The Penhurst Upholstered Ottoman: a sleigh bed with the storage hidden

Storage beds usually look like storage beds. The Penhurst Upholstered Ottoman Bed is the exception in our range, because the lifting platform sits inside the same scrolled, deeply buttoned shell as the plain Penhurst frame. Closed, nothing about it announces that the whole area under the mattress is empty and lined.

Is it the same bed as the Penhurst frame?

The headboard and footboard are. Both versions have the scrolled sleigh headboard and the matching rolled footboard, both deeply buttoned with crystal buttons, and both are upholstered throughout in the cloth you choose. The difference is underneath. On this one the mattress platform lifts on gas struts to open the full area beneath it as one lined compartment, and because the bed is a frame rather than a divan box the sides stay upholstered and shaped. The storage is invisible when the bed is closed.

What that costs you in usable space

It is worth being straight about the trade. A divan-based ottoman has a square box going right out to the edges of the bed, so it holds slightly more. A frame-based ottoman like the Penhurst gives up a little of that to the shaped sides, and gets a better-looking bed in return. If raw volume is the priority, the ottoman divan beds are the honest recommendation; if the bed is in a room you entertain in or a room with no spare corner for a blanket box, the Penhurst is the one to look at.

Five sizes, and the measuring that matters

• Single 3FT: 99 cm wide by 231 cm long
• Small Double 4FT: 127 cm wide by 231 cm long
• Double 4FT6: 144 cm wide by 231 cm long
• King 5FT: 158 cm wide by 240 cm long
• Super King 6FT: 189 cm wide by 240 cm long

Those are the finished bed at its widest point, and the lengths are generous because the scrolled head and rolled foot both take up floor. A Double needs 231 cm of length and a King 240 cm, so measure skirting to skirting rather than working from the mattress size.

With any lifting bed there is a second measurement: the room above it. The platform rises, so a low ceiling, a dormer, a sloped eaves line or a fitted shelf over the bed can all get in the way. The published figures describe the closed bed, so if the headroom is tight, tell us the ceiling height and we will tell you whether it works instead of leaving you to discover it when the bed arrives. There is a size guide on the product page with the bed drawn from the side and from above, every size at one scale.

The 26 colourways

The Penhurst ottoman is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways: eight plush velvets, seven Coniston shades, six Naples, four chenilles and one silver Linoso. Everything finished in cloth is done in your choice, headboard, footboard, sides and the lifting platform's visible edges together. A tall headboard is included.

Buttoning and cloth interact. Deep buttoning in a plush velvet gives you the strongest version of the Penhurst, with real light and shadow across the headboard. The same buttoning in a flat chenille is restrained, almost upholstered-furniture rather than show bed. Both are correct; they are different rooms.

Who it suits

Three situations come up again and again. Flats with no loft and no airing cupboard, where the bed is the only place a spare duvet can live. Guest rooms that have to double as storage for most of the year. And main bedrooms where the owner wants a statement headboard but cannot justify losing the space under the bed to achieve it. In each case what sells the Penhurst is that it does not look like a compromise.

It belongs to our upholstered ottoman beds, and it is made to order in the size and cloth you pick. Among ottoman beds it is the one we point people towards when the bed has to be good-looking first and useful second, and plenty of our customers buying beds in Scotland choose it for exactly that reason.

Delivery and mattresses

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it. Mattresses are sold separately, so the tension is your decision. The sizes, the full colourway list and the size guide are all on the Penhurst ottoman's page, along with a form for asking us anything this guide has not answered.