What are you trying to fix?
- Somewhere for a lamp and a glass of water
- More room for folded clothes
- Hanging space, no room for a swinging door
- A half-built Bergen and no instructions
- Avoiding an expensive mistake
Bedside tables: measure the gap, then the drawers
Measure the gap beside the finished bed before you look at a single photograph. You want the top within reach when you are lying down and the drawers clear of the mattress when they open. Two drawers you can use beat three you cannot.
The Edgemont 3 Drawer Bedside Table is listed as oak and oak veneers, and owners say it turns up made up. Several say the same thing. One calls it “quite a large piece for minimal drawer capacity”. Others describe the drawers as small or shallow for the size of the cabinet.
The Kimberley 2 Drawer Slate Bedside Table arrives assembled bar the drawer handles, with a tempered glass top you can wipe and drawers owners rate as deep for the size. One owner found it sat too low beside a tall mattress.
Work out whether a wooden finish is solid timber or a veneer over board, because the two age differently. The Hip Hop 2 Drawer Bedside Table is listed as solid ash and ash veneer in Natural Ash or Smooth White. One owner warns that the grain varies a lot between pieces. Another had the finish discolour and go tacky after a couple of years, with stains that would not come off. Its drawers are shallow too: fine for a book and a charger, no use for jumpers.
Wide chest or narrow chest?
Choose around the clothes you fold rather than the drawer count. Bergen does a four drawer wide chest and a five drawer narrow one in the same four finishes. The narrow one has soft close runners, which you do not often get at this end of the market. Measure the footprint with a drawer pulled fully out, because an open drawer is the space you have to find.
| Bergen piece | Listed storage | What owners flag |
|---|
| 4 Drawer Wide Chest of Drawers | 4 drawers | Damage in the packaging, a hard build |
| 5 Drawer Narrow Chest of Drawers | 5 drawers, soft close | Tight joints, narrower drawers |
| 2 Door Sliding Wardrobe | 2 rails and multiple shelves | The instructions, heavy mirrored doors |
| 3 Door Sliding Wardrobe | 3 rails and multiple shelves | Depth, clothes catching in the doors |
Open the boxes and check every panel before you start. Several owners of the wide chest report damage inside the packaging, one of them on both chests of a matching pair. A few found the build hard going: one called the instructions awful, another could not get the carcass to sit square.
Narrow chest owners divide neatly. One found it easy and was pleased with it. Another needed two people and had to ease the holes out because the joints were so tight. A third received a broken side panel that left the chest wobbling.
The Bergen sliding wardrobes are a depth question
Decide how deep you need it before you choose between two doors and three. Both come with mirrored sliding doors, hanging rails and shelves. Those sliding doors are the whole point in a room with no clearance for a swing. The catch is what happens behind them.
That catch is where the Bergen 3 Door Sliding Wardrobe takes its knocks. A few owners say it is not deep enough. Two describe pushing their clothes in to get the doors closed, one of them after being told it was a standard size. Another says the doors have already damaged two of their tops. More rails only help if your clothes fit behind them.
The Bergen 2 Door Sliding Wardrobe has the same frame and a different weak spot. Several owners describe the instructions as unclear or not in English, and one wrote “5 hours later and it’s STILL not finished”. A few report doors dropping off the rollers afterwards, while a couple say the built wardrobe feels wobbly if you push it. Most owners are pleased with it once it is standing.
Getting a Bergen build right
Ask Bensons for Beds for the instructions that match your exact model and finish, then count the panels and fixings against the parts list before anything is screwed together. The mirrored doors are heavy: one owner needed a second person for the last stage and another needed three. Two owners of the three door bought extra brackets and bracing to make theirs stable.
Measure the stairs and the turn at the top before you order, then pay for room of choice delivery. I had narrow stairs at my old place and I have measured the turn before ordering anything ever since.
Blanket boxes at the foot of the bed
Leave room to walk past the box and to swing the lid fully up. The Robyn Upholstered Blanket Box lists 28cm of internal storage and arrives fully assembled, which is most of its appeal. The Deacon blanket box also comes built, with room for a folded duvet and a couple of pillows. One owner says it looks small at the foot of a super king.
I would think twice about the Lucia Storage Chest. A few owners mention a smell inside, which is a problem when the box is full of clean bedding. For one it was still there about two years on. Several more describe the lid: hinges that will not hold it open, a lid that stops short of upright, one skewed and creaking within weeks. Test one in a shop if you plan to sit on it.
Walk away from these
I would not order any of these. A chest whose drawers cannot open fully in the space you have. A bedside table that finishes below the top of your mattress. A sliding wardrobe chosen on door count when depth is the thing that will annoy you. Or a matching collection bought from a photograph: one Hip Hop owner and one Edgemont owner each had pieces turn up in colours that did not match.
- I have measured the stairs and the turn at the top
- My longest coat fits the wardrobe depth
- The bedside top sits above the finished mattress
- The chest footprint works with a drawer pulled fully out
- I have counted the panels and fixings against the parts list
