Important: Please report inappropriate ads by sending a message to . Please include the Posting ID located in the header of each ad. Today, there’s only one thing that comes close on the heels of having a roof over our heads: having a place to lay your head at night. And while beds are necessities in modern homes, the first beds were a far cry from the standard headboard-mattress configuration, on both ends of the spectrum. From simple, carved wooden neck rests to paneled beds that were configured into a room like architecture, beds have been status symbols beginning with the earliest of civilizations. Beds had the humblest of beginnings but eventually changed the shape of the home—coming before the existence of a bedroom, becoming a permanent aspect everyday life, and eventually assuming the permanent role as a symbol of comfort, luxury and security. From New Guinea to Fiji, head rests were the first ways people worked to improve their sleeping situations. A small, movable platform supported the neck and head, and, in some cultures, carving (like a pair of eyes or a full face) provided a sense of security—a way to ward off evil spirits while you slept.
In the case of Fijians, head rests supported just the neck, at the base of the skull—an important adjustment meant to preserve their elaborate hairstyles while they slept. Hairstyle and head rest both were major status symbols—the start of a trajectory that would take the bed from floor mat to architectural behemoth. It’s worth noting, too, that these earliest ways of sleeping—on the floor, with little more than a mat—weren’t too foreign to the lower classes throughout the centuries, as the bed evolved. Poorer homes most often couldn’t even conceive of having a private bedroom, let alone a raised bed. In some instances, hundreds of years down the road, servants would sleep on trundle beds that pulled out from under their masters’ beds (or sometimes, didn’t pull out at all!). Advancements in Egypt, Greece & Rome Leave it to the Egyptians to have created a version of the bed far advanced than what Europe would come up with, in the centuries BC. Their carved wooden bedsteads (around 1575-1075 BC) featured gorgeous, intricately carved, gilded and inlaid beds with footboards.
The craftsmanship was unparalleled for centuries. However, the Egyptians’ most common form of bed still didn’t have a headboard, making it a nice little segue between the early cultures’ head rests—instead, it featured two posts with a head rest positioned in the center. As far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned, the bed is where the “daybed” first originated, but there wasn’t a true distinction between the two. [Read more in the full History of the Daybed.] Beds were couches, or “tricliniums,” by day—a fixed headrest at one end and no footboard at the other end. In ancient Greece and Rome, reclining was a totally acceptable (if not solemn) posture in social settings, so the daybed was a crucial piece of furniture. Even meals were taken lying down. These beds had wood frames, either carved or turned legs, and were veneered with luxurious finishes, like ivory. Comfort came in the way of strips of leather tied to the frame with animal skins overtop, adding “give” before the invention of the stuffed mattress or coil spring.
By about 200 BC, Roman couches (pictured) became incredible popular crafted from wood and bronze with two, symmetrical head and footrests shaped like swan’s necks. This bed-slash-couch spread from Rome throughout most of Europe, but for the more nomadic tribes, the “bed” of choice was still animal skins on the ground, or sometimes a hollowed-out wooden structure, almost like a shallow chest. The Middle Ages: The Rise of the Upholstered Bed It was almost twelve centuries later that a proper framed bedstead came about, more closely resembling modern beds (just on a much larger scale). These wooden, framed structures featured heavy curtains, transforming them from a couch during the day to a private, sectioned-off sleeping area at night—convenient, given the lack of bedrooms and cold, drafty nights inside Great Halls. These curtains played an even bigger role as the Middle Ages wore on, and were status symbols in an of themselves. Upholsterers were commissioned to create these massive hangings, which became another member of wealthy people’s entourages—carted along on their travels, they became a luxury no nobleman could live without.
