Editor’s Note: All of the prices shown below are for queen beds. Most of the products we selected are also available in twin, full, and king-size bed frames.
Your Shopping-Related FAQs, Answered
The Best Bed Foundation on Amazon: Tuft & Needle Mattress Foundation
The traditional box spring is going out of style, but if you still need some extra support for your mattress, invest in a starter foundation like this one from Tuft & Needle that adds height to your bed setup and can even act as a frame in a pinch. We also appreciate that it’s covered in a woven gray fabric that will go with any bedroom color scheme. While you can place this foundation directly on your floor, we beseech you to pair it with a sturdy metal or wood bed frame (like any of the ones below) once you’re past your first starter apartment out of college. This is the kind of bed you buy before you acquire your heritage bedroom furniture later in life, and it should last as long, or longer, than your mattress.
The Best Metal Bed Frame on Amazon: Olee Sleep
When you need to save your sleep budget for your mattress, this affordable bed frame will support that fancy new purchase for a long time to come. We’ve featured this durable steel bed frame in GQ shopping guides previously for its solid makeup and even more solid reviews. We love that there are actual slats on this frame made of reinforced heavy-duty steel, rather than just a T-shaped support bar in the middle, for optimal support and sturdiness. You can also pair this one with a headboard or footboard if you want to class up your bedroom down the line. Most importantly, this best seller with steel slat support leaves 13 inches of clearance underneath for additional storage.
The Best Platform Bed Frame on Amazon: Mellow
A simple wood bed frame is a great starter bed when you’re ready to retire your metal bed frame from Amazon Basics. We like this platform bed because it’s constructed from solid wood, not cheap particle board, and because there are 8.5 inches of space underneath for storage. Like the GQ award-winning Thuma, the Mellow bed can be assembled in minutes (although it lacks the signature Japanese joinery of the latter’s products). Plus, the wood slats feature a non-slip coating to keep your mattress in place despite any tossing and turning. As one of the most popular bed frames on Amazon, this best-seller has also garnered more than 14,000 five-star reviews from Amazon shoppers to help influence your decision.
The Best Upholstered Platform Bed on Amazon: Zinus Justina
Sleep brand Zinus is known for its affordable mattresses and bed frames, but don’t think that means you’re buying a downgrade in quality. This Justina upholstered option is pretty simple to assemble, with a subdued silhouette. The fabric upholstery snaps into place over a simple metal bed frame, while solid wood legs keep the bed off the floor so your mattress gets plenty of ventilation. It has all the benefits of a sturdy metal frame, but to all the world it looks like an upholstered wood bed, and this one lacks a heavy headboard if you’re paring things back.
The Best Bed Frame with an Adjustable Headboard: Zinus Raymond
The Raymond platform bed from Zinus has a handy feature: the solid wood headboard can be adjusted to the height of your mattress. This midcentury modern-style option has enough clearance off the floor to store a fair amount of junk under there, though you’ll have to work around the central column of legs. The exterior acacia wood legs are tipped with gold-colored metal, and the rustic brown headboard gives you a place to prop yourself up while you doomscroll before bed or watch reruns. You won’t need any extra tools to assemble this bed frame, though Zinus says it can take up to an hour to put it together with two people.
The Best Linen Bed Frame on Amazon: Nectar Bed Frame and Headboard
Nectar doesn’t just want to sell you a mattress. It also wants you to add a whole bed setup to your shopping cart. The brand’s frame and matching headboard are covered with a neutral off-white linen fabric, which is button-tufted up top. It’s a more traditional alternative to the all-wooden platform bed du jour, but it’s not too showy either. Because the bed base uses a combination of metal and wood, it’s also sturdier than most comparable frames and you can do away with the box spring thanks to the wooden slats. The bed has eight inches of clearance from the ground, so there’s a little bit of room for storage, though not a ton. It’s also covered by a three-year warranty, far longer than most furniture on Amazon.
The Best Boucle Bed Frame on Amazon: Jennifer Taylor Home Boucle Upholstered Platform Bed
This boucle bed frame looks like something you’d scoop up at CB2, but for a much cheaper price. The combination of boucle fabric and a curved headboard gives this bed a cloud-like silhouette, and the chubby legs add a charming Scandi element to them, too. We should note that this bed is heavier than most of our other options, so just make sure you have someone who can help you assemble and move it.
