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A trundle bed is a neat solution if you occasionally have guests but are a bit limited on space. You get a single bed on top and another single bed hidden underneath which can be pulled out and set up within a couple of minutes.
Some designs of trundle bed allow you to push the beds together to make a king size or super king size bed. Others have the two beds at different heights.
You’ll also find trundle beds referred to as truckle beds. They’re the same thing.
We’ve picked out five of the best trundle beds in the UK. Some trundle beds come with mattresses whilst others require you to buy them separately. If you’re planning on using a mattress you already own, check that the lower trundle has enough depth as some are quite limited.
Here’s our choice of the best trundle beds based on specification, value for money, customer reviews and awards.
1. Birlea Buxton Trundle Bed – £195 (without mattresses) or about £400 (with mattresses)
This Birlea trundle bed ticks a lot of boxes for me, although there weren’t many customer reviews available at the time of typing. Overall, the Birlea brand scores 4.7/5 on Google reviews and 4.2/5 on TrustPilot.
It comes in white or a natural wood colour and has a generous 5 year guarantee if you buy it from Happy Beds. It’s made from pine which is fairly standard for budget and mid-priced wooden trundle beds. The posher alternative is an oak bed frame but pine does the job.
The basic bed frame costs about £200. There’s an easy option to pick which two mattresses you want to go with it, rather than having to order them separately.
Don’t scrimp on the mattress too much
My advice would be to either pick the memory foam or pocket spring mattresses rather than the cheaper open coil one which is available. Pocket spring mattresses are what most of us sleep on and they are much more supportive than open coil mattresses. Memory foam is a good alternative which offers consistent support. Memory foam also doesn’t gather dust like sprung mattresses. However, some people find that it makes them feel a bit warm in bed.
If you go for the full set of two pocket sprung mattresses and the bed frame, it was about £400 in total when we checked. Of course, you could save a bit of money by getting a decent mattress on top and a cheaper one underneath for occasional use.
The trundle single bed lifts up to the same height as the top bed so you can use it as a (nearly) super king size bed or two singles. It’s got a solid slatted base which gives a firmer support than you get from a sprung base.
Pros: good value, second bed raises to the same height, compact design, long warranty compared to pricier rivals
Cons: relatively unknown brand, second bed frame is less sturdy than the main bedframe
Our Value Rating: ***** (see notes at foot of page)
2. John Lewis & Partners Wilton Trundle Bed – £299 (without mattresses)
This trundle bed from John Lewis & Partners costs a bit more than similar trundles on the market in the UK, but it’s from a trusted name.
It’s made from pine, much like the Birlea Buxton and it is designed for standard single size mattresses. The bed has solid slats, which gives a slightly firmer feel than you get with sprung slats.
One downside with this one is that the lower bed stays on the floor rather than being raised up to created one large bed. That’s a more versatile option which is good if you have a guests of all shapes and sizes turning up.
The one year warranty is also a bit of a disappointment when compared to the five years you get with the Birlea Buxton.
Pros: well known brand, choice of natural wood or white
Cons: lower bed doesn’t raise to the same height as the main bed, one year guarantee, more expensive than some similar beds
Our Value Rating: ***
This trundle bed is made from oak
3.Dreams Classic Divan With Trundle – £170 (without mattresses)
This simple trundle divan bed from Dreams doesn’t come with mattresses. However, it’s cheap and it gets very good reviews (4.6/5 from 100+ reviews at the time of writing). It’s a standard single mattress size so you won’t be searching around for unusual sized bedding.
The bottom trundle can fit a mattress which is up to 20cm deep. There are plenty of mattresses on the market under that thickness but don’t assume that any mattress will fit, as some are as deep as 30cm. Silentnight’s 3 Zone memory foam mattress is a cheap mattress (£150) which has won awards and is less than 20cm, but there are plenty of others out there.
The trundle has legs so that you can push the mattresses together and make the equivalent of a super king size mattress. Well, it’s 10cm shorter than a super king but it’s close enough.
It comes in four colours.
Pros: good value, space for a good quality mattress underneath, choice of colours
Cons: no headboard, short warranty length, unexciting!
Our Value Rating: ****
4. Noa and Nani Single Trundle Bed – £219 (without mattresses)
This Noa and Nano single trundle bed scores an impressive 4.2/5 on Amazon after 100+ reviews, although it was only being sold direct from Noa and Nani when we checked.
It’s made from pine, which is a standard, affordable material for these type of beds.
Just one thing to be aware of is that it requires the ‘European’ single mattress size. That is 10cm longer than a UK single mattress (presumably Europeans are 10cm taller than us Brits).
That might be a problem if you’re planning on using mattresses you already own. It won’t matter too much if you are buying new mattresses to go with it. Retailers such as Happy Beds and Mattress Next Day have whole sections of their websites with European single mattresses.
When we checked, Noa and Nani was scoring an overall average of 4.2/5 on TrustPilot. That score is for the company as a whole rather than this model of trundle bed.
Pros: attractive design, second bed raises to the same height, solid pine rather than fibreboard
Cons: unusual mattress size
Our Value Rating: ****
5. Hypnos Trundle Bed – £999 (with mattresses)
This is a more expensive trundle bed but Hypnos is a prestigious brand with a Royal Warrant meaning the Queen’s household uses Hypnos beds.
Hypnos has won prizes at the main industry awards (the National Bed Federation Awards) including ‘best manufacturer’ in 2014 and 2017 and it was runner up in 2018. It comes with a 20 year ‘structural guarantee’ which is far better than most other trundle beds on the market.
You can choose from 20+ different colours, so you won’t be stuck with a beige coloured divan trundle if that’s not your thing.
One classy mattress + one cheaper mattress
To make it a bit more affordable, it comes with a good quality mattress on the top and a much lower quality mattress on the bottom. The top mattress is a pocket sprung mattress – albeit with a fairly low number of springs. The bottom mattress is an open coil mattress which won’t offer the same level of support.
So, I’d say this one is ideal if you plan to sleep on the top mattress every night and just use the bottom one from time to time. That setup might work for a teenager who has a habit of asking if their friend can stay over at the last minute.
Pros: highly respected brand, top mattress is good quality, headboard included
Cons: bottom mattress is low quality, unexciting design!
Our Value Rating: ***
We give each product a rating from one star to five stars, by considering how the price compares to the product’s design and features as well as how it compares to rival products. Five star products are exceptionally good value, with four stars meaning ‘very good value’ and three stars meaning ‘good value’. Two star and one star products are reasonable value and poor value, but they rarely make it into our guides.