We offer a range of bedroom furniture; four poster beds, wooden furniture and UK mattresses manufactured since 1907. Our Wooden furniture is known for its durability. Unrivalled in quality, craftsmanship and value, we offer furniture at reasonable prices. Many of our Four Poster beds bear designs that are unique to Heirloom Beds

So we start with the timber, cabinet joints, through to finishing so you can make an independant intelligent decision. Old fashioned and hard to do when many have a speed browsing method of shopping comparing images and prices. A quick and easy method but in reality a terrible way to buy furniture on line so please take advantage of the information in our quality value guides and our wood and finish samples we can send to you.

Sleigh beds, Four Poster bed, Tester bed, Modern Bed designs

Sleigh Bed - Handmade

Sleigh beds are a popular style with many variations, the French Sleigh Bed is a reproduction design originating approximately from c1800. It is a bed design produced by many using a number of timbers; you will find South China Oak, French Oak (fast growing!) Red Adler, Pine of various strains and more. The Heirloom range of handmade sleigh beds are made from Swietenia mahogany, this is an important point as other lower cost types of mahogany can be very different in terms of quality and character.

Our sleigh beds are available in UK single, double, king size and super king sizes.

Often associated with the sleigh bed design is the curved footboard and headboard such as our "Cavalier Sleigh bed" however the French sleigh bed is vertical with the sleigh curves on the sides of the bed headboard and footboard. Heirloom Beds has several designs with a keen eye for balanced proportion, flowing design from the feet up each giving a different sleigh experience. Often the French Sleigh Bed is called the "lits en bateau" so don't get too confused, take a look at the following handmade beds on our site : Cambrian sleigh bed, Tamara Sleigh bedstead, Belle Lille Sleigh Bed, Cavalier.

Four poster Beds - Handmade

Four Poster Beds (often referred to as canopy fourposters) from Heirloom Beds Ltd offer the ultimate sleep experience. Every one has a huge "wow" factor from the design, to the quality of the timber used with its stunning character and grain to the finish unique to Heirloom Beds Ltd. We have only one reproduction four poster bed the Queen Anne, produced by many with differences in terms of the type of Mahogany used, and method of construction i.e. we use steel 12mm threads to secure each post not round dowels which means the post will rotate and move. So take care pictures can look the same and beds made from a type of mahogany but don't expect them to be the same as an Heirloom Queen Anne.

All other fourposters in our range are original designs unique to Heirloom Beds Ltd we have contemporary modern fourposters as well as traditional four posters. Even our Queen Anne has the option to add a solid roof upholstered in embroidered silk for the ultimate canopy bed experience. For an original modern design you wonít find any where else look at our Sofia.

Bed Designs - Handmade - Contemporary and Original.

Heirloom Beds Ltd is partnered with a UK factory this is just part of the secret to our success. Simply owning a factory in truth is not much more than a financial transaction driven primarily by the need to improve margins, potentially to raise quality, and have orders produced without frustrations caused by cultural and language differences.

Essentially the point we are making is, owning a factory does not make you a cabinet maker upholsterer or finisher. Our factory has been UK owned for 17 years but much more importantly the owner is an apprentice served cabinet maker upholsterer and finisher with a family background in antiques, who likes nothing more than working alongside the carvers in the factory creating new and original pieces, continuing to teach by example new finishes and methods. This is why we have completely new and original sleigh bed and four poster designs; it is also why we have an English finish that no other factory is capable of with new finishes starting to come through as this is written. If you have a design for a bed or piece of furniture you would like us to make we would be happy to take a look and if we feel it can be successful as a design we can have it made for you unfortunately one off designs would be cost prohibitive.

Whether it is a shaker style bed, art deco bed, sleigh bed or four poster / canopy bedstead you are after there are a number of contemporary wooden bed designs available all handmade. This means no power tools, no lathes for turning wood not even power sanders! You can also be assured that you will not find the same bedsteads either on the web or the high street. For a very contemporary four poster bed try our Rope Twist canopy bed this is a new design happy in a modern or period home and actually has a smaller footprint than almost any other king size sleigh bed or four poster. For a wooden bedstead that is both original and fashionable take a look at the Wordsworth bed and also the Lansdowne both are as happy in a modern city flat as in a stone oak beamed cottage.