The Best Bed Frame on Amazon with an Extended Headboard: DG Casa Rhodes
The Rhodes Bed Frame from DG Casa combines a few bedroom style swerves in one, from the wraparound wooden bed frame to the tufted velvet fabric, all finished off with angled MCM legs. It’s a solid choice for anyone who’s going for a more stately look in the bedroom.
The Best Velvet Bed on Amazon: Jennifer Taylor Home Aspen
For more of an angular sleigh-style bed, we also dig this vertical tufted velvet option with a curved wingback headboard. Dark and blue and imposing black are safe choices for a moodier design scheme, but you can also find this bed in 11 other shades of velvet to align it with the vibe you’re setting. The frame uses a combination of solid hardwood and engineered wood to prop your mattress up. Plus, unlike other styles from retailers such as CB2 or Design Within Reach, this velvet bed frame costs well under $1,000.
The Best Rustic Bed Frame on Amazon: KD Frames Nomad Platform Bed
Looking for something a little more barebones? KD Frame’s heavy-duty bed frame nabbed a spot in our guide to the best beds overall for its stripped-down aesthetic and simplicity. Instead of using cheap engineered plywood or MDF, beds are made from poplar hardwood for a more realistic, solid finish. We also like that this option leaves generous room for under-bed storage. Plus, the slats are tightly spaced to provide maximum support for your expensive new mattress. If you’re not into the beech-y, untreated look, you can also stain or paint the wood yourself.
The Best Storage Bed on Amazon: Merax Hydraulic Lift-Up Storage Bed
This modern bed uses a a hydraulic lifting mechanism to store extra linens, winter clothing, or whatever’s currently taking up space in piles on your bedroom floor within its spacious interior cavity. Because any decent mattress will weigh a considerable amount, the hydraulic lift will be very much appreciated when you need to access those sweaters from last year. While some people may prefer pull-out storage drawers, we like how discreet this particular bed is. Another nice touch is the pine and plywood frame, covered in upholstery, that comes in three neutral colors. The only downside is that this bed frame is only available for full-size and queen-size mattresses.
The Best Sleigh-Style Bed Frame on Amazon: Allewie Bed With Adjustable Headboard
There’s a lot to love about this striking wavy bed, from the handsome gray fabric to the sloping curves of the design. Under the hood, this frame uses a solid mix of wood and steel to ground it against creaking and sliding. The adjustable, ergonomic back is also a major bonus for those who like to read or watch TV in bed. Another perk of the design is the way your mattress embeds directly into the sunken sleigh frame, which will make changing the sheets a lot more…interesting, but hopefully not too challenging. You’ll also have to live without any under-bed storage, but with the dinero you’re saving on this $200-something frame, hopefully you can pour that money into a spacious storage system instead.
Buying Furniture on Amazon: A Beginner’s Guide
Furniture shopping on Amazon isn’t as simple as strolling through Ikea and picking out dressers and lamps you like. Amazon sells furniture from hundreds of brands: some familiar and some totally unknown, in addition to its own in-house furniture lines such as Rivet and Stone & Beam. And just because you spot a furniture brand you recognize for sale on Amazon, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a totally foolproof purchase, as Amazon lists countless products from third-party sellers and storefronts. Generally, when picking out furniture on Amazon for GQ readers, we prioritize furniture sold and shipped by Amazon itself—or at least ones that outline free returns within a certain time period.
A lot of the furniture on Amazon is perpetually low in stock, too, or doesn’t have many reviews. That can make it more difficult to surface a real keeper. Plus, some of the best furniture on Amazon isn’t actually available via Prime, especially if you’re shopping from a smaller brand or third-party retailer. Just make sure to double check the return policy before confirming your purchase.
Lastly, unless you’re on a super tight budget, you’ll want to find furniture that not only looks good, but also was constructed with quality materials. A bed frame made from solid hardwood or strong metal will last longer, and ultimately look more expensive than furniture that uses engineered wood products such as medium-density fiberboard (MDF) or plywood, which is typically covered with a cheap wood veneer to look like the real deal.
How We Chose These Bed Frames
To ensure we’re recommending the best, most stylish bed frames on Amazon, we drew from our own personal experience with styles on the site, the GQ Sleep Awards, and careful combing through Amazon’s furniture section. We prioritized sleep and furniture brands that we trust such as Tuft & Needle and Nectar (i.e. companies with verifiable websites and a bent for high-quality sleep products), while otherwise cherry-picking stylish designs with overwhelmingly positive reviews and guaranteed returns.
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