Emma Divan Bed review

The Emma Divan Bed is made by online mattress manufacturer Emma Sleep and is one of six beds sold by the brand in the UK. It features in our guide to this year’s best bed frames and bases as a good choice for people wanting integrated storage and luxury looks without paying a premium price. Even then, the Divan Bed is the second most expensive model in the Emma Sleep range, so is it worth the money? 

For our Emma Divan Bed review we tested the base across all key areas – design, materials, build quality, set-up, support and comfort – and looked at prices (and how the Emma compares to its rivals) and user reviews. 

We rate Emma amongst the best mattress brands (see our Emma mattress review and Emma Premium mattress review for a taster), so we were excited to test this divan to see just how comfy and supportive it is. Here’s how we got on…

Emma Divan Bed: Review in brief

• Two built-in drawers
• Fabric headboard included
• Works with all mattresses

The Emma Divan Bed is one of six beds made by the UK sleep specialist and has attracted high user reviews for its relatively easy build, integrated storage and classic divan style. You can buy it in two different colours (Dark Grey and Angora) and in three sizes: double, king and super king. So there’s no single or custom size options, but that’s common among rival brands too.

Our divan arrived from Emma Sleep in three separate boxes, with the bed base packaged into two parcels and the headboard in a third. While the brand advertises a 15-minute build time for the Divan Bed, ours took a little longer to assemble as there were lots of fiddly bits (such as removing staples) that slow down the process. The king size parts were also heavy to manoeuvre. That said, it was still a straightforward build but not as simple and as fast as what we encountered with our Simba Sirius Bed Frame review - our top pick for people who want a luxury bed with a tool-free build.

You can use the Emma Divan Bed with a range of mattress types, from memory foam mattresses to spring and foam-based hybrid mattresses. This is the case with all divans though and isn’t exclusive to the Emma bed, but it’s reassuring to know that your existing mattress can be placed onto the divan so you don’t have to shell out for a new mattress on top of a new bed frame. 

If you sleep very hot and are looking to buy, consider pairing your divan with a good cooling mattress as some divans don’t boost airflow as well as slatted bases).

Unlike the Simba Sirius Bed Base, which we reviewed during the same period as the Emma Divan, this base is very simple in its approach. It’s handmade in the UK, with all materials meeting FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Standards for the sustainable management of forests. 

For the money you get the divan base itself (split into two parts that you attach together), plus the fabric-covered headboard. Within the base lives the Emma Divan Bed’s biggest selling point: two integrated drawers. During our review period these drawers opened quietly and smoothly, with decent space for three sets of king size bed linen in just one drawer.

We tested our Emma Divan Bed with the brand’s flagship memory foam model, the Emma Original (read our Emma Mattress review to view our testing data) and found that they partnered well together. But of course they would as they have been designed to compliment one another.

We also found the divan to be comfortable to rest and sleep on, with the base providing good support for us when we slept solo and when sharing a bed. It did this without making the memory foam mattress feel firmer, so we were still able to enjoy all that comfortable contouring around our shoulders, back and hips.

The main sticking point for us was the headboard. Emma Sleep has opted for a tall headboard design, which looks stunning, but it’s fixed to the divan via two slender pieces of wood. On our review sample the headboard wobbled noticeably every time we got in and out of bed. It didn’t make a racket, but it did cause a vibration that rippled through the rest of the bed.

We also found that the headboard doesn’t sit well against walls that have a pronounced skirting board at the base, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re searching for a flush finish.

That aside, we feel confident in saying that the Emma Divan Bed is a good-looking classic divan with ample storage drawers. It’s reasonably priced compared to rival bed bases when 50% off, and Emma Sleep offers it with a 10-year warranty and a 200-night trial, plus there’s free delivery.

View the Emma Divan Bed from £545 (was £1,090) at Emma Sleep
There’s a monthly Emma mattress discount that can save you up to 50% on the Emma Divan Bed, reducing the cost of a king size to £609. That’s only £64 more expensive than the double. It ships within three working days, and you’ll have 200 nights to trial it at home to make sure it’s right for you. Pay attention to the build instructions though, as if you assemble the Emma Divan Bed incorrectly and damage any parts, you risk voiding the warranty.

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Emma Divan Bed: Prices

• A double size costs £545 on sale
• Regularly discounted by up to 50%
• Reasonably priced for a luxury divan bed

We don’t think the Emma Divan Bed is as premium a build (in terms of material technology) as the Simba Sirius Bed Base, but it still offers a luxury look and generous integrated storage for a decent price. The bed is handmade in the UK from FSC certified materials, so you aren’t getting a cheaply made bed frame here.

