You have found the headboard you want, in the fabric you want, and then the listing asks you to pick between floor standing and strutted. No explanation, no diagram, just two options and a drop-down.
It is a fair question to be stuck on, because a floor standing headboard and a strutted one are built differently, they fix to the bed differently, and they end up at different heights. Neither is better. They are answers to different situations, and the situation that decides it is usually your bedroom rather than your taste.
What a Strutted Headboard Is
A strutted headboard is the upholstered panel plus two flat timber legs, called struts, running down from the back of it. Those struts are the whole mechanism. They slide down behind the divan base and bolt through it, usually with two bolts a side, into threaded sockets already set into the base.
The important part is what the struts are not doing. They are not touching the floor. The headboard is carried entirely by the base, hanging off the back of it, which is why a strutted headboard only ever weighs on the bed and never on the carpet.
Because the strut is fixed at a set of drilled holes, you get some adjustment on height. Move the bolts up a hole or two and the headboard rises with them. That range is finite, though, which is the point we come back to below.
What a Floor Standing Headboard Is
A floor standing headboard is built with legs that carry on down past the base and rest on the floor. The bed is then pushed back against it, and the headboard is trapped between the base and the wall rather than bolted to anything.
That changes several things at once. The weight goes into the floor instead of into the base. The panel can be taller, because it is not limited by the length of a strut or by where the base sockets happen to sit. And it is not tied to your base at all, so a floor standing headboard can outlive the bed it started with.
It also means the fit depends on your bed being pushed properly back. If the base drifts forward, the headboard leans back into the wall and you get a gap at pillow level. Not a fault, just a thing worth knowing.
How to Choose Between Them
Look at your base first
Start with what your base is set up for. A divan base built with headboard sockets will take a strutted headboard straight away, and that is the simpler installation of the two. If your base has no sockets, a strutted headboard has nothing to bolt to, and floor standing is your answer.
Every base across our divan base range is built with headboard fixings as standard, so if the base is coming from us, both options are open to you.
Then look at how tall you want it
Height is the deciding factor for most people. Strutted headboards sit within a range set by the struts, which for the majority of designs puts the top edge somewhere sensible for sitting up and reading. If you want something dramatically taller, a panel that runs well up the wall behind the bed, floor standing gives you the room to do it because the legs can be as long as the design needs.
Work out the height you want before you order rather than after. Sit on the edge of your mattress against the wall, get someone to hold a tape measure, and note where your shoulders land and where the top of your head lands. A headboard that stops between those two points is doing its job.
Then look at your walls
This is the one people forget. Skirting boards, radiators, dado rails, picture rails and sloped ceilings all live in the space a headboard wants to occupy.
A floor standing headboard needs its legs to reach the floor, so a deep skirting board pushes the whole thing forward by however thick that skirting is, and the bed comes forward with it. A strutted headboard has no such problem, since the struts disappear behind the base and never meet the skirting at all. If you have chunky Victorian skirting or a radiator sitting low on the wall behind the bed, strutted is usually the easier fit.
Then think about whether the bed will move
If you rent, or if you expect to redecorate and rearrange more than once, a floor standing headboard travels well. It is not bolted to a particular base with a particular socket spacing, so it moves house with you and works with whatever comes next.
If the bed is going in and staying put, the bolted fixing of a strutted headboard means it will not shift a millimetre from the day it goes on. Push the bed away from the wall to hoover and the headboard comes with it.
Ottoman and Storage Bases Need a Bit More Thought
If your base lifts or opens, check the headboard against that movement before you commit.
Side-lifting and end-lifting bases sweep the mattress up through an arc, and a headboard with a deep curve or heavy wings can catch that arc. Because our ottoman bases are built with the headboard fixings positioned around the lift, a strutted headboard fits without interfering with the mechanism. A floor standing headboard is fine too, and has the advantage of standing completely clear of the base, so nothing you bolt on can ever come near the gas struts.
What matters either way is that the headboard is not the thing your mattress leans on when the base is open. The base carries that load. The headboard just needs to be out of the way while it does.
Sizing, and the Mistake Worth Avoiding
Whichever type you choose, the width has to match the base. A headboard should be the same size as the bed it is going on, so a king size base takes a king size headboard, and a double base takes a double.
Strutted headboards add one extra check. Strut spacing is matched to the socket spacing on the base, and those are not standard across the industry. A strutted headboard bought separately from a base made elsewhere may not line up. Ordering base and headboard together removes that risk completely, because they are drilled to the same pattern in the same workshop.
Fabric is the last thing to line up. Naples, Lino, Plush Velvet, Wool, Linoso, Chenille and the rest of the range run across both bases and headboards, so a Lino Charcoal base can take a Lino Charcoal headboard and the bed reads as one piece. Cocktail Straw and Crushed Velvet Pewter do the same job if you want more texture in the room.
Built Properly, Delivered Properly
Both types are handcrafted by expert British craftsmen and both are medi-endorsed, backed by medical experts, like everything else we build. The difference between them is engineering rather than quality, one hangs off the base and one stands on the floor, and they exist so that any bedroom can be fitted out properly regardless of skirting, ceiling height or what the base was set up for.
Complimentary Two-Man Delivery brings the whole bed to your room of choice, so nothing has to be dragged up a staircase by you. If you are unsure which type suits your room, measure the height you want and check what is on the wall behind the bed. Those two numbers usually answer it.
