When we speak to our treasured customers at French Bedroom we often compare the purchase of a bed to a wedding dress. It's a very considered purchase, often commanding advice and opinion from family and friends. There is often a deadline involved (eg house purchase) and it involves spending approximately the same amount of money as a wedding dress. And finally, we hope you won’t need to purchase another one for many years to come – or ever!
So, let’s start by outlining the types of beds that we offer here at French Bedroom.
Types of Bedsteads
Wooden Bed Frame
Our most popular bed is the classic French style carved wooden frame. Carved by hand by artisans and finished in a range of colours and textures, these future heirlooms are designs to cherish. Eye-catching and elegant, they will bring a distinct French style to your bedroom. The upholstered fabric areas can be linen, velvet or silk and finished with tufting or button-work upholstery or left plain. These beds are often referred to as cabriole beds. The upholstery is usually plain or striped. The key visual element is the carvings on the wooden frame surround. When considering a truly classic French bed, the most quintessential design and firm customer favourite is our Lit D’Amour French Beds (Translates as ‘Bed of Love’) with a choice of a low or high footboard or our Love Story Collection. Exceptionally popular, these beds combine contemporary linens and velvets with classic lines, shapes and carvings in a taupe-grey stone, and make the ideal centre-piece for any French room, from Chateau to farmhouse, via townhouse and cottage.
The carvings around the frame can feature flowers, acanthus leaves, finials, and gently sweeping cabriole legs, adorned with swirls and traditional floral motifs. The headboard crest and shoulders will often be carved with adornments of the same floral elements, leaves, and motifs. It’s these elements that make this type of bed an heirloom piece, a bed you will pass to future generations.
Upholstered Beds
Our second most popular bed is the fully upholstered style of bed. These beds are available in a range of colours, textures and also patterns. Our floral patterned upholstered beds such as the Windsor Garden Floral Upholstered Bed, Settle into Silence Upholstered Bed or Tournier Garden Upholstered Bed are extremely popular; they provide the visual focus in your room, with other pieces of furniture working around their floral glory. Curtains and cushions can be matched to a coordinating colour in the palette or an exact pattern match to the headboard for a well-considered ‘cover of a magazine’ aesthetic. You can read more about styling patterned headboards in our guide here: How to Style an Upholstered Patterned Headboard.
Our Luxury upholstered beds can be either tufted, buttoned or plain. Buttoned headboards feature fabric-covered buttons that are sewn in to create a domed effect. Floral upholstered headboards best suit non-buttoned designs so the pattern can be revealed and enjoyed to maximum effect.
We take great care to ensure the patterns in our upholstery perfectly wrap around the sides and edges of the bed, as well as the side rails and footend. It takes longer as it requires careful planning to pattern match, luckily the finished result is worth it every time. We work with a treasured family-run factory who have designed a unique ‘modesty panel’ to cover a small section of the slats beneath the mattress. This clever model panel ensures the slats will not be seen if the mattress is moved at all during use, or when the sheets are changed.
To ensure your upholstered bed is kept in the best condition we have written the following guides: How to Guide: How to Clean an Upholstered Bed & How to Guide: How to Clean a Velvet Bed.
Four Poster Beds
When we think of the most decadent French beds, it’s the luxury four poster beds that take centre stage. French Bedroom’s dark and dramatic black satin 4 poster, the Sassy Boo Boudoir Majestic Bed has been featured on many film sets, including the BBC’s Killing Eve. Nothing says serious decadence more than a four-poster bed. They are surprisingly easy to style, just think scale – small cushions and lightweight bedspreads won’t do – large-scale cushions with deep, heavyweight, and large bedspreads that can cascade over the edges will create a boudoir where you’ll absolutely want to close the door!
Sleigh Beds
It has been said that a Sleigh Bed is the definition and visual essence of a truly French bed. A bedstead with headboard and footboard that roll outward in scroll form. Our Sleigh Beds offer French styling but with a modern touch – they are built to last for decades and have a light and airy aesthetic, easier to use than the heavier colour woods of yester-year. We love how tactile and inviting the beds are as you walk past. Wooden sleigh beds can feature carved finials at the end of the headboard and footboard edges or be more simply styled. As a general rule, the more detail a Sleigh Bed frame has, the more French it will look. Sleigh Beds look their best in a plain or textured fabric, allowing the scrolling shape to do the visual talking. The finest example of a French Sleigh Bed are our Lottie Beds in Natural or Grey Linen or our Million Dreams or New Beginnings beds in natural ivory cotton and pale pink petal velvet.
Winged Beds
Winged bed frames have stature and gravitas combined with a comforting and cocooning effect. They make ideal beds for hotels as their grandeur and large scale sets the tone, yet their comforting nature ensures full relaxation. To find the balance of hotel-themed luxury coupled with intense relaxation, turn to our Marquess Blue Velvet, Absolutely Boucle, Beaufort and Pimlico Beds in Prussian blue or jet black.
