One Unbroken Panel: The Dorchester Ottoman Divan Explained

Almost every upholstered headboard on the market is doing something: buttons, channels, panels, piping. The Dorchester ottoman divan bed does none of it. Its headboard is one unbroken panel of cloth with no seams, channels or buttons anywhere on it, and the effect in a room is quieter and larger than a detailed board of the same size.

Who a plain panel suits

A flat panel is the right answer in two very different rooms. In a busy one, with patterned curtains or a feature wall, it is the only thing in the bedroom not asking for attention. In a plain one, it becomes a block of colour and texture, which is why the cloth you pick matters more here than on a buttoned bed. The same logic applies in reverse: if you want the headboard to be the event, this is not the bed, and the other designs in our ottoman divan beds range give you channels and seams instead.

There is a practical bonus. Nothing on the surface collects dust or crumbs, and there are no buttons for a vacuum nozzle to catch on.

How the storage works

The whole base lifts. Gas struts take the weight of the mattress and the top swings up from the side, opening the complete footprint of the bed as one lined compartment. There are no drawers, no runners and nothing that has to clear a wall or a wardrobe door, which is the real advantage ottoman beds have over drawer divan beds: you can push this bed into a corner and still get at everything inside it.

Side-opening is worth a thought at the planning stage. Because the lid swings up from one side, you want space on that side rather than at the foot, and you want nothing fixed on the wall directly above the pillows. Check which side suits your room before you order and tell us, rather than working it out when the bed arrives.

Six sizes, as the finished bed

• Small Single 2FT6: 75 cm wide, 191.5 cm long
• Single 3FT: 90 cm wide, 191.5 cm long
• Small Double 4FT: 120 cm wide, 191.5 cm long
• Double 4FT6: 135 cm wide, 191.5 cm long
• King 5FT: 150 cm wide, 200 cm long
• Super King 6FT: 184 cm wide, 200 cm long

Note where the length changes. Everything up to a 4FT6 is 191.5 cm long, and the king and super king step up to 200 cm. If you are deciding between a 4FT6 and a 5FT in a small room, you are buying 15 cm of extra width and a longer bed as well, and the length is what catches people whose bed sits in an alcove or under a window. The product page carries a size guide with the bed drawn from the side and from above, with every size at one scale.

The headboard heights

Two heights are listed. The standard board is 26 inches, which sits above the mattress and no higher, and there is a 54 inch floor-standing board that runs all the way down to the carpet behind the base. The taller board is the one to choose if the bed will be seen from across an open-plan room, or if you want the wall behind it covered. Both are upholstered in the same cloth as the base and the sides.

Twenty-six colourways

The Dorchester is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways, and every part finished in cloth comes in the fabric you pick. Because the headboard is a single plain surface, texture does the work that stitching does elsewhere. A Plush Velvet in Mocca, Steel or Black will catch light across the panel and shift as you move. A Chenille or a Coniston weave stays flatter and shows less. Ask us for a swatch if you are choosing a dark colour, since blacks and charcoals behave very differently depending on the cloth.

Delivery and the mattress

Mattresses are sold separately, so the tension is your choice. On any ottoman the mattress sits on the lifting platform, so weight affects how heavy the lid feels; say so if you want something very firm and we will advise. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it, which covers the city and well past it, so anyone comparing beds in Glasgow can treat the delivery line as nothing.

Every one is handmade to order in the size, cloth and headboard you choose. Build yours on the Dorchester ottoman page.