A mate of mine turned her second bedroom into a guest room and home office last year. One wall for the desk, one for the bed, and that was it — no room left for a chest of drawers or a linen cupboard. She asked me a fair question: “Where am I supposed to put spare doonas and pillows if there’s no wardrobe?” The answer was staring at her. Under the bed.
This is the exact problem a bed frame with storage solves, and it’s why they’ve become one of the more searched-for options for small bedrooms, granny flats, studio apartments and share houses across Australia. You get a proper sleeping surface and a chunk of hidden storage, without eating into floor space you don’t have.
What “footboard storage” actually means
Not every storage bed is the same. Some have drawers built into the sides, which is great for access but takes up width you might not have. Others, like the Metal Bed Frame White 150×200 cm with Footboard Storage, build the storage into the end of the bed instead. That means the compartment sits within the existing footprint of the frame — it doesn’t add extra width or length to the room, it just uses the space that would otherwise be dead air under the mattress near your feet.
It’s a solid choice for spare blankets, out-of-season clothes, extra pillows or that box of Christmas decorations you never know where to put. The white powder-coated metal frame keeps things simple and won’t clash with whatever furniture ends up in the room later — handy if you’re setting up a spare room now and don’t know its final look yet.
Metal vs timber: which suits the room?
Metal frames tend to sit lower profile and read more “modern minimal” — they suit rooms where you want the bed to feel light and not dominate the space, which matters when the room is doing double duty as an office or a nursery-in-waiting. The slatted base underneath also means decent airflow to the mattress, which helps in Melbourne’s more humid stretches where mattresses can hold moisture if they’re sat directly on a solid base.
If your spare room leans more toward a warmer, cottage-ish feel — floorboards, a rug, maybe a reading lamp on a side table — a timber frame might suit the room better than metal. The Queen Size Wooden Bed Frame in solid pine with a white slat base and headboard gives you that softer look, still with a proper slatted base for support, just without the built-in storage compartment. Good option if you’ve already got a chest of drawers or built-in robe and just need the bed itself to look right.
What if the room’s smaller again — a single-person guest room?
Not every spare room takes a queen. If you’re working with something closer to a box room — say for a teenager, a fly-in-fly-out worker, or a granny flat — a king single frame is often the better fit width-wise while still giving a proper adult-length mattress. The King Single Box Spring Bed with Pocket Mattress in black fabric comes with the mattress already sorted, which is one less thing to measure and match if you’re setting the room up in a weekend.
It won’t have the footboard storage cavity the metal queen frame has, so if storage is the main problem you’re solving, that’s worth factoring in before you buy. In a smaller room you might be better off pairing a compact frame with a couple of under-bed storage boxes instead — sometimes the simplest fix really is the cheapest one.
Measuring before you buy
This sounds obvious but it’s the mistake I see most. A 150x200cm queen frame with a footboard storage box will run longer overall than a standard queen frame, because the compartment sits at the end of the bed rather than underneath the mattress line. Before you order:
- Measure the full length of the room wall, not just where you think the bed will sit
- Add at least 60-70cm of clearance at the footboard end for the storage lid to open fully
- Check doorway width if the frame needs to go in flat-packed and be assembled inside the room
- Confirm your mattress size matches the frame — 150x200cm is queen, not the same as double (137x188cm)
Assembly on the metal frame is straightforward — most people manage it solo in under an hour with a Phillips head screwdriver, though a second set of hands makes lifting the footboard storage section onto the frame easier. The slats sit in a steel frame rather than resting loose, so there’s less chance of them shifting around over time compared to some cheaper flat-pack bases.
Storage bed or storage boxes — which actually wins?
Honestly, it depends on how often you need access. A footboard compartment is brilliant for things you grab a few times a year — spare bedding, guest towels, seasonal clothes. If you need daily access to what’s stored, drawers or an open shelf unit elsewhere in the room will serve you better, since lifting a mattress-adjacent lid every morning gets old fast.
For that spare-room-slash-office setup, though, the footboard storage genuinely earns its keep. Spare doonas go in, lid closes, and the room still looks tidy when guests turn up unannounced — which, if you’ve got family in another state, happens more than you’d think.