The Pembroke Kids Wingback: a child's bed where the base is the storage

Most children's rooms lose the argument with floor space long before anyone buys furniture. The Pembroke Kids Wingback Ottoman Divan Bed answers that by making the base do nothing except hold things. Under the mattress there are no drawers and no slats, just one lined compartment the size of the whole bed, which leaves the headboard free to be the part of the bed anyone actually notices.

A wingback headboard, scaled down

The headboard runs vertical channels across the centre, with a tall plain wing angling forward at each side. The wings are what make it read as a proper piece of furniture rather than a padded board, and at a child's scale they also give something to lean against when a book or a tablet is involved. The headboard is upholstered in the same cloth as the base and the sides, so the bed arrives as one object instead of a frame and a board that nearly match.

What side-lifting storage actually changes

The whole base lifts. Gas struts take the weight of the mattress and the top swings up from the side, opening the full footprint of the bed as one lined space. Nothing runs on rails, nothing has to clear a wardrobe door, and nothing needs clear floor in front of it to be opened.

That last point is the one that matters in a small room. A drawer base needs its own depth of empty carpet in front of it or the drawers will not come out; the Pembroke can be pushed hard into a corner and still open. One large compartment is also easier to live with than four shallow ones, because the awkward items in a child's room are the big ones: the spare duvet, the carry case, the box of things nobody will throw away yet.

The four sizes

These are the finished bed measured at its widest point, which is the figure to compare against your room rather than the mattress size:

• Small Single 2FT6: 79 cm wide by 191.5 cm long
• Single 3FT: 94 cm wide by 191.5 cm long
• Small Double 4FT: 124 cm wide by 191.5 cm long
• Double 4FT6: 139 cm wide by 191.5 cm long

The product page carries a full size guide, drawn from the side and from above with every size to the same scale. Two things are worth checking with a tape before you choose. First, the length: at 191.5 cm the Pembroke is shorter than many adult frames, which is often what makes a Small Double fit a room that will not take a standard double. Second, the height above the bed, because the lid swings upward. If the bed will sit under a sloping ceiling, a dormer window or a shelf, measure the clearance and ask us about it rather than assuming, since the published figures cover the closed bed only.

Fabric: 26 colourways, one cloth throughout

The Pembroke is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways, across five cloths: plush velvet in eight colours, Coniston in seven, Naples in six, chenille in four and Linoso in silver. Every part finished in cloth is done in the fabric you pick, headboard, base and sides alike. For a child's room, a mid-tone chenille or Coniston hides a great deal more than a pale velvet does, though velvet is the one that photographs well and the one most children choose if asked.

Where it sits in the range

The Pembroke belongs to our kids ottoman divan beds, where the storage sits inside a divan box rather than behind shaped upholstered sides. Among ottoman beds that is the version with the most usable volume underneath, because the box goes right out to the edge of the bed. If you want the same storage with a more tailored outline, look at the upholstered ottomans instead; if you want no storage at all, the plain upholstered frames are lower and lighter in a small room.

It is made to order, so the size and the cloth are settled before anything is built rather than chosen from what happens to be in a warehouse. That is also why it is worth coming to see the cloths in person if you are close by, and why we are happy to talk through a room plan for anyone buying beds in Glasgow or further out.

Delivery and what is included

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it. Mattresses are sold separately, which is deliberate: a child's bed usually wants a different tension from an adult's, and buying the two apart lets you pick. When you are ready, the sizes, fabrics and headboard options are all on the Pembroke's own page, and you can ask us a question from there if something is not covered.