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If you want a divan bed, you can either buy a base and mattress separately or buy them as a divan bed bundle. This guide will focus on buying a divan bed with a mattress but if you just want a base then you can get cheap ones from places like Amazon, Divan Base Direct and Dreams or posher ones from John Lewis & Partners.
A simple divan bed probably isn’t what an influencer on Instagram tells you to buy. However, if you are capable of independent thought then they are well worth considering.
For a start, there’s a good argument that divan bed bases offer the best support for your mattress. Most bedsteads and bedframes are absolutely fine but some cheaper ones have huge gaps between the slats. That isn’t good news for your mattress.
Divan beds are also good because you won’t end up in A&E after walking into the corner of it, unlike some wooden and metal beds. Plus, divan beds split in two so you can move them more easily when your spouse casually says “perhaps you should move the bedrooms round this weekend”.
On the downside, a divan gathers dust and is more difficult to clean than a bedstead. Also, some come in a very boring range of colours – although that’s certainly improved from the beige range you used to get.
We’ve picked out five of the best divan beds in the UK. We’ve chosen ones where you get a divan base and a mattress as a bundle and have tried to include a range of prices.
Prices are for a double divan base with a mattress and are correct at the time of writing. We didn’t include optional extras such as headboards or drawers.
1. Happy Beds Divan Bed With Majestic Pocket Sprung Mattress – medium tension – £335
Is this the UK’s most luxurious divan bed? Well, no it’s not.
However, you can make a strong argument that it’s one of the best value divan beds with a mattress that you’ll find.
For your money you get a mattress with a good specification and a divan base in a choice of 20 colours. That should help you find something to match the curtains. You can add various styles of headboard and drawers if you need storage.
The mattress is made using pocket springs. Suffice to say that pocket springs are what of us sleep on and they are far better than cheap mattresses which use ‘open coil’ springs.
The number of springs is certainly adequate for most people. You would get some benefit from a slightly higher number if you’re much larger than average.
A good specification for the money
Despite the low price, the mattress has other signs of quality. For example, it is double sided so you can flip it over. It’s also nice and deep at 25cm and it has got something called a ‘hand tufted’ finish. That means that it is held together in a way which makes it strong and durable.
You can choose from the standard divan bed sizes (single, double, king size and super king size) or more unusual divan bed sizes of small double/queen and small single.
The Happy Beds brands is at the budget end of the market but it was scoring 4.2/5 on TrustPilot as of 2022.
Pros: big choice of colours, low price, several sizes to choose from, pocket sprung mattress, made in the UK, five year warranty
Cons: relatively low spring count, budget brand, platform top divan base rather than one with fancy springs of its own
Our Value Rating: *****
(Our five star rating means that we think it is exceptionally good value. Four stars means ‘very good value’ and three stars means a ‘good value’ product)
2. Silentnight Essentials Mirapocket 1000 Divan bed – medium tension – £619
A solid mid-priced choice for a divan bed and mattress is Silentnight. They’re the biggest brand in the UK mattress and bed market and have a reassuringly decent customer review score of 4.1/5 on TrustPilot (at the time of writing).
The specification of the mattress is quite similar to the cheaper Happy Beds mattress above and you get the same warranty length (five years, to quote David Bowie). It uses the same type of springs and has the same number.
Unfortunately, the Silentnight mattress is only single sided but you can still rotate it round to help it last longer.
It’s another mattress which is described as medium tension. Curiously, there isn’t an agreement between mattress brands about what that means. Don’t assume it will feel exactly the same as another ‘medium’ mattress. However, there are some general rules which are helpful. Firstly, if you’re heavier than average then you will probably need a firmer mattress than someone who is light as a feather. Secondly, if you sleep on your back you’ll need a firmer mattress than someone who mostly sleeps on their side.
What’s the divan like?
As with most divan beds, the base doesn’t have any of its own springs. That’s not really surprising, but it’s a bit of extra luxury on posher divan beds. It only comes in a couple of colours, which won’t suit everyone.
You can buy this divan bed in the usual sizes of single, double, king size and super king size. It also comes in small double which is sometimes known as a queen size divan bed.
