Steel, arched rails and tall turned posts: the Simba Blenheim Bed Base is a traditional bedstead for a bedroom furnished around the bed itself. All that metalwork gives you plenty to look at, but it also means living with a high foot end instead of an open edge you can perch on.
I'd recommend it if you like an ornate metal frame and have the room for one. It's made in the UK, and owners are emphatic about how sturdy it feels. Despite the name, this isn't a divan: there's no upholstered box and no storage, just open floor under a nickel-plated steel frame on poplar slats. Avoid it if you sleep in a single or a super king, because Simba makes it in double and king only, or if you tend to climb into bed over the foot end.
Blenheim owners answer my usual metal-bed noise worry
The owners who mention noise say this frame stays quiet, which is the strongest reason I'd set aside my usual suspicion of metal beds here. Metal frames squeak. My partner snores, so our bedroom already has one night-time noise, and I'd rather the bed didn't add a second.
Where noise comes up at all, it's to report silence, and one owner puts it flatly: "No squeaking every time you move." Owners call it sturdy more than anything else, and grand-looking a close second. I'd normally go straight to the three-star reviews, since the five-star ones are mostly the honeymoon talking, but there are none below four stars here, and the lowest is two words long. The reviews carry no dates, so some may describe an earlier production run.
Several owners found it easy to build, and one had it up in an hour. The only complaint in the set comes from a five-star owner who got the wrong assembly paperwork with the bed. Once that was sorted, the same owner built it single-handed. That's a one-off slip and it wouldn't put me off. Simba publishes no build time or guide online for this bed, so ask for the correct instructions before your build day.
The 6cm gap between the Blenheim's poplar slats is a reason to buy
The published slat spacing is the construction detail I like most. The fixed poplar slats sit 6cm (just under 2.5in) apart, comfortably under the 7cm (under 3in) where I start worrying about a mattress dipping into the gaps. Simba names the timber as well as the gap, which is more than I usually get from a bed listing, and far more use than being told the base is "innovative".
Simba says the frame is made in the UK, in a long-established factory it doesn't name, and I give that claim credit. Its only other metal bed is a plainer frame made in China, with a low foot end and no published slat gap, so the Blenheim is the one of the pair whose support you can check on paper.
Before you order, ask Simba whether the centre rail has feet that reach the floor, especially on the king. Simba's photo shows a dark centre rail splitting the slats into two blocks, and the listing never says what supports it from below.
The Blenheim's tall foot end needs space around it
The 94cm (about 3ft 1in) footposts make this a bed for a room with space to walk round. The headposts reach 122cm (about 4ft), so the frame stands tall at both ends. Choose it for a traditional main bedroom where you like that enclosed shape, and keep it out of a narrow room where it only fits in the photograph.
Measure the whole footprint. The double is listed at 146cm by 202cm (about 4ft 9in by 6ft 8in) and the king at 158cm by 211cm (about 5ft 2in by 6ft 11in), and Simba doesn't say whether those figures include the feet. Ask too how high the slats sit off the floor. Add your mattress to that figure for the height you'll sit at, and your feet should reach the floor flat when you perch on the side.
The bed comes flat in two boxes, the biggest of them 212cm (nearly 7ft) long, so measure the turn on your stairs before you order. If you send it back within the 200-night trial, collection is free in most of the UK, but the delivery charge on a bed isn't refunded. Skip the accident cover at the till: it excludes structural and manufacturing defects, the faults you'd want covered on a steel frame.
What to buy instead
If you like the idea of a metal bed but not Simba's price, buy the Westbrook Metal Bed Frame. It's a lot cheaper, it has solid slats and a centre support leg, and its listing gives a build time where Simba's gives none. For a classic bedstead a little closer to the Blenheim's money, the Harvard Metal Bed Frame sits on sprung slats. Pay the extra for the Blenheim when the UK manufacture and that ornate four-post shape are what you're buying.
