Grand Designs For Storage Beds

For many of us, our home is all about a fusion of design and functionality. We demand a style to suit our own individual tastes, yet we also need our houses to be homely and efficient with available space. Thanks to a rise in the last decade of a greater emphasis on practical yet quality design, more and more everyday objects have become easier to use and seem to look better in equal measure. The same goes for our beds. They're not just for sleeping on any more, but they are also becoming more functional too. Now products such as the Ottoman storage bed have been transformed into a well-designed blend of style and comfort, cleverly configured to change at the press of a button into a convenient and space saving storage unit. The object is to give you both form and functionality without any loss of space.

Changing the way we think about storage

There was a time when having storage bed seemed to translate into some kind of cry for help; a sign of being overwhelmed by clutter and debris. This was an age of cheaply made furniture where quick stop solutions meant tacky products and poor design. So many space saving devices back then had an air of 'sweeping the mess under the carpet', where you gave up on style as part of a compromise in your effort to make more of the space around the home. Those old flimsy storage beds are a world away from the Ottoman bed we see today, though.

In recent years, with functionality becoming an increasingly key ingredient in design, companies are recognising that consumers are more likely to value quality and ease of use in design for everyday household appliances and furniture. Designers also realise that customers want their furniture to multi-task as well, and it's striking to see how this ethos has affected the market for storage beds. Whilst some businesses are still relying on the old space saving over style compromise, others have realised that an storage bed can be a style choice and a convenient storage solution without compromise.

A storage 'no-brainer'

It was simple plan: all the humble storage bed needed was a bit of thought and attention, and the key lay in good design. Rather than just work out a way to make a bed also a storage device, which resulted in some rather clumsy and unsightly examples, the more intuitive bed makers realised that people wanted to sleep on a bed as opposed to a lop sided box. So they worked on making a really good bed, then worked just as hard to incorporate a highly efficient and easy to use storage system - a way of making the bed a sublime, space saving and fuss free storage facility. This approach revolutionised the way bed designers thought, and the Ottoman bed really came into its own.

One of the most appealing features of today's stylish and bespoke Ottoman storage beds is that they don't look like storage beds. Pull the strap and the gas pistons raise the bed and the reliable, sturdy action of the mechanism transforms a stylish bed into a convenient stow away for a huge amount of clothes, luggage and whatever else you need to find some space for. Combining form and function really is a design 'no-brainer', and the Ottoman bed is an example of what can be achieved when both these key features merge perfectly.