Your Choice In Bedsteads

So you have finally chosen to buy a bedstead with a separate mattress. Which one are you going to opt for?

There are a few choices to decide on here, and which one you go for largely depends on the kind of look you are going to create in your bedroom. It also depends on personal taste of course!

So let’s take a look at the options you have available.

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Wooden bedsteads

These vary from being basic pine bedsteads to solid stained oak. The number of styles and designs you will find made from wood are almost limitless. Some wooden bedsteads have solid head and foot boards, for example. Others may be designed to have slats running vertically along each end.

Both light and dark woods are used to make bedsteads as well. You might find something suitable in birch for example, while at the other end of the range you have woods like walnut and oak.

Occasionally at the cheaper end of the market you might be able to buy a bedstead made from unfinished wood. In this case you can stain or paint it yourself if you wish, or simply leave it natural as it is.

Leather bedsteads

The ultimate in luxury! Leather bedsteads smell wonderful when you unpack them, and they are ideal for beds as they provide a soft and comfortable head board to lean back on, even without pillows.

Leather usually comes in various shades of brown, and can be stitched into panels or made in one continuous piece. You can occasionally find other colours too though, with black as another frequent choice. As with every other style of bed, the sides will be made from leather too, which is usually stretched over padding or sections made from wood, depending on the style and design.

One feature you may also find on leather bedsteads is the addition of buttons or studs pressed into the piece at equal distances from each other.

Material bedsteads

The materials used to finish off a bedstead can come in all kinds of colours and styles. For example the fabric might be plain or it might be patterned. A patterned style might be more difficult to fit into a colour scheme, so bear this in mind if you are considering buying a bed upholstered in this way.

Material bedsteads are usually upholstered in a single colour fabric however. This can be practically anything under the sun, depending on what the designer of the bed thinks is appropriate. You will often find that a particular style of bed will have more than one colour way to choose from, if it is covered in fabric.

Generally speaking designs made from material are very simple. You won’t find head boards made from slats covered in material for example. They will always be solid, and if you want something to lean back on then they are a good bet.

Metal bedsteads

Once again, this covers a lot of options. Metal bedsteads can be made from plain metal, or they could be designed in elegant wrought iron. You can also get wrought iron effect if you want to keep the cost down.

This shows that metal bedsteads can basically be divided into two broad groups. You will get real metal bedsteads – such as the wrought iron and real brass ones – and then there are the fake ones which are designed to look like the real thing but for a cheaper price.

Modern metal finishes frequently include silver finishes and chrome finishes, while if you want a more dated look you should opt for the various brass and antique looking bedsteads.

Which metal bedstead you choose will largely depend on what effect you want to create in your bedroom. Some of the designs are very ornate and complicated, which is ideal if you want a classic, country or ‘time gone by’ type of look. But if you are going for a modernist bedroom you will need something with a modern finish to match it.

In conclusion

As you can see, there are lots of different types of bedsteads to take a look at when you are thinking of buying a new bed. If you have previously been used to having a divan you might be a bit overwhelmed by the number of bedsteads that are available.

But you can probably see that they are very individual and can really enhance the look of your bedroom in many ways – as well as providing somewhere luxurious to sleep every night.