Handmade Furniture Guide

We want to make personalising and ordering your furniture as relaxing as possible. In this guide we’ll walk you through everything you should consider when buying your furniture, to help you choose your ideal luxury sofa bed, handmade sofa or luxury armchair. If you’re looking for more information about tailoring your furniture from our selection of fabrics, cushions and mattresses, then please visit our personalisation guide.

SIZES

All our handmade sofa bed and sofa designs are available in different sizes, so you can find a piece of furniture that will fit cosily in your home. If you need more help deciding which of our beautiful pieces will fit best in your home, we’ve collated all the dimensions for our designs, by collection, in our dimensions & delivery guide along with expert tips for measuring your home and doorways.

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SHAPES

When looking at the shape of your sofa bed, luxury sofa or handmade armchair it’s important to understand the different back, seat, arm and feet designs.

BACKS

You should consider the style and support of the back you choose, as this is just as important as choosing your seat cushions to create a relaxing, comfortable piece of furniture.

This is our most popular back design. Fibre-filled cushions are placed across the back of the frame which can be turned and moved to even out wear and tear. The covers can be removed and cleaned following our fabric guide care instructions. You can see how high each cushion back is by comparing the total height of each design in our dimensions & delivery guide to ensure you choose a sofa bed, sofa or armchair with the right back height and support for you.
Our scatter back designs have a more informal appearance and offer the flexibility to change the look of your furniture by rearranging the cushions. Each scatter cushion is fibre-filled and is the ideal back if you like to sink and relax into your settee or bed settee.
The most formal of our designs, the fixed back is sprung and upholstered. This back is the lowest maintenance, won’t require plumping and provides the firmest support of all back styles.

SEATS

When choosing your luxury sofa bed, sofa or armchair it is important to select a seat which gives you the right sit. We understand that comfort and style is subjective, so we’ve designed two different styles of seat cushions to choose from.

Our cushioned seats can be personalised with 3 different fillings; reflex foam, siliconized hollow fibre or feather-wrapped foam. These cushions can be turned and moved and have removable covers for easy cleaning and washing. Scroll down to our ‘seat cushion fillings’ section to discover more.
A fixed seat is sprung and upholstered, and like our fixed back creates a more formal silhouette. This type of seat requires no maintenance or plumping, however as the cushions can’t be removed or turned you may find our fixed seats don’t wear as evenly as our cushioned seats.

ARMS

Arms are a key design feature when creating the style of your handmade sofa bed, sofa or armchair, whether it be modern, classic or mid-century. They are also important when considering the dimensions and proportions of your room to ensure your chosen design will fit cosily in your home.

Scroll arms with pleating and piping are normally associated with more classic designs. However, a simple and clean scroll arm creates a more contemporary design like our Langridge.
This is a classic arm design where the arm is low and stops short of the front of the frame, so the seat cushions wrap around it, like our Downton. We recommend this style of arm for more classic or period homes.
These arms flare from the bottom of the frame to create a welcoming silhouette, like our Elmley. A flared arm can take up as much width as a thicker, square arm, so this should be considered when measuring up your room.
This is the most modern design of arm and creates a contemporary silhouette. The width of arm varies depending on the style – from our Somerton with its wide, striking arms through to our Foxham which has compact, narrow arms.

FEET

Feet should complement the style of furniture, with more classic feet chosen for traditional styles compared to more contemporary for modern designs.

These round, shallow feet have a classic design.
Another classic design which provides more height than the bun designs.
Angled wooden feet that create a simpler silhouette – sabre feet should always be turned so the foot flares inwards.
An elegant, elongated foot for more delicate designs.

COVERS

FIXED COVERS

Most of our designs come with fixed covers which are permanently attached to the frame, however most of our seat and back cushions do have removable covers for cleaning. If you’re worried about spills or stains on your covers then we offer fabrics with in-built stain protection, where all common household stains can be easily removed with just water. We also offer Staingard protection on all our fabrics. This protection plan is for 5 years and covers your sofa bed, sofa or armchair against accidental spills, stains, pet scratches, damage and more.

