionality you don't actually need.
Don't Overlook the Bed Slats
Slats aren't usually the first thing people look at when choosing a bed, but they're an important part of the frame. They support the mattress and can also influence how high or low it sits within the bed.
Our beds use solid timber slats, and you can choose how they're positioned within the frame.
With the slats sitting higher, the mattress will naturally sit higher too. Recessing them further into the frame lowers more of the mattress between the side rails, giving the finished bed a more sunken appearance.
This is particularly worth considering if you've chosen:
- A particularly deep mattress
- A low bed frame
- A tall headboard
- A specific finished bed height
If you're buying a new mattress at the same time as your bed, check its depth before deciding on the slat position. If you're keeping your existing mattress, measure it rather than relying on the manufacturer's original specification, particularly if you've had it for some time.
Choosing a Finish for Your Wooden Bed
The timber determines much of the natural character of a wooden bed, but the finish has a big influence on how it will look in your bedroom.
Our standard options include unfinished, white, light, medium, walnut and black , giving you the choice of keeping things relatively natural or changing the tone of the timber more substantially.
Oak beds can also be finished with premium Rubio Monocoat options, including Pure, Natural, Chocolate and Walnut.
There's no rule that says your bed has to match every other piece of wooden furniture in the room. Different timbers and tones can work together well. However, if you're trying to coordinate a new bed with existing flooring, wardrobes or furniture, it's worth seeing the finish in person first.
See the Finish Before You Decide
Wood is a natural material, so grain and tone will always vary. Colours can also look different depending on your screen, lighting and surroundings.
We offer £1 colour samples so you can see your preferred finish against the other materials and furniture in the room before committing to the complete bed.
Take the sample into the bedroom and look at it in both daylight and artificial light. A finish that looks relatively light beside one timber floor can appear much darker against another.
How Can You Tell if a Wooden Bed Is Well Made?
Price and appearance only tell you so much about the quality of a wooden bed.
Before ordering, look for information about how the bed is actually constructed. A manufacturer should be able to tell you what materials have been used, how the mattress is supported and what guarantee comes with the frame.
A quick quality check should include:
Timber
Is the material clearly specified? If the bed is advertised as solid wood, does the description explain which timber is used?
Slats
Check what the mattress will actually be resting on rather than concentrating entirely on the visible frame.
Construction
Look for information about how the main components are made and joined.
Dimensions
A good specification should give you enough information to understand the complete size and proportions of the bed.
Guarantee
Check what guarantee is included and, importantly, what it actually covers. Our own wooden bed frames are made in-house in North Yorkshire and backed by a 12-year guarantee.
There is much more to bed construction than we need to cover here. If you want to understand what separates a well-made frame from a more basic one, read our What Makes a Good Quality Wooden Bed Frame? guide.
Consider Delivery Before You Order
A solid wooden bed is a substantial piece of furniture. Thankfully, it doesn't need to arrive at your front door fully assembled.
Our beds are delivered flat packed, normally across two or three boxes, using a specialist national courier. This makes it much easier to move the individual components through the house and into the bedroom.
Before delivery, it's still worth checking the route the boxes will need to take. Narrow hallways, staircases and tight turns can cause problems with larger furniture, particularly where a bed has a substantial headboard or longer components.
Our standard delivery is to the ground-floor doorstep, so you'll also need to plan how the boxes will get from there to the bedroom.
What Will You Need for Assembly?
Most of our wooden beds can be assembled at home with:
- A hand-powered drill
- The supplied fixings
- The assembly instructions
- Another person to help
Having a second person available is particularly useful when positioning larger timber components and assembling bigger bed sizes.
Once assembled, it's good practice to periodically check the bed's fixings and tighten them if required. Wooden furniture is used and moved over time, and keeping everything properly secured is a simple part of looking after the frame.
When Is a Bespoke Wooden Bed Worth Considering?
Standard UK bed sizes work for most bedrooms, but there are situations where adapting the bed to the room makes much more sense than compromising on the nearest standard option.
A bespoke wooden bed could be worth it if:
- You already have a non-standard mattress
- The available space doesn't suit a conventional bed size
- You're working around unusual room dimensions
- You need to adjust the proportions of the frame
- You have particular headboard or footboard requirements
- You want to discuss additional features or design changes
Because our beds are made to order, we can discuss custom dimensions, finishes and features rather than limiting every frame to an off-the-shelf specification.
If you're considering bespoke dimensions, measure carefully and speak to us before ordering. The more information we have about the mattress and available space, the easier it is to establish what will work.
Your Wooden Bed Buying Checklist
By the time you've chosen a timber, size and design, there can be quite a few measurements and decisions to keep track of.
Before placing your order, run through this final checklist:
Size and Space
☐ Have you confirmed your mattress size?
☐ Have you checked the full external dimensions of the bed?
☐ Is there enough room to comfortably use wardrobes, drawers and bedroom doors?
☐ Have you checked windows, radiators, sockets and sloping ceilings?
☐ Can the bed components reach the bedroom?
Bed Design
☐ Do you want a low or standard-height frame?
☐ Have you included your mattress depth when considering the finished height?
☐ Do you want a headboard?
☐ Do you need storage built into the bed?
☐ Have you chosen the right slat position?
Timber and Finish
☐ Do you know exactly what the bed is made from?
☐ Have you decided between oak and pine?
☐ Have you chosen your finish?
☐ Would ordering a £1 colour sample help before you decide?
Before Delivery
☐ Have you checked the delivery arrangements?
☐ Do you have the tools needed for assembly?
☐ Will somebody be available to help you assemble the frame?
☐ Have you checked the guarantee and what it covers?
Choosing a Wooden Bed That Works for You
There isn't one wooden bed design that's right for every bedroom. A low pine platform bed and a substantial oak four poster can both be excellent choices, but they're solving very different requirements.
Start with the practical decisions: the space you have, your mattress size, the height you prefer and whether you need storage. From there, you can decide which timber, design and finish best suit the room.
The most important thing is knowing exactly what you're buying. Check the materials, full dimensions, construction and guarantee rather than making the decision from appearance alone.
At The Wooden Bed Company, our wooden beds are made to order from solid Scandinavian pine or European oak in our North Yorkshire workshop, with a 12-year guarantee across the range. If you're unsure which design or dimensions would work best, speak to our team before ordering and we'll help you work through the options.
