How to Choose a Storage Bed for a Small UK Bedroom

Last updated: 30 September 2026. Written by the Eagle Bed workshop team, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

The short answer

In a small UK bedroom, the bed is usually the largest piece of storage you own. A gas-lift ottoman bed gives the most space because the whole mattress platform lifts on hydraulic struts; a drawer divan gives less space but needs no lifting; a plain upholstered frame gives none but sits lowest and lightest. Which one fits depends less on the bed and more on the clear floor you have left once the bed is in the room.

The three types of storage bed, compared

Type	How you get to the storage	Best for	Needs clear space	From
End-lift gas ottoman	Whole platform lifts on struts from the foot of the bed	Maximum storage; bed with free floor at the foot	At the foot of the bed, plus height above	£220.99
Side-lift gas ottoman	Platform lifts from one long side	Beds pushed against a wall at the foot, or into an alcove	At one side, plus height above	£249.99
Divan with drawers	Drawers pull out of the base	No lifting; opening one section at a time	Roughly a drawer's depth of floor at the drawer side	£259.99
Plain upholstered frame	No built-in storage; standard under-bed boxes fit beneath	Rooms where storage already exists elsewhere	Nothing extra	£285.99

Exact storage compartment depths for our ottoman bases are being measured in the workshop and are not published yet — we would rather leave a number out than print one we have not checked. Email eaglebedofficial@gmail.com and we will measure the base you are considering.

Start with the room, not the bed

1. Measure the wall the bed will sit against, then the two walls either side.
2. Leave 60–75cm of clear floor on every side you actually walk down.
3. Check what swings into that floor: wardrobe doors, the bedroom door, radiator valves.
4. Look up. A tall headboard needs wall height above the mattress line, and a lifting ottoman platform needs clearance above the bed as it swings open — sloped ceilings and low windows are the two things people forget.
5. Check the route in: doorway widths, stair turns, landing width. Our beds arrive as headboard, base and rails rather than one solid piece.

Which size actually fits

UK mattress sizes are standard, so the decision is about floor space, not brand. Kids Single 2ft6 is 75 x 190cm, Single 3ft is 90 x 190cm, Small Double 4ft is 120 x 190cm, Standard Double 4ft6 is 135 x 190cm, King 5ft is 150 x 200cm and Super King 6ft is 180 x 200cm. Our frames are built to take those mattress sizes; the upholstered sides add a few centimetres to the overall footprint, so measure with a little margin. The full chart, with what each size suits, is in our UK bed sizes guide.

The size most small-bedroom buyers agonise over is 4ft versus 4ft6. A Small Double is 15cm narrower than a Standard Double — often exactly the difference between a wardrobe door that opens and one that does not. If you are choosing between a bigger bed with no storage and a smaller bed with storage, the smaller bed with storage usually wins in a room under about 3m across.

Side-lift or end-lift?

This is the one question we are asked most. Choose end-lift if the foot of the bed faces open floor — you stand at the end and lift towards the headboard. Choose side-lift if the bed sits with its foot against a wall, in an alcove, or under a window, because you only need working space along one side. Both use hydraulic struts, so the platform carries most of its own weight as it opens, and both can be opened with the mattress in place.

What a storage bed will not solve

Under-bed storage is excellent for bedding, seasonal clothing, suitcases and spare pillows. It is poor for anything you need daily, because you have to clear the bed surface to open it. If you are trying to replace a chest of drawers entirely, a drawer divan is usually the more realistic answer than an ottoman.

Don't forget the mattress

Every one of our bases takes a standard UK mattress. Our Memory Orthopaedic Mattress starts at £142.99 in Single 3ft, and the 3000 Pocket Sprung Mattress starts at £220.99 — worth ordering at the same time so the frame and mattress arrive on one delivery.

Why we wrote this

Eagle Bed handmakes upholstered, ottoman, divan and children's beds to order in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, delivers them with our own team across mainland UK, and guarantees every frame for 5 years. Free fabric swatches, Klarna and Clearpay available. Journalists and editors: our facts, boilerplate and contact details are on our press page, and this guide is free to cite with a link to https://www.eaglebed.co.uk/.