Platform vs Panel Beds: Best Practical Support for Your Decor
When on the hunt for the perfect bed to compliment your home decor and personal style, it isn’t difficult to become completely overwhelmed by your many choices. To complicate the matter, you have to look for a bed frame that provides the proper support for your choice of mattress.
When reviewing bed frame descriptions, you have probably stumbled across some terminology you may not exactly recognize. Platform and panel are two such words, and it is fairly important to understand the differences between these two different types of beds in order to ensure you are getting exactly what you need.
Table Of Contents
Comparison Table
Platform Bed | Panel Bed |
|---|---|
 |  |
Low profile | Higher profile |
Built in solid or slatted mattress support | Box Spring or bunkie board needed for mattress support |
Less styles to choose from | Large array of style to choose from |
May have built in storage | May have very little bed to floor clearance |
Platform Beds
A platform bed is defined by the type of support it provides for your mattress choice. Often contemporary in design, it offers either a solid or slatted platform surface. The growing popularity of certain types of foam mattresses calls for the need of the use of a platform bed design, and with this has also come a wider variety of available styles to meet the needs of various decor.
Pros
Cons
Construction
The construction of a platform bed can include a variety of materials, but generally uses a solid wood or metal frame, within which a solid surface, or series of closely spaced pine wood slats, sit to support your mattress weight.
This surface should always be further supported by a bar that runs the length (and occasionally the width) of your bed with supportive feet to help keep the platform from sagging and keeping your mattress at a consistent sleep surface. Platform bed slats vs plywood, or solid surfaces, have their own differences surrounding support and overall comfort which should be considered as well.
A platform style bed does not need a boxspring in order to keep your mattress supported. In fact, they were designed to provide the only supported needed for a mattress. Many foam mattresses are unable to be correctly supported upon a boxspring, and require a platform to stay within warranty.
Platform beds are usually low profile, not often rising much more than a foot above the floor. Their construction is of such, however, that they can be used with a boxspring if you prefer it with your type of mattress. This can raise the profile significantly, but could cause you to cover and head or footboards due to the overall design.
Design
Even though platform beds are traditionally more contemporary in design, their styles have been expanding to include more traditional bed frame looks to help meet a wider variety of decor. Various wooden hues, as well as metal tones, are used in the many available designs. The one thing almost all designs have in common are the aforementioned low platform, although a few higher versions do exist if you take care to search for them.
Another cool design feature you can easily find is the additional storage that is often incorporated into the frame itself. Side and footboards, as well as headboard shelves can be found in many styles to help you save space, especially if you have a smaller bedroom area.
Head and footboards are not a part of the traditional platform design, although many newer styles are beginning to incorporate them. Those that do not often offer the availability of being able to add them to the bed frame itself. You have to remember that even with a headboard the profile will still be low, and if you do use a boxspring it may cover up most of the headboard.
Benefits
Often platform beds save consumers money as their simple design and construction uses less materials, plus you do not have to provide a boxspring for your mattress. Slats supports provide excellent sir flow for mattresses as well to help keep heat and moisture wicked away from the sleepers body.
The low profile is a very stable design, and the simplicity is often preferable for smaller urban housing as it takes up less room, especially is storage is built in to help with space saving and organization.
Platform beds are also the preferred support for many foam constructed mattresses in order to provide the correct support needed and keep them under warranty.
Concerns
The lower platform can be problematic for some people, especially if there are pain issues that makes getting into and out of bed an issue. The simple, more modern designs also may not blend well with many decors, although there have been more frame choices available recently due to the rise in certain types of mattress popularity.
Platform beds are also notoriously difficult to move once assembled. They are often heavy and awkward to carry or maneuver in tight spaces, making moving them a difficult task. Solid surface supports often don’t breathe well either, and can also cause your mattress to feel more firm than it really is.
Panel Beds
Panel beds are a traditional style bed that has a higher profile than a platform bed and usually includes both a head and footboard. They are constructed to be used with a box spring mattress, although a bunky board can be used in order to accommodate a mattress that requires a more supportive surface.
Pros
Cons
Construction
Sitting higher than a platform, a panel bed incorporates a simple frame design that allows a boxspring to be supported by the head and footboards which are connected by a pair of side panels. Usually there are also a series of widely spaced slats and a center leg in order to help support the weight of a mattress and keep it from sagging overtime.
Because they are made to accommodate both boxspring and mattress, the head and footboards are often taller in height to allow for the style and design to be seen and not covered up by your choice of bedding.
Design
The designs available in a panel bed are widely varied and can encompass a wide variety of personal tastes to fit into almost any decor. Different hues and colors are often used- as well as styles for more sleek, clean modern look, to a more rustic, or even casual type bedding choice.
Panel beds can also incorporate underbed storage, or even trundle bed options. Occasionally you may also be able to find one that has built in storage options as well, especially as shelving units found within the headboards. This allows you to remove any type of bedside table you may have to save space.
Head and footboards may also be highly decorative, and even interchangeable since the connecting sideboards often use a universal hook to attach the two together.
Benefits
The benefits of a panel bed include having a bed that sits at a height that allows you to use it as a sitting surface with ease. You also will be able to use a boxspring without worry of covering up your head or footboards and losing the advantages of having them for your decor.
The support of a boxspring helps to absorb the weight of a mattress and the applied body weight of sleepers, which helps extend the life of your mattress. Plus, the wider available choices of style and design are also often more appealing to many people.
Concerns
Without the additional cost of a bunky board, you cannot usually use a panel bed for many foam constructed mattresses as their frame is not made to be supportive enough. This makes you limited in what type of mattress you can use with it. Plus, a boxspring often has an additional costs attached to them, making your overall mattress costa a bit more higher.
Some panel beds have very little space beneath them as well, limiting your storage space options and allowing empty space go to waste. This can be especially annoying if you live in a small space and need to utilize room.
Your Best Choice Explained
Of course your best bed choice is going to be personal based on your specific needs as well as what sort of mattress you have. Although a platform bed can accept a boxspring as well as a foam mattress without sacrificing support, it also has a much lower profile and may not come in quite as many styles to choose from.
A panel bed can accept a boxspring, as well as foam mattresses as long as the correct support is added to the frame. These are generally higher and may be easier to get out of, plus they often have a wider variety of style choices to choose from to fit just about any decor.
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