The Aries Upholstered Bed Frame is a bed you buy for the headboard, tall and winged, in a woven fabric on sprung wooden slats. If that look is what you want, it's a fair frame. If you want a bed that looks the same in ten years, buy solid wood instead, because fabric marks and a winged headboard catches every elbow and coffee cup.
Sprung slats under a statement headboard
The part I care about first is underneath. Dreams fits sprung slats, the gently curved kind that flex a little under the mattress, which add some give and suit most pocket-sprung and foam mattresses. The headboard is the show: curved, winged at the sides, upholstered in a woven fabric that Dreams calls durable. It stands on dark turned legs and comes flat-packed, at 43kg, with assembly not included.
On a double or wider I want a centre rail with feet down to the floor, because a sagging middle rail is how a good mattress ends up with a dip the mattress didn't cause. Dreams' assembly guide shows the Aries has one: a middle cross bar on two support legs, under 28 bentwood slats in a small double or double and 30 in a king.1 The guide doesn't give the gap between slats, so check it against your mattress maker's limit, usually about 7cm.
A winged headboard needs room
In Dreams' photos the turned legs and wings give it a traditional look, more at home in a period room or a dark, panelled one than in a pared-back modern space. The legs leave open floor under the bed for flat storage boxes.
The wings wrap round the pillows, which is lovely for reading and less lovely in a narrow room where they meet the bedside tables. Measure the width of the headboard against the gap between your tables before you fall for it. I'd avoid it if you're hard on furniture or want something you can wipe clean, because woven fabric holds on to marks.
What to buy instead
If you like the curve but want a plainer headboard, the Phoenix is the version I'd buy. If storage would help, the Aries Upholstered Ottoman puts the same headboard on a lift-up base. And if you'd rather the frame outlived the fashion, the Penelope is solid wood.
