The Brimsley Wooden Bed Frame is one I'd happily recommend: a solid rubberwood frame with a soft, velvet-touch upholstered headboard, on sprung slats. Wood for the structure and fabric only where you lean is the right way round. Skip it if you want a frame you never have to clean, because the upholstered panel is the part that will show marks.
Solid rubberwood, with softness where you need it
Dreams describes the Brimsley as made from solid wood, in a walnut-toned rubberwood, with a woven fabric headboard panel that has a velvet-touch finish. Rubberwood is a dense hardwood from plantation rubber trees, widely used for furniture and well able to take a knock. Under the mattress are sprung wooden slats that flex slightly. It's made in Vietnam and weighs 36kg flat-packed.
In Dreams' photos the wood runs right round the edge of the headboard, so the velvet panel sits inside a timber rim. That's sensible design: the rim takes the knocks and the fabric sits back where hands rarely land. A low wooden footboard and slim tapered legs finish it off.
Solid wood lasts. It can be waxed, a scratch can be rubbed out, and it doesn't wobble loose the way board frames do after a few house moves. The upholstered panel is a lovely touch for sitting up in bed. It's also the bit to watch, since velvet-touch fabric shows a hand mark or a spill more than wood does.
Check the support, and you're done
The Brimsley's assembly guide includes centre legs for the sprung slat frame, which is the support I'd want on a double or wider.1 It has no under-bed storage, and it's no bed for a cat that treats fabric as a scratching post.
What to buy instead
If you'd rather have a firmer base, the Penelope is the other solid-wood frame, on solid slats, with a flat woven panel instead of velvet-touch padding. If storage is the priority, one of Dreams' upholstered ottomans will serve you better, though you give up the wood.