Memory Foam Mattresses

Ask family, friends, colleagues their experience of memory foam you are likely to get two responses either;

"I love my memory foam mattress best nights sleep I've had"

Or

"I don't like them I feel like I'm sinking into it, it wraps around me, it is hard to move on it and I get hot and clammy"

If you have tried a memory foam mattress and made the decision you don't like them consider this, have you liked every traditionally sprung mattress? And what if a memory foam mattress also uses springs it makes all the difference.

The specifications of memory foam mattresses can vary dramatically first of all let's cover the "Jelly mould" feeling you can get, this is due to either individually or a combination of 3 key areas.

1. The first is due to low density memory foam. Memory foam density is measured in KG per sq metre it can range between 25 to 110kg per sq metre the greater the density the more memory foam you are getting for your money but also give you greater memory effect and support ideally you should be looking for 50KG and upwards. Whilst we may be in the habit of comparing figures always assuming the higher the better it is bear in mind the following. If you have a very high density this means there is far less air in the foam memory foam you can think of as individual cells like a tennis ball with a small hole in it to slowly release the air. If there is little air in the foam you are reducing the level of flexible support and memory effect.
2. But density is only part of the story the depth of the memory foam used in the mattress will have an effect as well. The deeper the greater the support and will also contribute to increasing the firmness. As a general rule you should be looking for a minimum of 45mm depth and upwards.
3. The 3rd contributing factor is the "stiffness" of the memory foam which the industry calls the ILD rating. This is really key to the whole jelly mould sensation that can leave you feeling claustrophobic, sinking into the mattress making it harder to move about, and waiting for the foam to match your new body position. This is an important element and does cost more to stiffen the foam but is rarely mentioned by retailers.

Care should be taken not to only assess the information detailed on a mattress label it will only speak of what it does have only ever in glowing terms and rarely includes all of the relevant information needed to gauge the quality and suitability of the mattress. Often density is not mentioned, depth usually is if it is not beware itís usually around 20-35mm. Also the ILD rating (how stiff the memory foam is) is almost never mentioned even on mattress websites and will have a dramatic effect on the feel of your mattress a 70kg density sounds fantastic but with a low ILD and depth will be a poor relation to a 50-60kg density that has a good ILD rating and good depth so beware of label buying! Even if you get all the true specification how it is all put together also has a significant effect on the performance of your mattress.

Also be aware that a pocket sprung mattress being superior and more expensive to use as a base in comparison to regular foam makes a large contribution to the feel and support of your mattress.

Compressed memory foam mattresses in a roll!

Recently there has been a flooding of the market of these type of mattresses the benefits of this method of packaging is usually as follows: easier to deliver, move into the bedroom, more hygienic though we struggle to see this as a serious advantage, is it unhygienic as soon as you open the bag? Does air in a bag really have a health hazard or is it struggling to find another genuine advantage over a non compressed mattress?

Now some sites will say compressing a mattress is damaging to the foam never comes back up to its full original size and damages the cells in the memory foam shortening its life and those supporting the use of compressed mattresses state this is not true if the quality of the foam is high enough. We are not going to pass judgement on this but you should bear this in mind: There are many factors to take into consideration when manufacturing a mattress and one key area is the sidewall strength which helps retain the mattress shape keeping the springs in place and ensuring the mattress does not collapse at the edge if that's where you sleep. A compressed mattress has a foam wall to make it possible to compress it and therefore will not offer the same sidewall strength!

How your sleigh bed and four poster bed is made.

All our wooden sleigh beds, four posters and furniture is made from solid swietenia mahogany and is constructed using traditional cabinet chassis methods. These include Dovetail joints front and back of drawers, haunched mortise and tenon the most common of conventional framing joints. M & T's usually are haunched for the following reasons:

1. They reduce the width of the mortise and tenon to maintain the strength and integrity of the material. A wide tenon is more likely to cup, warp and consequently, cause "winding".
2. They prevent corner joints 'breaking-out'

Floating panels are used as you would find in antique pieces there is no romantic desire to make our furniture this way, if you are using a genuine piece of solid timber you need to construct your furniture to accommodate the natural movement properties of timber in different humidity and temperature conditions. If you don't the wood will still move and is very strong it will either break the frame apart or pull its self apart. Did you know there different types of Mahogany as there are Oak, they have quality and price differences as you would expect.

