There’s a lot to be said for a faux leather bed frame or bedstead. They’re easier to clean than velvet beds and they’re less painful than a wooden or metal bed if you walk into them in the middle of the night.
Very few ‘leather beds’ are actually made from genuine leather as synthetic leather has a lot of the same qualities and costs a fraction of the price. If you’ve got £8000 spare (and aren’t a vegan) you can buy this real leather bed from And So To Bed.
We’ve chosen five great value leather beds, including some white leather beds and some black leather beds. We looked at factors including specification, customer ratings and price to make our choices. Prices are for a double leather bed without a mattress and are correct at the time of writing.
1. Dreams Jakarta Faux Leather Low Rise Bed Frame – £199
The Jakarta faux leather bed is only available in black but you can choose from single or double sizes and scores an impressive 4.5/5 after 800+ reviews.
It has sprung slats to support the mattress. As you may have guessed, sprung slats are slightly springier than solid slats and give a bit of a softer feel to your mattress. They’re generally more expensive than solid slats.
On the downside, these leather beds come with a slightly disappointing one year guarantee.
Pros: sprung slats, very positive reviews, respected bed retailer
Cons: one year guarantee is disappointing, not available in king size or super king size
Our Value Rating: *****
(For our value rating we weigh up factors such as specification, brand reputation and review scores and give a score out of five. The full five stars is for a product that we think offers ‘exceptionally good value’. Four stars are for ‘very good value’ products. Three stars is for ‘good value’ products).
2. Happy Beds Berlin Brown or Black Leather Ottoman Bed – £199
As with a lot of faux leather beds, the Berlin model from Happy Beds comes with a huge amount of storage.
In this case, it is an ottoman bed which sits on the floor so you can pile in all your old junk. Ottoman beds are not too difficult to lift up and down as they use clever hydraulics to take a lot of the weight.
It comes in a choice of black leather or brown leather but it’s worth noting that some reviewers say that the brown leather bed is a very dark shade. Reviews are positive, although some people said they found the instructions for putting it together a bit tricky.
One of the real plus points of this leather bed is that you get a five year guarantee, which is four years more than most rival beds.
You can buy this one as a single leather bed, small double leather bed, double leather bed or king size leather bed.
Pros: good choice of sizes, five year warranty is excellent for the price, low price, plenty of storage space
Cons: takes some assembly, budget brand
Our Value Rating: *****
3. Argos Lavendon Leather Bed – £240
These Argos leather beds are at the budget end of the market but they’ve had hundreds of positive reviews (mostly around 4.7/5).
You can choose from grey or black and they all come with either drawers underneath or ottoman storage where the whole mattress lifts up with the help of hydraulics.
The choice of sizes is good too (single, small double, double or king size).
The ‘user weight limit’ for the double version is a total of 200kg, which works out as a couple who both weigh about 15 stone.
It’s got sprung slats which give a slightly bouncier feel to your mattress than you get with solid slats.
You only get a one year guarantee with this bed.
Pros: sprung slats, choice of drawers or ottoman, good weight limit, low price
Cons: only has a one year warranty
Our Value Rating: *****
You can buy this Argos leather bed in black or grey…
4. GFW Bed in a Box Leather Bed – £155
If you’re after a white leather bed, then you don’t have as much choice as you get with black leather beds.
However, this white faux leather bed from a company called GFW The Furniture Warehouse is good value and has a modern style.
It’s got sprung slats which give a slightly bouncier feel to your mattress than you get with solid slats. It’s also quite low to the ground, so perhaps it’s one to avoid if you have mobility issues and struggle to get out of bed.
There aren’t a lot of customer reviews around for the GFW, but those that we could find were positive, with 4.6/5 from over 10 reviews.
You can buy this bed as a small double, double and king size leather bed and a choice of white, black or grey. It comes with a one year guarantee.
Pros: unusual design will appeal to some people, good value
Cons: one year warranty, not many reviews to go on, low design is not ideal for some people, not a big name brand
Our Value Rating: ****
and it comes in single, small double, double and king size
5. Dreams Yardley Faux Leather Bed Frame – £299
We’ve gone for another good value faux leather bed from Dreams for our final choice.
The bad news it that you can only choose from two sizes (single and double) and you can only get it in black.
However, it does come with the added bonus of having ottoman storage. That’s the sort that lifts up and gives you a massive amount of space without a lot of effort. I like ottoman beds as they are a lot neater than having boxes stuffed under your bed. You probably won’t use it for keeping your socks in, as it’s a bit more effort than a drawer to open. More likely, you will use it to store spare bedding or your Christmas decorations.
The slats on the Yardley bed are sprung, so they will give you a slightly softer sensation than you get with solid slats. I prefer sprung slats as the extra bit of flex mentions they tend not to break as easily.
Reviews are overwhelmingly positive with an average of 4.7/5 from 1000+ customers.
My main criticism is the basic one year warranty. This seems to apply across the board for bedframes from Dreams. Rivals such as Happy Beds have a five year guarantee on most products, which blows it out the water.
Pros: low price, respected retailer, very positive reviews, ottoman storage included
Cons: one year warranty, limited sizes and colours, no frills design
Our Value Rating: *****
What about your mattress? Is it suitable for your bedframe?
One other thing to consider before buying a bedframe is whether it will be suitable for your mattress. In some cases a poor quality bedframe could even void the warranty of your mattress, although I’d say that’s quite unusual.
We pored through the terms and conditions of a number of mattress warranties and found several have clauses which require a maximum gap of 75mm between slats on your bedframe. Some also have a minimum gap between slats or specify how wide the slats need to be. In some cases it is a recommendation whilst others make it a term of the warranty.
The reason they include such a clause is that a mattress could be badly damaged if it isn’t properly supported from beneath.
It’s not an issue on a divan base as they offer a solid surface rather than slats.
Most bedframes will be fine, but it’s a question to ask in the showroom before you buy a £300 bedframe and then find it has voided the warranty for your £1000 mattress.