Storage Beds
Storage beds, also sometimes known as divan beds, provide the ideal combination of form and function. By night they are an elegant platform upon which to rest your weary head, and by day they provide storage for large items such as towels bed linen and jumpers, or your occasional wear items such as ski wear and sports specific items. Storage beds are a great way to ensure you are utilising all space within your bedroom. One consideration with a storage bed is that light flow doesn't pass beneath your bed, which can have the effect of making your bedroom look smaller.
Reversible Headboards
Reversible Headboards! In 2022 we invented the world’s first reversible headboard, whereby you can rotate the headboard to reveal a different design. A bed that ensures you can change your bedroom design as often as you change your mind, your dress, or your plans. Designed by our in-house team and manufactured in the UK, the headboard can be rotated 180° so you can choose from a floral or stripe upholstered side. One side of the headboard is a floral damask and on the other side is a fine ticking stripe in the same pale blue and ivory colour shades. Love In Idleness is an extreme dream of bed!
Rattan Beds
No French style room is complete without a rattan chair or bed. Rattan has a wonderful way of allowing the air and light to flow through the rattan material, creating an illusion of increased space. They are the ideal choice for homes with smaller bedrooms or darker spaces. They also make a stylish choice for light rooms as the ‘light-play’ through the rattan is exceptional. One of our all-time customer favourite rattan beds, are Normandy Beds with both high and low footboards. Featured on the TV series Ted Lasso and the BBC's Fleabag, you can have a bed that gives you star quality! Rattan is a surprisingly durable material, but may not make the perfect choice if you have cats who like to scratch – the rattan holes can be inviting for tiny claws! Rattan bed frames are almost always available in natural tones such as stone, grey and taupe to be an authentic reflection of the French styles from 17th century France. For a more rustic finish, our Chateauneuf Rustic Rattan Bed is made from reclaimed wood and is left stripped of paint, to reveal the natural wooden patina beneath. A firm customer favourite, this sell-out French bed has been our best-seller for the past few years due to its ease of use – being a natural wood it sits in rooms of all colours, and the design suits homes of all styles and sizes from grand to modest. If you would like to learn more on styling with rattan we have a great guide available on How to Style Your Rattan Bed on our blog.
Rattan is a delicate natural material, and we use fine rattan in a tight wicker weave to emulate the authentic French styles. Rattan will last for many years if carefully used and cared for. How to Guide: How to Maintain A Rattan Bed.
Headboard Shapes & Styles
If your decision lands on an upholstered French bed, there are a myriad of styles to choose from. From the gentle undulations and curves of our sweeping headboards on the range of Soho Beds, to the lofty tombstone headboards on the Hunter Green Velvet Upholstered Bed and Settle Into Silence Upholstered Bed, there is a form to suit every room, taste and staircase (make sure you take access into account and measure doorways and staircases before ordering!). Many of our upholstered headboards feature piping in a contrasting colour to define the undulations and curves of the design. The Tournier Garden and Settle into Silence beds are great examples of how a deeply coloured piping can really bring a design to life, enhancing and elevating the pattern, colour and print.
The final design of a fully upholstered headboard is the simple square headboard. More contemporary in style, allowing the other pieces of furniture and accessories in your room to take the visual real-estate. Square headboards are simple to style and allow easy changes to be made to your room, meaning they will last with you as the decades change, your homes change or your style does! Great examples of well-made, but simply-styled square headboards are our Arcana Upholstered Bed, Boudoir Noir Luxury Navy Velvet Bed, and Absolutely Boucle Upholstered Bed.
Bed Base Styles
The type of bed base you choose can also make a difference in the overall look and feel of your bedroom. At French Bedroom, we offer two main base options: slatted and divan. A slatted base is made up of wooden slats that run across the bed frame and provide support for the mattress. This type of base allows for air to circulate around the mattress, keeping it fresh and dry. A divan base, on the other hand, is a solid platform that provides a stable and supportive base for the mattress. Divan bases are often used with a valance to hide the base and create a seamless look in the bedroom.
Mattress Sizes
At French Bedroom, we offer a wide range of bed frames and headboards in a variety of sizes to fit UK standard mattress sizes.
- Our UK Single size bed frames and headboards are 90cm x 190cm,
- While our UK Double size bed frames and headboards are 135cm x 190cm.
- Our UK King size bed frames and headboards are 150cm x 200cm,
- and our UK Super king size bed frames and headboards are 180cm x 200cm.
- We also offer a UK Large Emperor size bed frame and headboard, which is 215cm x 215cm.
We have a comprehensive explainer on mattress sizing available in our UK Mattress Sizing Guide.
We also have a team of experiences French Bedroom stylists on hand to help you through your journey who you can contact here