Bed frames remained somewhat crude, but the upholstery just kept evolving, eventually adding both a canopy and a “celure,” or tester, a panel of fabric that hung above the pillows before headboards were conceived, often bearing the owner’s coat of arms. At this point, the structure of the bed was taking on more moving parts, and a more significant role in the home. Finally the headboard appeared on the scene, around 1500, taking place of the celure, and itself often featuring a carved family crest. These were the first four-posters, and variations would be called the same name until around 1550 when a preference for a grand, paneled headboard would essentially make it a “two-poster,” right around the Renaissance. This was also a time for really massive, bulbous turning—a treatment that made the remaining two posts (pictured below) more than make up for the lack of four. Rooms within Rooms: Paneled Bedsteads This type of bed really stuck around, long into the 18th century.
Even in wealthier homes, the bed still existed right smack in the living room, so privacy was paramount. With paneled sides and heavy curtains, it could essentially create a room within a room. Elizabethan and Jacobean bedsteads were so important, they became major line items in family wills. No expense was spared. In 16thC Northern Europe—from Holland and Germany up to Sweden—these wooden bedsteads were treated like architecture, built into the actual structure of a room with wood paneling that matched that on the walls. In Brittany, France, Scotland, and Wales, a “cupboard bed” was common in the living room, fashioned with doors that closed to cordon of the space from the rest of the living room. By the time bedrooms finally came about, these iconic bedsteads didn’t entirely disappear, however. Greeting guests in your home while lying down sounds a little strange today, but it was still common practice, bedsteads remained in the living room for more supine social situations.
New 18th Century Fashions: The Walnut Period & Versailles Opulence By the 1700s, the bedroom is a more commonplace thing—at least for the very wealthy. This opened the doors for lots of variations on the bedstead. Like the rest of furniture during the Walnut Period, it was, at first, a time for lightening and streamlining.Then, it became time for upholstery to take center stage. Beds were crafted with newer woods, slimmer posts, cabriole legs, lion’s paw feet (1740s), and sometimes Chippendale‘s Marlboro legs (Philadelphia, 1770s). New fashions were popping up all over Europe. In France in the late 1600s, the “angel bed” (with a half-tester, or half-canopied top) made a dramatic entrance, famously seen in Versailles and imitated throughout the nation (the King’s bed being figuratively more important than even his throne). Pictured, it had no posts but instead a heavily draped half-canopy that was attached to the wall above it. In Portugal, a bed was designed without a canopy but with elegant, dome-shaped carved head- and footboards and double cabriole legs.
Now popularly referred to as a “Queen Anne” bed, it’s still widely reproduced today. After all of these towering pieces, the time came when the profile was lowered a bit. The beds that rural artisans began creating to better their own means were almost better representations of today’s beds than the grand bedsteads. In Spain, there was a modest combination of head- and footboard with painted details. Pictured is a folk art Romanian headboard, crafted and painted by hand. In Scandinavia, these middle-of-the-road beds had low headboards, short posts, and pretty carving and painting. In Alpine countries, these were often crafted of pine and painted in bright colors. In Russia, around 1750, an unusual adult-sized, crib-style bed was popular. With two paneled ends and armrests on either side, it resembled two settees pushed together. Meanwhile, in Germany, a feather-filled quilt was invented, offering unparalleled warmth—a perfect complement to these new, pared-down styles of bed.
In France and Denmark, and alcove-style bed was created sideways within a space in the wall, covered in front by draped curtains (French damask and Danish checks, respectively). For the poor, however, things had only improved a bit: straw-filled mattresses on the floor, or just the floor itself. Mattresses & The Modern Bed For a country that loved extravagance, it’s sort of ironic that the French would be responsible for the famous iron bed (pictured)—a piece popularized later for being in hospitals and institutions. The English furthered this innovation by creating a brass version (1830), which became a fixture in Victorian-style interiors. Mattresses came a long way around the turn of the century, too: wire mesh mattresses with horsehair overlays, box mattresses with coil springs and cotton striped ticking covers, then foam mattresses. As the structure of mattresses improved, frames could be removed altogether, resulting in the ultra-modern “divan” bed of the 1930s.