Sandhurst Upholstered Ottoman Bed: Channelling Over a Full-Footprint Lift

There are two reasons people choose an ottoman over a bed with drawers, and neither of them is capacity alone. The first is that a lifting platform uses the whole footprint rather than the part a drawer box can reach. The second is that it works against a wall, in a corner, or wedged beside a wardrobe, because nothing has to slide out. The Sandhurst upholstered ottoman bed does both while keeping the channelled headboard that gives the range its character.

What is under the mattress

The mattress platform lifts on gas struts and opens the full area beneath it as a single lined compartment. There is no divider, which is what makes it useful for the awkward things: a folded travel cot, a suitcase, spare duvets, the box of decorations that has no other home. Because the Sandhurst is built as a frame and not a divan box, the sides are upholstered and shaped, so with the bed closed there is no sign of the storage at all.

The headboard and the side rail

The headboard is diagonal channels running corner to corner, and the same channelling continues along the side rail. Everything finished in cloth, headboard, base and sides, is done in the one fabric you choose, so the bed is handmade to order as a whole rather than matched up from parts. Channelling and a shaped side are the two things that stop a storage bed looking like a storage bed.

Five sizes, outside measurements

• Single 3FT - 109 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Small Double 4FT - 139 cm wide by 212 cm long
• Double 4FT6 - 155 cm wide by 212 cm long
• King 5FT - 170 cm wide by 222 cm long
• Super King 6FT - 200 cm wide by 222 cm long

Those are the finished bed at its widest point, so they already include the surround. The king and super king are 222 cm long against 212 cm for the smaller three, a difference that catches people out at the foot of the bed more often than at the head.

Measuring for the lift, not just the floor

A plan view tells you whether the bed fits. It does not tell you whether the bed opens. The platform swings up from the side, so you need clear air above and beside it: check a window ledge, a radiator shelf, a sloping ceiling, a picture rail. Also leave yourself somewhere to stand. The size guide on the product page shows the bed from the side as well as from above, which is the view that answers this question.

Twenty-six colourways

The bed is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways. The velvets, Black, Steel, Mink, Mocca and Cream among them, give the channelling a hard edge of light; the chenilles and Silver Linoso soften it; Coniston and Naples sit in between in shades from Almond and Cream through to Slate Grey and Emerald. Order a sample if you are matching an existing headboard or a carpet, because greys in particular do not photograph honestly.

Ordering and delivery

Mattresses are sold separately, which is the right way round for an ottoman: the platform is flat and will take whatever depth you prefer. The bed is specified with a tall headboard. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond it, so a customer in the central belt pays nothing for it and a customer buying beds in Scotland from much further out pays a flat fifty rather than a mileage rate.

If you are weighing the frame-built lift against a divan-based one, look at both: our upholstered ottoman beds are frames with shaped sides, while the divan versions give you a squarer box that sits tighter to the mattress width. When you have decided, the Sandhurst ottoman is built to your size and fabric here.