Pros: big name mattress and bed brand with a good reputation, five year warranty is pretty good for this price, tension level will suit most people
Cons: single sided mattress, relatively low spring count, not a big choice of colours
Our Value Rating: ***
3.Rest Assured Knowlton 2000 Pocket Latex Pillow Top Divan Bed – medium tension – £715
This Knowlton divan bed from Rest Assured is another award winning mid-priced model.
The main difference between this one and the cheaper divan beds we’ve featured is that this one has a higher spring count. That means it will provide a bit of extra support for people who are heavier or larger than average. As an aside, don’t get too excited when you see a mattress with thousands of springs. You can only squeeze a couple of thousand full size springs onto one layer of a king size mattress. Something that boasts of ‘8000 springs’ probably has lots of layers of smaller springs.
This divan bed mattress has a ‘pillow top’. The idea is that you have a top layer which goes on top of the springs. In this case it is made from latex which comes from rubber trees and offers a comfy layer. You can’t turn over a mattress with a pillowtop, as it’s only on one side.
The divan bed base only comes in three colours and is a pretty standard model without any springs of its own.
When we checked, you could only get this divan bed in the most common sizes of single, double, king size and as a super king divan bed.
Pros: high pocket spring count, long established brand, uses latex which is an effective natural material for mattresses
Cons: modest choice of colours available, single sided
Our Value Rating: ****
4. Brook + Wilde Lux Mattress and Divan Bed – soft, medium, firm or extra firm – £1548
Alright, so this divan base and mattress set from Brook + Wilde is a big jump up in price from most others in this list. Hear me out.
The mattress is one of those modern mattresses which gives you 100 nights to try it out first. Of course, you should check the returns policy. If you don’t like it, you can send it back for a refund or swap it for a different firmness level. Unusually, it comes in soft, medium, firm or extra firm whereas a lot of mattresses with a trial period just come in one firmness.
The Brook + Wilde brand is also hugely popular with customers, with an outstanding TrustPilot score of 4.7/5, at the time of writing. That’s the joint highest scoring mattress brand we could find.
You get a 10 year warranty with the divan base and mattress which is much more than you get with most other divan beds. It’s won awards from Good Housekeeping and others and it uses a combination of pocket springs and memory foam to keep you comfy.
More about the divan
The divan base comes in six different colours and you can add on a headboard for an upgrade. It doesn’t have springs in the base but you can add on drawers.
The Brook + Wilde website lists the mattress and divan bed base on separate pages. You can order them together to make things easier.
It comes in the most common sizes including as a single divan bed, double divan bed, king size divan bed and super king divan bed.
Pros: home trial period offered with the mattress, very positive brand score on TrustPilot, award winning mattress, choice of soft, medium, firm or extra firm, 10 year warranty with the mattress
Cons: online only so you can’t try it out in a shop, limited choice of sizes , more expensive than some others on this list
Our Value Rating: ***
5. Vispring Plymouth Supreme 1200 Mattress and Premier Divan Bed – medium tension – £2358
Finally, please show a little respect for the Vispring Plymouth Supreme 1200 divan bed.
Vispring make ultra-posh divan beds and mattresses and the company have an impressive history. They invented the pocket spring mattress about a hundred years ago, which then became the standard way of making a decent mattress.
Believe it or not, this isn’t even one of their more expensive mattresses. Some Vispring divan beds cost two or three times as much.
However, this one offers a good balance of specification versus price. There’s a good number of pocket springs, natural materials and several technical signs of quality. These are a bit too boring to drone on about at great length. However, it includes things like a ‘hand tufted’ finish and ‘hand side stitching’ which mean that it’s been built to last. That’s where the remarkable 30 year warranty comes from.
It’s all about the base
One other thing which sets this divan bed apart is that the base has its own set of springs. Most divan bases are simple boxes covered in fabric. A posh one like this has its own springs which are designed to work with the springs on the mattress.
You can choose from several colours including shades of blue, yellow and cream. It comes in the usual sizes of single, double, king size and super king. Unusually, it also comes as a long single divan bed. The idea is that you can put two of these side by side and turn it into the equivalent of a super king mattress. That’s particularly good if your spouse wriggles around all night and keeps you awake.
Pros: outstanding reputation built up over many years, hand side stitching and other signs of quality, divan has its own layer of springs
Cons: expensive
Our Value Rating: ****
