Generally speaking, you get what you pay for with a bed. But that doesn’t mean that all cheap double beds are equally bad.
We’ve picked out five cheap double beds with mattresses that we think offer good value for money. Our selections all feature cheap bed deals where you get a base (i.e. a divan or bed frame) as well as a mattress.
The cheap beds we’ve picked out are priced between about £250 and £600.
Prices are for double sized beds and mattresses and are correct at the time of writing.
1. Happy Beds Rio Wooden Bed (£287) + Happy Beds Majestic Mattress (£314) – total of £601 at Happy Beds
Happy Beds is a budget brand that sells a big range of cheap beds. The brand as a whole scores 4.4/5 on TrustPilot or 4.6/5 on Feefo.
We’ve picked out this Rio wooden bed frame and the Happy Beds Majestic mattress. Both come with a five year guarantee if you buy direct from Happy Beds, which is four years longer than you get with most cheap beds.
The Rio bed frame is made from pine and comes in a natural wood colour or a washed white colour. Pine is what most cheap wooden beds are made from rather than harder woods like oak. However, pine is perfectly adequate. Wooden beds have the advantage of not squeaking as much as cheap metal beds. I’m always put off by the occasions when I’ve walked into the corner of a wooden bed whilst going to the toilet at 3am.
Strong support
The bits of wood supporting the mattress are what is known as ‘solid slats’. That gives a mattress a bit of a firmer feel than you get with sprung slats and spread the weight out better than thin metal rungs. They can be used with a memory foam or sprung mattress as long as the slats aren’t too far apart. There weren’t many reviews when I checked, but those available were positive.
Meanwhile, the Majestic mattress is a medium firmness mattress with a good specification for the money.
It’s a pocket sprung mattress, which is what most of us are used to. There are 1000 pocket springs, which will offer a good level of support unless you’re a sumo wrestler. I’d look for a number nearer to 2000 pocket springs if that’s the case.
It’s a good depth at 25cm and it can be turned over. That should help reduce dips and lumps over time. Some cheap mattresses save a bit of money by being single sided.
Reviews for this one average 4.3/5 on Amazon whilst it scores 4.8/5 on the Happy Beds website.
2. Yaheetech Metal Bed (£79) + Inofia Mattress (£169) – total of £248 at Amazon
You’ve probably not heard of Inofia or Yaheetech, but this cheap bed and mattress both get great customer reviews and have a reasonable specification for the money.
The Yaheetech metal bed isn’t as heavyweight as more expensive metal beds but it’s got 100+ customer reviews which average 4.4/5. At £79 it’s one of the cheapest bedframes around.
The main downside with this bed is that it has metal rungs to support the mattress rather than flat wooden slats, which do a better job of spreading the weight out. Several expert guides I’ve read say that slats are better for your mattress. One option is to use some thin wood on top of the rungs to spread out the weight (or even a bit of thick cardboard would probably be better than nothing).
Also, check the weight limit for the Yaheetech metal bed. By my calculations, it can cope with two people weighing about 21 stone each. That’s only a rough calculation – don’t blame me if you end up in a heap of bent metal bars in the morning.
More about the mattress
Meanwhile, this hybrid mattress from Inofia’s grandly-named ‘Elegant Collection’ offers a lot of mattress for the money. Customers give it 4.5/5 from 500+ reviews.
It uses a combination of pocket springs (the posher type out of the two main types of mattress spring) along with layers of foam including memory foam. Some people find the feeling of memory foam a bit unusual, as it sinks and hugs you a bit, but it’s a material offering a good level of consistent support.
Unusually for a cheap mattress it comes with a 10 year guarantee and a ‘100 night risk free trial'(check the small print, of course). It’s also much deeper than most cheap mattresses at 27cm, compared to the usual 15-20cm for a budget mattress.
There’s not as much detail as I’d like in the description for the mattress. For example, it doesn’t tell you how many pocket springs there are, which is a useful piece of information.
Anyway, it’s still an impressive specification for the price.
3. Dreams Workshop Divan Bed base (£200) + Sleepeezee Classic Ortho Mattress (£369) – total of £569 at Dreams & Mattress Online
If you don’t mind buying your bed and mattress from two different shops then this combination is great value for money.
A divan base like this one from Dreams is not much more than a wooden box covered in fabric, but it will provide a good solid base for your mattress and it has 3500+ five star reviews (and an overall average customer score of 4.7/5 when I checked). It doesn’t include fancy springs and it doesn’t come with drawers for that price. You’ll need to budget for a headboard, but these can be bought for about £30-40 from places like Amazon. See our headboard guide.
It comes in a choice of four colours.
Meanwhile, the Sleepeezee Classic Ortho is a good choice if you want a firm mattress from a brand you’ve heard of at a budget price (firm mattresses are generally better for back sleepers than side sleepers).
Brand reviews
Sleepeezee are one of the highest rated mattress brands on TrustPilot (4.3/5). They’ve also got a Royal Warrant, meaning they supply a royal household and their mattresses come with a 60 night comfort trial so you can swap it if you’re not happy (check the Ts&Cs).
It’s not got as many pocket springs as posher mattresses (upgrade to the Sleepeezee Backcare Deluxe if you can afford it) and you can’t turn it over which isn’t ideal, but it’s a good depth and it comes with a five year guarantee.
It’s also worth saying that most people agree that a pocket spring mattress with a lower than average number of springs is still much better than an ‘open coil’ mattress which is much wobblier and less supportive.
4. Essential Everyday Pocket Mattress – total of £408 at Mattressman
Mattressman has got a good selection of budget beds but we’ve picked out this cheap British Bed Company mattress and basic divan.
The base is similar in price and style to the Dreams Classic Divan Base, by which I mean it is a very simple ‘platform top’ base which doesn’t have any fancy springs or storage for stuffing your spare bedding. Honestly, I’m struggling of things to think to write about a beige box.
Anyway, it’ll do the job nicely and the small number of reviews available are positive.
It comes with a pocket sprung mattress, which is the superior alternative to an open coil mattress. The open coil version is about £20 cheaper but I would say it’s a good value upgrade – particularly as it comes with a very respectable 1000 pocket springs.
The brand is a not a big name, unlike Sleepeezee or Silentnight.
Sure, you would get a much fancier mattress if you spent a bit more money but this is a guide to cheap beds after all…
5. John Lewis House Wilton (£249) + John Lewis Classic No 1 1000 pocket spring Mattress (£299) – total of £548 at John Lewis & Partners
John Lewis & Partners may not be the place you first search for a cheap bed, but some of their beds and mattresses are lower priced than you’d imagine and you’re buying from a retailer with several customer service awards (plus you get to impress the neighbours with a John Lewis delivery).
Their range includes this £249 Wilton double wooden bed frame which comes in white, grey or a natural wood colour. The wooden frame is made from pine, which is what you’ll find on most cheap wooden beds. It has a solid slatted base, so it has a firmer feel than sprung slats.
A respected mattress brand
Meanwhile, the John Lewis & Partners No 1 1000 mattress isn’t the cheapest they sell, but I personally would avoid open coil mattresses unless you really have no choice. This medium firmness pocket spring mattress is a better choice as it offers more superior support and a less wobbly sleeping experience.
It comes with an impressive seven year guarantee, it’s made in the UK and it has some other signs of being a decent quality such as ‘hand side stitching’ (that’s a boring technical thing which gives it strength around the edges).
The mattress has 1000 pocket springs, which is not bad for the money (good quality mattresses have 1000-2000 pocket springs in my experience). You also can’t turn it over, so you just rotate it round in an effort to avoid sags and dips over time.
