Diamond Buttoning Over a Lift-Up Base: The Norbury Ottoman Divan Bed

Most storage beds ask you to choose between a base that holds things and a headboard worth looking at. The Norbury does not. Its headboard is a close diamond lattice, buttoned in the same cloth as the rest of the bed, with a slim upright post standing forward of the panel at each edge so the lattice reads as a framed panel rather than a flat board. Everything below the mattress is storage. You can see the whole thing on the Norbury ottoman divan bed page, in all six sizes.

How the storage actually opens

The entire base lifts. Gas struts carry the weight of the mattress and the top swings up from the side, which opens the full footprint of the bed as one lined compartment. There are no drawers and no runners, so nothing has to clear a wall, a radiator or a wardrobe door before you can get at what is inside. That is the practical argument for ottoman beds over drawer divans in a room where the bed has to sit against two walls: a drawer needs floor space in front of it to be useful, and a lifting base needs only enough headroom above the bed to swing.

Because it is one compartment rather than four, it also takes awkward shapes. Spare duvets, a suitcase, boxed winter clothes and the things that otherwise live on top of a wardrobe all fit in a space that is as long and as wide as the bed itself.

Six sizes, measured honestly

The figures below are the finished bed at its widest point, not the mattress size, which is the measurement that decides whether it fits through your door and leaves you room to walk past it.

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

There is a full size guide on the product page with the bed drawn from the side and from above, every size to the same scale. Worth noting that the king and super king are the longer pair at 200 cm, so if your room is tight at the foot end, the step from a 4FT6 to a 5FT costs you length as well as width.

What to check before you order a lifting base

Three measurements settle it. First, the width and length above, against your floor. Second, the route in: the bed arrives in parts, but the headboard panel is a single piece and the base sections are large, so measure the narrowest point of your stairwell or hallway. Third, and specific to a lift-up base, the clearance above the bed on the side it opens from. A low sloping ceiling or a window sill directly over the bed can stop the top from swinging fully open. If you are not sure whether your room has room, send us the measurements and ask rather than guessing.

Twenty-six colourways, applied to the whole bed

The Norbury is upholstered to order in any of twenty-six colourways, and every part finished in cloth is done in the fabric you choose: the headboard, the base and the sides. The range covers plush velvets, chenilles, the Coniston and Naples weaves, and a Silver Linoso, in shades from Cream and Almond through Mink and Mocca to Emerald, Blue, Pink, Charcoal and Black.

Buttoning behaves differently in different cloths. A diamond lattice in a plush velvet catches light along every fold and reads as the loudest thing in the room; the same lattice in a flatter weave like Coniston is quieter and shows the geometry rather than the sheen. If you are deciding between two, order fabric samples and look at them in your own bedroom light before committing to a whole bed.

Headboard and mattress

The Norbury takes a 54-inch floor standing headboard, which is a tall board that reaches the floor behind the base rather than bolting to it. Mattresses are sold separately, so you can pair the bed with whichever tension suits you rather than taking whatever happens to come with it.

Delivery

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it. That covers most of the central belt from the showroom, and we deliver to customers much further out in Scotland at the flat charge.

If the Norbury is on your shortlist, read the full specification and the size drawings on the Norbury's own page, and compare it with the rest of our ottoman divan beds to see how the headboards differ across the range. The storage is the same on all of them; the board above the pillows is what you will actually look at every day.