House Frame Bed with a Fabric Canopy in Solid Beech

with a cotton canopy that ties on and washes at 30 degrees, which matters more than it sounds because it will be slept under and eaten under.

The safety numbers on this page are the ones that actually matter and they are worth reading once. Slat spacing is under 60mm, because a gap between 60 and 75mm is the size that traps a limb. A mattress must fit with under 30mm of gap all round. Anything a child sleeps above 600mm off the floor needs a guard rail and is not suitable under six years old, which is a regulation and not our opinion. And any tall piece of furniture in a child's room needs restraining to the wall, every time, which is two screws and the single highest value two minutes in the whole assembly.

Specification

• Dimensions: outside frame 20mm larger than the mattress all round, 1550mm to the ridge
• Age range: 18 months to 8 years
• Material: solid steamed beech, which is the timber most school furniture has been made from for a century because it dents rather than splinters
• Finish: water based lacquer or paint, certified to BS EN 71 part 3
• Load rating: 150kg on the mattress deck, tested to 200kg
• Standards: BS EN 716 parts 1 and 2 for the cot bed size, BS EN 747 for anything raised, and the finish to BS EN 71 part 3
• Edges and fixings: every exposed edge rounded to a 3mm radius, every fixing recessed and capped, and no pinch point anywhere a hand goes
• Assembly: flat packed, two people, about 90 minutes
• Weight: approximately 59.3 kilograms
• Slat spacing: 55mm, which is under the 60mm limb entrapment limit
• Mattress gap: under 25mm all round when the correct size is used
• Mattress depth: up to 160mm
• Deck height: 120mm off the floor
• Low enough that a fall is a roll rather than a drop
• Mattress not included, and ours is sized to fit exactly
• Converts with a kit, listed alongside

In the box

• The bed frame, flat packed
• Solid timber slats at 55mm spacing
• The roof frame
• Anti tip restraints where the frame needs them
• A hex key, spare caps and printed instructions
• A printed safety card with the slat, gap and height numbers

Assembly and safety

Flat packed and best done by two people. Allow about an hour and a half. Fittings are threaded steel inserts, so it comes apart properly for a house move rather than chewing out the timber. Check the fixings once after a month and then once a year, which takes two minutes and is the single most useful thing you can do for a piece of furniture a child climbs on.

How long it lasts

This one converts rather than being replaced. The conversion kit is listed alongside it and is about a fifth of the price of the piece, which is the point. We keep the conversion parts for a range for ten years from the day we stop making it, so a piece bought for a first child can be brought back up to size for a third.