Where a Child's Things Can Actually Go: The Oakley Kids Upholstered Ottoman Bed

The hardest thing about a child's bedroom is that it has to be a playroom, a wardrobe and a bedroom in the floor area of a box room. The Oakley kids upholstered ottoman bed answers that by putting the storage where the bed already is. The mattress platform lifts on gas struts and opens the full area beneath it as a single lined compartment, and because this is a frame rather than a divan box, the sides stay upholstered and shaped so nothing about the bed announces that it opens.

The headboard

The headboard is narrow vertical channels inside a plain flat surround, with the side rail fluted to match. It is upholstered in the same cloth as the rest of the bed, so the bed arrives as one object rather than a base and a board in two slightly different shades of the same colour. It is a quiet design, which is the point: a child's room gets its character from the things in it, and the bed is the one piece that has to still look right in five years.

One compartment beats four drawers in a small room

A drawer divan needs clear floor in front of every drawer it has. In a room where the bed is wedged between a wall and a wardrobe, that floor does not exist, and half the storage you paid for stays shut. A lifting platform needs nothing at floor level at all, which is the practical case for ottoman beds in the smallest room in the house.

It is also one space rather than several small ones, so it takes the things that defeat drawers: a sleeping bag, boxed-up toys that have been outgrown but not given away, a spare duvet, the suitcase. For anyone comparing storage types across our ranges, the lifting base is the same mechanism on an adult bed; what changes here is the scale.

Three sizes, and the length to watch

• Single 3FT: 99 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Small Double 4FT: 127 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Double 4FT6: 144 cm wide by 212 cm long

Those are the finished bed at its widest point, upholstery included. All three are 212 cm long, so the length does not shrink when you choose a narrower bed. If you are fitting the bed into an alcove or between a wall and a chimney breast, measure the long dimension first. The full size guide on the product page draws the bed from the side and from above with every size at the same scale.

Measure the air above the bed too

This is the measurement people forget on a lifting bed. The platform swings upward, so it needs clearance above the mattress to open. Children's rooms are often the ones with the sloping ceiling, the dormer window or the loft hatch, and a low sill directly over the bed will stop the top before it is fully open. Check the height from mattress top to the nearest obstruction. If it is close, ask us before ordering rather than finding out on delivery day.

Twenty-six colourways

The Oakley is upholstered to order in any of twenty-six colourways, and every part finished in cloth, which here means the headboard, the platform and the sides, is done in the fabric you pick. There are plush velvets, chenilles, the Coniston and Naples weaves and a Silver Linoso, in shades from Cream and Almond to Pink, Blue, Emerald, Charcoal and Black.

For a child's bed, think about the fluting as much as the colour. Channels hold dust more than a plain panel, and a mid tone in a textured weave is more forgiving of daily use than either a pale velvet or a flat black. We can send samples so you can judge the cloth in your own light rather than on a screen.

Mattress, build and delivery

Mattresses are sold separately so you can match the tension to the child. The bed is handmade to order in the cloth you choose, which is why the headboard and the sides match exactly rather than approximately.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it.

Full dimensions, the size drawings and the fabric list are all on the Oakley kids ottoman page. If you want to compare headboard shapes before you decide, the rest of the kids upholstered ottoman bed range uses the same lifting base under different boards.