Did you consider there is a different finish to the commonplace stain and wax, and that there is a dramatic difference? One flattens character another showcases it one seals and protects and requires no maintenance the other does not.

Did you consider the carbon footprint of mass manufactured furniture is far greater than a natural timber product hand made. MDF ply etc just because they are from sustainable sources does not remove the energy expended to create them and subsequent carbon footprint.

Why Heirloom Beds offer superior value and quality

1. The raw material
2. The green choice

   Our timber is from renewable plantations established by the Dutch started approx 150 years ago with Brazilian saplings we do not use indigenous mahogany. In the manufacture of our furniture absolutely everything is done by hand. There is no automated mass manufacturing machinery and most importantly there is none of the following.

   • No MDF
   • No veneers real or engineered (plastic replica as dominates the high street)
   • No chipboard
   • No softwood ply

   All of these materials require intensive heat processes, wax, water, glues, resins, formaldehyde.

   By keeping to the natural product doing everything by hand and building furniture that will last generations the carbon footprint left behind is negligible in comparison to the mass manufactured furniture that dominates the high street.

3. The finish it is not just about appearance!

   Natural timber will have natural properties it will move in different environments and seasons. Seasoned timber will still move as will kiln dried timber and naturally seasoned timber still needs to be kiln dried for furniture manufacture.

   There are three areas in the manufacture of our beds that takes this into account.

   First we use a high quality mahogany of the genus Swietenia Macrophylla known as large leaf mahogany or Brazilian Mahogany we do not use any other type Tiaong, Almon, Lauan mahogany (blond or red) or khaya (African).

   This mahogany is kiln dried fully to 8% we have researched factory timber supply common moisture content was 10 - 12% sometimes 14% and at worst no at all.

   Traditional cabinet making methods are used in our sleigh beds tenison, dove tail,butterfly joints are present in our furniture as are other techniques.

   Our 17 step finish is explained in detail and can be found through the top of each page. Beyond the unique finish (it should not be confused with wax finishes being doffed to a high gloss finish) which showcases the natural features of mahogany which is one of the reasons it has been so highly demanded in the manufacture of furniture. The finish serves another very important purpose, it provides a hard shell impenetrable by moisture also protecting from dirt that a wax finish will not and giving a wipe clean surface. Also unlike a wax finish you will not need to bees wax your furniture which involves a lot of time and elbow grease!

4. Request a sample

   We have gone to great efforts to have our beds photographed in detail under daylight colour balanced light, the beds you see are ours and are exactly what you will receive. We do encourage visiting our showroom but if you can not then we can send you a sample piece of wood showing you the timber and quality of our finish. Please bear in mind that your colour contrast or brightness settings on your monitor can change the look of the photographs. Also a flat screen such as on a laptop will change in appearence just by changing the angle you look at it you should maintain a 90 degree viewing angle to your screen.

5. some golden rules - the service we offer
   • We do not take payment or deposits for stock we do not have in our warehouse
   • We only take payment once we have secured a delivery date with you
   • We deliver within two weeks
   • We offer a no quibble 14 day money back policy
   • We do not charge additional delivery for additional items
   • All beds are assembled and checked before delivery
   • Delivery is door to door all goods are blanket wrapped on a wool carpet lined van, strapped securely and insured.

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Heirloom Beds Ltd Sleigh Beds and Four poster Beds and bedroom furniture - We hope you enjoy our website and that you will see we have gone much further to provide you with accurate information so that what you see is what you get we have done this through the following methods.

1. Professionally taken 3/4 angle photographs of our beds in our showroom taken at random from our warehouse, all taken using colour balanced and callibrated daylight lighting. Also multiple detailed shots on different aspects on the sleigh beds and four poster bedsteads and all other pieces of bedroom furniture.
2. Detailed information on our unique 17 step finish not to be confused with the commonplace wax finish no matter how it is described.
3. Detailed information on our timber, there are several types of mahogany whose cost and quality varies as it does with oak for example
4. We can send you samples of the wood and finish taken from a piece of our furniture please note wood has natural colour variation swietenia mahogany has been chosen for its colour and grain for centuries so please accept these as a general guide and note that due to our unique finish giving what finishers call a 'picture' our furniture refracts light differently under different light conditions and grain direction.
5. Soon to arrive will be videos you can view online with out buffering or delay giving you a 3D experience.

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