Let me answer this question based on our current experience. First, to be clear, an ottoman bed is a must in the UK.
It’s a MUST in the UK
In the UK, room space is luxurious.
While we can only put our clothes in a 100cm width wardrobe and a chest of drawers, in addition to no cellar, that’s being said, all of the off-season clothes, blankets, bedsheets and suitcases, need to be put under the bed.
An ottoman storage bed is the ONLY choice.
Upholstered Or Wooden Frame?
After we’ve decided to buy an ottoman bed, the next question is, upholstered or wooden frame?
There is plenty of choices on the market. After checking different products in store, we came to decide between upholstered or wooden frame.
Upholstered Frame
pros: soft touch, lovely colour and texture, inviting
cons: comparatively difficult to clean (depends on fabric)
Wooden Frame
pros: natural, durable, long lasting
cons: can break your knee when it’s dark 😛
What about price range? From what we’ve seen, a branded upholstered one can be really pricy. A headboard(ONLY!) can go up to £700-800, which allows me to buy an entire bed.
On the other hand, some online stores are selling surprisingly cheap, with less than £300, you can buy an ottoman storage bed with free delivery. I remain skeptical.
If a bed is too cheap, what’s the materials? Even including delivery? How do they run the business? Would it last? I kept asking myself. Something can go wrong and I don’t want trouble.
So we went for a solid oak wood ottoman bed with a reasonable price, which has very good reviews in terms of quality and customer service.
Deliver to Your Room of Choice?
Unfortunately, we’ve missed one point: delivery will be to the building main door only! We live at first floor, means, we have to pick all flat-packs by ourselves. We called the customer service: ‘How heavy is the total weight?’ ’90 kg in 5 packs.’
WOW. Can we do that? It seems like we don’t have other choice!
Well, the most heaviest pack is 27kg, second one is 26kg. We put on gloves, Curry Boy picked the head and I was the tail. It’s manageable but indeed very heavy! After that my heart beat has been risen and my hands were shaking.
But don’t ever think of taking a rest, start assembling your bed, it can take longer time than you thought!
Guess How Much Time It Took Us to Assemble?
To assemble a king size bed does require ample space, especially when you don’t know where is the instructions booklet (why there is no indication?). We had to open all the packs, and the whole room was full!
This bed, all parts were quite solid and we didn’t have to worry about some nail holes to be damaged. However, instructions was not so clear like IKEA. We were struggled at step 1 for an hour, just to put some screws and assemble the headboard with sides.
We started at around 11am, in between had a lunch break, finished and cleaned up at 6pm. Exhausted.
The First Action After Finishing Assembly
Lie down? No.
I headed to my laptop and searched for Swyft Bed, that designed to be nice colour, no-tool and easy to assemble and disassemble, because I’m really pleased with their sofa. 😛
Today, I asked Curry Boy, ‘If you have a chance to order a new bed in the future, will you assemble by yourself, or purchase an easy-assemble one?’ ‘I’d still assemble by myself. An easy-assemble bed? How durable can it be?’
Another Option: TaskRabbit
If you’re going to buy assembly-required furnitures, but don’t want to assemble by yourself, maybe you can try TaskRabbit. Their review is quite good.
TaskRabbit website is easy to use. You describe the task, then pick a person based on the review and his/her experience. Their hourly charge is different. If you’re not confident in assemble large furniture, or want to save some time and effort, I think TaskRabbit would be a good option too.
