Choosing a desk bed

A small room often has to be a bedroom and a study at once. A desk bed lets it be both. In the day there is a desk to work at, and at night there is a bed.

Two ways of doing it

One kind folds. The bed lifts up against the wall in the daytime, and a desk sits in front of it or folds out below it. The British standard for beds like this is BS EN 1129-1, "Furniture. Foldaway beds. Safety requirements and testing". Ask the seller whether a bed has been tested to it.

The other kind is a raised bed, often called a high sleeper, with a desk underneath. Nothing folds, and the bed stays up high. For a child's room, this kind has rules of its own.

Measuring the room

Start with the wall the bed will stand against. Measure its width and the height to the ceiling. Then measure out into the room, as far as the bed reaches when it is down, and leave space to walk round it.

Look for anything in the way. A door that opens inwards, a window, a radiator and a light switch can all sit where a folding bed needs to swing. Check the desk too, because a folding bed may need it cleared before it comes down.

Fixing it to the wall

Ireland's consumer regulator, the CCPC, advises fixing furniture such as shelves, desks and drawers to a wall with safety straps or L-brackets. It also says to follow the safety instructions that come with the furniture, and to ask the seller or manufacturer if anything is unclear. If children climb on furniture, the CCPC adds, it can tip over and cause serious harm.

Electrical Safety First, a UK charity, says one of the commonest DIY mistakes is drilling, nailing or screwing into cables hidden inside walls. It suggests a cable detector to find buried cables before starting work.

The charity also notes the rule electricians follow. Cables buried in walls are required to run straight up, down or across from sockets and switches.

Raised beds and children under six

The Bunk Beds (Entrapment Hazards) (Safety) Regulations 1987, as made, cover more than bunk beds. They count any bed as a bunk bed if its sleeping surface, or the underside of it, is 800 mm or more above the floor in normal use. A high sleeper with a desk underneath can meet that test.

A bed in this group must be built so that a child under six cannot reasonably become wedged or trapped in the parts of the bed at or above the height of the sleeping surface. The Regulations name the risks this guards against, including strangulation, suffocation and injury to the neck or spine.

The Regulations also set the gaps allowed at or above that height, in the sleeping surface, the head and foot boards, the side guards and round a ladder. A gap in the sleeping surface can be no more than 75 mm. Any other gap must be between 60 mm and 75 mm, measured the way the Regulations set out.

Two kinds of gap are allowed outside those limits. One is a gap that comes from reasonable manufacturing tolerances. The other is the opening in a side guard that lets a person climb in to sleep, as long as it is at least 300 mm wide.

No one may supply a bed that fails these rules. A kit sold to be put together into one must come with full and clear assembly instructions, and the bed built from them must meet the rules too.

This section gives the 1987 text. Check legislation.gov.uk for any later changes.

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