The Delamere Kids Upholstered Bed: Measure the Room, Then Pick the Cloth

The Delamere is a generously built children's bed frame, and the numbers say so before the photographs do. A 3FT single finishes at 104 cm wide and 212 cm long, which is substantially more floor than the mattress inside it. That is the cost of a deep upholstered surround and two wings, and it is the first thing to check rather than the last.

The Delamere kids upholstered bed has narrow vertical channels running the full height of the headboard between two forward-angled wings, all upholstered in the same cloth as the sides and the base.

The three sizes, and what they really take up

• Single 3FT: 104 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Small Double 4FT: 132 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Double 4FT6: 149 cm wide by 212 cm long

Those are finished sizes at the widest point. Before you choose, put a tape across the room and mark 212 cm from the wall the headboard will sit against, then check what is left: a door that needs to swing, a radiator, a wardrobe that has to open. In a typical small bedroom the Delamere in 3FT is a comfortable fit and the 4FT6 is a decision about giving up floor. The product page carries a size guide drawing all three from the side and from above at a single scale.

Why the wings matter on a child's bed

Wings that angle forward do more than frame the headboard. They stop a pillow sliding off sideways, they put upholstery where a wall would otherwise be marked, and they give a child a padded corner to read against. The channels between them run the full height rather than stopping part way, so the headboard reads as one piece of upholstery.

A frame, with no storage

The mattress sits down inside the 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 the lines quiet, which is the right trade if the room already has a wardrobe and a chest, and the wrong one if the floor under the bed is the only space you have left. In the second case a lift-up base is the better buy, so compare the shapes across the kids upholstered beds before you commit.

Twenty-six colourways

The Delamere is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways, across the Coniston, Naples, Chenille, Plush Velvet and Linoso cloths. Every upholstered part is finished in the cloth you pick. Two things worth weighing for a child's room: the channels show up strongly in a Plush Velvet and quietly in a flat Naples, and a mid tone such as Mink Coniston, Silver Chenille or Charcoal Coniston carries daily handling better than Cream on the parts that get leaned on. Pink Coniston and Blue Coniston are there if the walls are already committed.

Ordering it

Mattresses are sold separately, which is deliberate on a child's bed: the right tension for a seven-year-old is not the right tension for a teenager, and the frame will see both. We send beds in Scotland and well beyond, with delivery free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 past it, and you are welcome to come and sit on one first.

When the room is measured and the cloth narrowed down to two, the Delamere's page lists every size and colourway, and we will answer anything the listing does not cover.