However, if you don’t choose any of the options above you can still have your fixed covers dry-cleaned in situ and clean your removable seat and back cushions, depending on your chosen design, following the care instructions in our fabric guide.
LOOSE COVERS

A small selection of our designs have loose covers which can be fully removed for cleaning. These also offer a more casual and relaxed fit and offer the flexibility to update your covers without having to order a new frame.

SEAT CUSHION FILLINGS

We’ve handpicked three seat cushions of varying firmness and bounce for you to choose from. Discover the difference between each of our seat cushions below.

REFLEX FOAM

Our reflex foam seat cushions hold their shape really well, so require no plumping or maintenance. Because of this, these cushions look particularly beautiful when chosen with more modern and formal sofa bed, sofa or armchair designs. If you prefer to sit a little more upright with a bouncier seat, rather than sinking down into the cushions, then we’d recommend you choose reflex foam.

SILICONIZED HOLLOW FIBRE

Our siliconized hollow fibre cushions have a fuller appearance than our reflex foam and are softer to sit on. Siliconized hollow fibre seat cushions have fibres sewn individually in channels throughout them, to keep the filling evenly spread within the cushion. This helps the cushions keep their shape but they will require a quick plumping once a fortnight.

FEATHER-WRAPPED FOAM

Our feather-wrapped foam seat cushions also have a fuller appearance and are our softest cushion option to sit on. They are filled with luxury duck feathers, also sewn into channels to help the cushions keep their shape. These feathers make for a very dense cushion, perfect for sinking into. They will require plumping 2-3 times a week to hold their shape and comfort.

SOFA BED MATTRESSES

We are proud to create handmade sofa bed mattresses which friends and family will actually look forward to sleeping on. We’ve designed three luxury mattresses for you to personalise your sofa bed with.

OPEN SPRUNG

Our sofa beds can be personalised with our signature W&H open sprung mattress. This luxurious 14cm deep mattress is handmade from multiple layers of bouncy upholstery and insulator layers, with a hand-quilted Irish damask cover. Inside you’ll find individual heat treated British open coil springs, perfect to support you whilst you sleep.

POCKET SPRUNG

For an even more relaxing night’s sleep you can upgrade your sofa bed mattress to our 14cm deep pocket sprung mattress. Each of the springs work independently, meaning they can contour to your body shape for an even better sleep. They are ideal if two people will be sharing the sofa bed regularly as they reduce movement across the mattress.

MEMORY FOAM

Our memory foam mattress is our most luxurious choice and adapts seamlessly to your body shape, providing maximum support for a relaxing night’s sleep. Covered in beautiful Belgian damask, which dissipates moisture to keep you cool, our 12cm memory foam mattress is ideal if you have a bad back or want to relieve joint pressure while you sleep.

If you need an occasional sofa bed for a more compact space, then we recommend our Appley collection. Its armless design makes it ideal for tight spaces, and it can be quickly and easily pulled flat to convert it from a sofa to a sofa bed.

Discover the collection

UPHOLSTERY

Our collections consist of handpicked fabrics from the finest mills in Britain, Belgium and Italy. We understand that choosing your fabric is about more than just the colour and texture, so we’ve worked hard to find beautiful fabrics that are also hard-wearing and, in some cases, stain resistant. To discover more about our fabric collections including compositions, durability and care instructions explore our fabric guide.

If you’d like more help choosing a design that will fit beautifully in your home
please call us on 020 8939 3800.

Call our experts

We want to make personalising and ordering your furniture as relaxing as possible. In this guide we’ll walk you through everything you should consider when buying your furniture, to help you choose your ideal bed frame, storage bed, bed base or headboard. If you’re looking for more information about tailoring your bed from our handpicked selection of fabrics, then please visit our fabric guide.

BEDS

Our bed frames are made up of a complete frame including the legs and headboard, with a sprung base to support your mattress. This style of bed is our interior designers’ favourite from a design perspective and can be personalised from our handpicked fabric collection.

STORAGE BEDS

Storage beds can have either a divan bed base or ottoman bed base attached to a headboard. As with our bed frames the mattress will need to be ordered separately.