The RRP of the Emma Divan Bed starts from £1,090, but the larger sizes offer better value for money (see below). Here are the official prices for the Emma Divan Bed, as well as the price we usually see it for in the monthly mattress sales:

• RRP double £1,090 (normally priced £545)
• RRP king £1,218 (normally priced £609)
• RRP super king £1,338 (normally priced £669)

It’s easy to see that the larger sizes are better value for money, but only if you’re looking to upgrade your bed size in the first place and have the additional budget to cover a larger mattress and linens. 

How does the Emma Divan Bed compare to rivals such as Simba Sleep and Brook + Wilde? Emma Sleep has six beds to its name, as does luxury sleep specialist Brook + Wilde. Simba has half that, and Emma offers the cheapest bed bases overall – Brook + Wilde prices start from £1,399 for its Signature Divan yet has more storage options (for a much higher cost). It takes 14 weeks to arrive though, while the Emma ships in three working days. 

Simba Sleep prices are more expensive but not by such a huge margin, starting from £572.81 for the Orion Bed in the Simba mattress sale. So for a large range of bed frames and prices, Emma Sleep compares very well out of these top-rated mattress in a box brands.

Emma Divan Bed: Design

• Classic divan bed
• Two integrated storage drawers
• Headboard is prone to wobbling

There isn’t much to say about the design and features of the Emma Divan as they’re quite simple compared to more innovative bed bases. Still, sometimes you can’t go wrong with a sturdy and supportive divan, and that’s what you get with the Emma. 

As mentioned earlier in our review, the Divan Bed is split into two different parts for delivery and fixing them together is pretty easy (see set-up below). The base houses two drawers, and Emma Sleep has designed these so that you can position them at the top or bottom or the divan to best suit your bedroom layout. 

The headboard initially looks as though it’s floating when you first attach it to the base, but this is only true momentarily and until you place a mattress on top, which then plugs the gap between the bottom of the headboard and the top of the divan. Our testing mattress measured 25cm tall, so we’d advise double-checking with Emma Sleep before buying this bed if you intend on sitting a deeper all-foam or hybrid mattress on this frame because of the headboard’s design. 

The headboard looks premium and offers a lot of vertical space for stacking pillows, making this a good choice for people who sleep more upright or who enjoy relaxing on multiple pillows when reading in bed.

Emma Divan Bed: Performance

We tested a king size Emma Divan Base (in the Angora colour) for over two weeks, pairing it with a 25cm deep Emma Original Mattress. Here’s what we uncovered during our review process… 

Set-up

Score: 4/5

While the Emma Divan base was delivered in two halves, both pieces are still bulky items, although the half with the drawers in is considerably lighter than the half without. As such we needed two pairs of hands to carry everything up to the room the test bed was assembled in. 

Overall, there isn’t much to it: two halves of the divan base, the headboard, and a selection of bed feet, clips and screws for the headboard. 

You definitely need some space in your bedroom to move around the bed as you build it. The build starts with the bed upside down, so factor in enough space to flip the bed upright and to attach the headboard to the base with everything away from your bedroom wall.

Before building starts, there’s some initial admin to attend to. The instructions and a bag of small parts (contents pictured above) come loosely stapled to the underside of one of the divan blocks, so you need to remove these first. We had to use a pair of pliers to remove these staples as some were protruding from the base and were quite sharp. This was annoying and slowed us down.

The next consideration is the orientation of your drawers – do you want them at the head or foot end of the bed? Once that’s decided you can start building by laying both divan blocks next to each other, upside down and in your chosen orientation.

The next few steps are super simple: push the eight supplied feet into pre-drilled holes at each corner of both halves of the divan base. They slot in neatly, but will need you to sit on each corner of the mattress once it’s on the base in order to push them in properly (you’ll hear a satisfying ‘click’).

After that, join the two halves together using the two supplied heavy-duty metal clips (pictured above). You’ll want to get the two halves lined up perfectly to avoid any overlap as once these clips are in place it’s hard to remove them and re-align the base. With the clips in place, the divan base becomes one unit that feels very secure and sturdy.

Now you can flip the bed over (definitely a job for two people) and attach the headboard. The headboard features two lengths of wood, one on each side, that attach to the bed base. When the Emma Divan Bed arrives, these are folded up lengthways behind the headboard. You need to twist them 90 degrees so they are pointing vertically down from the headboard and secure them in place with two supplied screws.

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Both lengths of wood are slotted, for attaching the headboard to the bed base, but the slots also enable you to adjust the headboard height to accommodate different depth mattresses. Attaching the headboard is pretty straightforward using the large screws provided. There are four stickers at the end of the divan base – two on either side – and those are your guide holes for where to insert the large screws.

You use the screws to pierce the material and you should find the hole fairly easily. The screws feature large, squared-off plastic heads so you can tighten by hand. With the screws in place, you can slide the slotted headboard wood lengths behind them and tighten them to secure the headboard in place.

