Amberley Upholstered Bed: a channelled headboard in five sizes

Channelled headboards have taken over bedroom photographs for a reason: the vertical lines lift the eye and they do not date the way a heavy buttoned shape can. The Amberley is our version, and the part worth noticing is the outer frame. The channels sit inside it, and its top edge steps in at the shoulders rather than running straight across, which gives the board a shoulder line instead of a flat top.

A frame, not a divan

The mattress sits down inside an upholstered surround, with the side rails and the foot end finished in the same cloth as the headboard. There is no storage in the base. That keeps the bed low and lets the board do the work, and it means the whole thing is covered in one fabric rather than being a base from one supplier and a headboard from another. If storage is non-negotiable, the ottoman version of the same design exists, and the ottoman divan beds take a different approach again by putting the storage into the base itself.

Five sizes, measured finished

• Single 3FT – 109 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Small Double 4FT – 139 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Double 4FT6 – 155 cm wide by 212 cm long
• King 5FT – 170 cm wide by 222 cm long
• Super King 6FT – 200 cm wide by 222 cm long

These are the figures across the finished bed at its widest point, not the mattress, and that is the distinction people get caught by. A surround adds width on both sides and length at the foot, so the room has to give the bed more than the mattress size suggests. The jump from double to king is both wider and 10 cm longer, which is the one that tends to catch out a room with a radiator at the foot or a chimney breast on one side.

Work out the gap you want down each side before you commit. Enough room to walk past with a duvet in your arms is a different number from enough room to open a wardrobe door, and only one of them is a daily nuisance if you get it wrong.

Twenty-six colourways

The Amberley is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways, and every part finished in cloth is done in the one you choose. On a channelled board the cloth does a lot: a plush velvet reads as light and shade down each channel and makes the board look deeper, while Coniston, Chenille, Linoso and Naples weaves keep the lines flatter and quieter. Mink, Silver and Charcoal behave themselves against almost any wall colour; Emerald Coniston or Black Plush Velvet turn the bed into the thing you notice first. Ask us for a sample if two are close, because screens are not to be trusted on a dark velvet.

Delivery, mattresses and getting a look at it

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it, and the charge is shown at checkout once you give us a postcode. We send beds in Scotland and well past it, so if you are outside the radius the figure is simply added rather than hidden. Mattresses are sold separately, so you can match the tension to how you actually sleep: the mattress range is the place to start.

The size guide on the Amberley Upholstered Bed page draws the bed from the side and from above with every size at the same scale, which is the fastest way to see whether your room takes the king or stops at the double.