How to Choose a Bed Frame
Choosing a New Bed
When you’re picking out a new bed, the decision doesn’t end when you choose a mattress. The right bed frame is important to the feel and longevity of your bed. The wrong bed frame can allow your mattress to sag or bend out of shape, shortening the life of your mattress and ruining your nighttime comfort. Here are a few factors to consider when you pick a bed frame.
- Does it feel right to you? Follow your instincts. If you feel like a slick salesman might be getting the best of you, go and do your own research before you make a choice. Testing your type of mattress on a frame in a store can help you decide, but remember that the floor sample may not feel exactly the same as the bed you buy.
- Go for quality. Picking the cheapest option is rarely the right call, especially if you’ve spent money on a luxury mattress. Putting a high-quality mattress on an inferior frame means you won’t get the comfort you thought you bought. And putting a middle-of-the-road mattress on a high-quality frame can actually improve the feel of even less comfortable options by creating the right support for your mattress type.
- Follow manufacturer recommendations. Most manufacturers either make a frame that’s designed to bring out the best in their mattress or recommend a frame. Sometimes they even require that the mattress be placed on an approved frame before they’ll honor the manufacturer’s warranty, so pay attention when you buy. The manufacturers know their mattresses better than anyone else and they want to show off their mattresses at their best, so you can trust their recommendations for bed frames.
- Know what type of bed frame best suits your mattress. For example, a traditional innerspring mattress uses a box spring as a frame, but a box spring isn’t the best frame for a latex mattress. Latex mattresses use a “foundation” that’s specifically designed to support the weight and characteristics of latex while maximizing the air flow that’s such a selling point of latex mattresses. When you choose your frame, make sure it’s designed to maximize your sleep experience.
Side note: Some people call the decorative head board, food board, and side pieces the “bed frame.” As long as you have the proper supportive elements in place, the decorative accoutrements are more a question of style than utility—and far be it from me to tell you your own style. Just follow the four suggestions above, and you’ll be well on your way to finding the bed frame that’s the best fit for your bed.
Do you agree? Is the right bed frame as important as I think it is?
Author Bio: +Michelle Gordon is a sleep expert who researches and writes about sleep and health, and is an online publisher for the latex mattress specialist Latexmattress.org.