Before tightening too much, you need to check you have enough clearance for your mattress. So, with your mattress in position on the bed base, you can adjust the headboard up or down to fit your mattress underneath it. If you don’t allow enough space your mattress will hang off the end of the bed.

Once you’re happy with the position, you can do a final tightening and push the bed against the wall. The drawers are secured to the bed with a flap of material so they don’t dislodge in transit, so the final job is to cut and remove this. Hey presto, you have freely-moving drawers. Overall it’s a pretty simple build – the thing that took the most time was attaching the headboard and fine-tuning its height.

Build quality

Score: 3/5

This isn’t a premium bed frame such as the Simba Sirius, but the Emma Divan Bed is cheaper and overall it feels sturdy once properly built (remember to follow the instructions as an incorrect build will void the warranty). Our main gripe during testing was the headboard, which we feel is more decorative than supportive – it doesn’t feel particularly securely attached to the bed. 

If you have a small gap between the bed and the wall, such as a skirting board, you’ll likely feel some flex when leaning against the headboard as it bends back to the wall. We feel that attaching it with three pieces of wood rather than just the two would boost rigidity. 

Materials

Score: 3/5

The material covering the base and the polyester covering the headboard are quite thin, so we’d worry about it pulling or snagging over time. However we must caveat this by saying that we didn’t see any damage to the fabric during our review period. 

Still, we’d advise being careful with tools when removing packaging so as not to tear the material. It’s spot clean only too, whereas the Simba Sirius has anti-stain technology that means fluids should run off and not penetrate.

The two drawers are made from Scandinavian softwood construction, and while lightweight, they feel sturdy. The softwood is also FSC certified, ensuring the wood or ‘respects procedures that guarantee the sustainable management of forests.’

Comfort and support

Score: 4/5

The Emma Divan bed base is supportive and sturdy (keep reading), and while it provided a more durable base for our memory foam mattress, it didn’t alter the feel of it, as some divans do by making them feel firmer.

In our opinion, the headboard is the only main drawback. Yes it looks great and certainly stands out as a feature in the bedroom, but if you are a restless sleeper who tosses and turns at night, or you’re experiencing nocturia (frequent weeing at night) and are in and out of bed all the time, that headboard may disturb your partner. 

We are speaking from the experience of our testing model, which we built correctly, but keep in mind that many positive reviews of the Emma Divan Bed do not have any issues with the headboard.

Packaging

Score: 4/5

The Emma Divan bed frame arrived in three pieces: the headboard, plus two halves of the base. All were wrapped in plastic. (Plastic is still a necessary evil when shipping large items like this, but at least we didn’t have to contend with giant cardboard boxes in addition.)

As mentioned previously, the instructions and additional parts were stapled to the bed base, so there was no unnecessary extra packaging, staples and tape to dispose of there. There was far more packaging to recycle and bin with the Simba Sirius Bed Frame, for example.

Emma Divan Bed: User reviews

The Emma Divan Bed is only sold at Emma Sleep. Whilst there is a smattering of reviews for this bed, Emma relies on a third-party entity (Trustpilot) to aggregate customer feedback about the company as a whole. Thus, we're unable to provide any sort of star rating for the Emma Divan Bed itself. 

However, here's what we could parse from the Trustpilot reviews...

The quality of the Emma Divan Bed is viewed favorably by customers overall, but a bulk of the negative reviews focus on delivery mishaps and order errors (ie. broken or missing pieces, incorrect colours, miscommunication between the delivery service and customer). 

Most of these grievances have been addressed by Emma's customer support team via Trustpilot in an effort to make things right – although even that's hit-or-miss, depending on the situation. Fortunately, we encountered no issues when receiving our Emma Divan Bed for testing, but it's still something you may want to pay mind to.  

Should you buy the Emma Divan Bed?

In-bed storage is a huge benefit, especially if you have a small bedroom with limited space for drawers and similar types of furniture. So if you want a classic looking divan bed with generous space for storing bed linens or other bedroom items, then yes we recommend the Emma Divan Bed.

Despite our issues with the headboard on our testing sample, and all those annoying staples to cut away, the divan bed base itself is sturdy and a supportive place to sit most types of mattress. Just make sure your deeper mattress can be accommodated in the space between the headboard and the divan base itself.

Emma Sleep offers a 10-year warranty on its Divan Bed, plus a 200-night trial. That gives you nearly six months to put it to the test to make sure it’s right for your sleep needs, especially if you share a bed with another person and one or both of you move around a lot in your sleep.

At 50% off most months, we feel the Emma Divan Bed is reasonably priced for its integrated storage and stylish appearance, and would recommend it to anyone with bedroom storage issues.

Read more:

• What are box springs – and does your mattress need one?
• How often should you flip your mattress to keep it fresh?
• Know how to clean a mattress for hygienic sleep