Slatted bedframes V’s Divan?

Alex asked

3rd January 2013

would be great if you could explain the pros & cons of a slatted bed vs divan. And also explain discuss non-sprung divan bases as well. Does your bed need to provide additional support to the mattress or can a solid, non-flexible base be used?

1 Answer

Lee Staff

answered 11 years ago

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your question.

Simple; A sprung edged divan base is better for ‘any’ mattress and contributes greatly to the overall support (and feel) to the mattress. This is the reason why most top end mattresses are partnered with a Sprung base.

All pocket sprung mattresses ‘like’ a flat even surface, to keep the pocket springs on an even keel. The springs within the base will be acting like a suspension unit and take / adjust to all weights applied to the mattress.

Non sprung divan bases are cheap to make and cheap to sell. They do not offer anything in the way of suspension to the mattress hence the feeling of a ‘plateau’ (firmness) when you lie on your mattress. Slatted bedframes do not offer a significant degree of suspension. The slats are usually arched which throws the mattress out of allignment and could cause your mattress to dip in the middle region – The hump back bridge effect. You can read more about the drawbacks of slatted bases here.

You can take measures to alleviate this by placing hardboard or thin MDF to bridge the slats over the central support bar and also padding this with foam or duvet to prevent the slats from digging into the underlying upholstery and offering a slight degree of cushioning / suspension.

However, this does not come close to a sprung edged divan. The choice you have to make is either between form or function. The look of (good) bedframes contribute greatly to the look and design of your room.

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We are currently looking at prototypes of mattress pads – very thin sprung mattresses that will sit directly on top of the slats on a bedframe to offer the same suspension qualities as a sprung edged base. The springs within will have to be forgiving enough to work with the weight applied to the mattress, but not so soft as to fully compress with the mattress weight and user. The compromise of this, is that it will obviously increase the height of the mattress by about 3 – 4 inches.

Hope this helps Alex.

The response I have given is quite simplistic and of course there are many variables that could be used as arguments.

Please feel free to comment further.

John and Ryan.