Our divan beds all have a solid or platform edge divan for comfort and have drawers in the base which slide out on castors. Our divan beds can be personalised with either continental drawers, where the drawer at the head of the bed is narrower to allow for a bedside table, or a 2 or 4 drawer option, depending on the size of bed you choose, where all drawers are equal sizes.
For even more space our ottoman beds are the ideal choice. The base and mattress can easily be lifted at the foot end of the bed using hydraulic springs, providing ample storage in the space underneath.

HEADBOARDS

Headboards make a beautiful focal point in your bedroom. They can be ordered on their own to attach to all standard UK divan beds or ottoman beds, or you can order with one of our bed bases to create a storage bed.

BED BASES

Our divan bed base has a solid or platform edge for comfort and have drawers in the base which slide out on castors. Our divan beds can be personalised with either continental drawers, where the drawer at the head of the bed is narrower to allow for a bedside table, or a 2 or 4 drawer option, depending on the size of bed you choose, where all drawers are equal sizes.

Our divan bed base can be attached to a headboard to create a storage bed.

For even more space our ottoman bed base is the ideal choice. The base and mattress can easily be lifted at the foot end of the bed using hydraulic springs, providing ample storage in the space underneath.

Our ottoman bed base can be attached to a headboard to create a storage bed.

If you’d like more help choosing a design that will fit beautifully in your home
please call us on 020 8939 3800.

Call our experts

We want to make personalising and ordering your furniture as relaxing as possible. In this guide we’ll walk you through everything you should consider when buying your mattress, to help you choose the ideal one for you.

MATTRESS TENSION

Your mattress should be chosen to complement your sleeping position.

STANDARD

A standard tension mattress is best if you sleep on your side. We recommend using a high pillow to allow your shoulder and hips to sink into the mattress.
FIRM

If you sleep on your back, we would recommend a firm mattress, to offer enough support for your lower back.

MATTRESS COVERS

The cover on your mattress is just as important as choosing the right filling, as each finish will provide a different feel.

This classic technique creates a tailored finish by securing the fillings in your mattress with tufts, which are passed completely through the mattress layers creating a button effect on the top and bottom. This finish creates a firmer feel than a hand-quilted cover.
This technique creates a flatter finish than a tufted mattress, with the top fabric stitched to the top comfort layers in patterns to create a cushioned finish. Hand-quilting creates a softer feel to your mattress however does not secure the internal layers in the same way as tufting.
A soft-knitted finish creates the softest feeling mattress. This type of finish also intelligently dissipates moisture to keep you cooler whilst you sleep.

MATTRESS FILLINGS

The more fillings a mattress contains, the softer and more sumptuous it will feel. However, it’s not just about the amount - different types of fillings will also change how your mattress feels. We recommend looking for a mattress that uses natural, breathable fillings so you won’t overheat whilst sleeping. Natural materials keep air circulating in the mattress and takes moisture and perspiration away from your body.

MATTRESS SIZES

It is important to make sure you have enough space on the mattress size you choose so that you’re able to sleep comfortably.

MATTRESS TYPES

A coil or open sprung mattress is full of interconnected springs to create a comfortable mattress at an affordable price. Our open sprung mattresses are handmade from multiple layers of bouncy upholstery and insulation, individually heat-treated British open coil springs and a hand-quilted or tufted cover made from Irish damask.
This mattress type is full of pocketed springs which work independently to contour to your body shape and reduce disturbance across your mattress when you move. Our pocket sprung mattresses are made from layers of upholstery and hand-quilted insulator layers with stitched sides for a more stable edge. Each pocket spring is individually heat treated and the mattress is covered by a hand-quilted or tufted cover made from Irish damask.
Memory foam is an innovative material which shapes to the contours of your body but moulds back into shape once pressure is released. This quality makes memory foam ideal to support your back and relieve pressure on joints by ensuring your body weight is evenly distributed. Our memory foam mattresses have a soft-knitted cover which dissipates moisture and perspiration to keep you cooler while you sleep.