Wentworth Kids Ottoman Divan Bed: One Lid, the Whole Toy Cupboard

Children accumulate. The Wentworth kids ottoman divan bed is a straightforward response to that: the entire area under the mattress is one lined compartment, reached by lifting the base rather than pulling out a drawer.

Why a lid beats drawers in a child's room

Gas struts take the weight of the mattress, and the top swings up from the side to open the full footprint of the bed in a single movement. Nothing has to clear a wall or a wardrobe door, which is the reason this design works where drawers do not. Children's bedrooms are usually the smallest in the house, and the bed usually ends up in a corner with one long side and one end against a wall. A drawer base in that position loses most of its storage. A lift-up base loses none.

It is also one space rather than four separate boxes, so bulky things fit: a duvet, a sleeping bag, the box the train set came in. The trade is that a lid is not a daily-access cupboard. School shoes and tomorrow's jumper belong somewhere a child can reach without help, and the ottoman is better thought of as the place the seasonal and the sentimental go.

Worth adding, because parents reasonably ask: a gas-strut lid carries the mattress, and a bed of this kind is one a younger child should not be opening unsupervised. If you want to know how the struts behave on the size you are considering, ask us rather than assuming, and come and lift one in the showroom if you can.

The headboard

The Wentworth headboard is wide, softly rounded vertical channels, fewer and deeper than close-set fluting, so the panel reads as sculpted instead of ribbed. On a board at a child's scale that is the right call, because a fine fluted pattern would be lost at this size while broad channels still carry.

It is upholstered in the same cloth as the base and the sides, so the bed arrives as one piece rather than a frame and a board that nearly match. The headboard offered is the 54 inch floor-standing version, which runs down to the floor behind the bed and leaves no gap between board and base for small things to vanish into.

Four sizes, all the same length

• Small Single 2FT6, 75 cm wide by 196.5 cm long
• Single 3FT, 90 cm wide by 196.5 cm long
• Small Double 4FT, 120 cm wide by 196.5 cm long
• Double 4FT6, 135 cm wide by 196.5 cm long

Those are finished dimensions at the widest point of the bed, not mattress sizes. Every one of the four is 196.5 cm long, so dropping to a Small Single buys you width and nothing else. Check the headroom above the bed as well, since the lid needs somewhere to swing through, and sloping ceilings and low dormer windows are the usual complication. There is a full size guide on the product page, with the bed drawn from the side and from above to a single scale.

Twenty-six colourways

The Wentworth is upholstered to order in any of 26 colourways, taken from the Coniston, Naples, Chenille, Linoso and Plush Velvet cloths. Headboard, base and sides are all finished in whichever you pick.

For a child's room the practical choices are the broken weaves in middle tones, where marks show least. Charcoal Chenille, Mink Coniston and Armour Coniston all wear their life well. Pink Plush Velvet and Blue Coniston are there for the rooms with firmer opinions, and Emerald Coniston is the one that looks grown up for longest, which matters if the bed is meant to see a child through to their teens.

Comparing it with the alternatives

If daily access matters more than volume, the drawer version of the same bed is the better buy. If volume is the whole point, this is the one. Among ottoman beds the side-lifting base is the design that survives being pushed into a corner, which is most children's rooms. The rest of our kids ottoman divan beds share this mechanism under different headboards, so you can choose the look and keep the storage.

Mattresses are sold separately so the tension is yours to choose. We send beds in Scotland and beyond from our Glasgow store, free within 50 miles and £50 further out. Size and fabric are both selected on the Wentworth ottoman product page, which prices the combination as you build it.