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The Best Wood for Bed Frames & Platform Beds

Judd Jarvis, our product developer and woodshop manager, joints posts for our natural platform beds.

Savvy Rest platform beds are made with style and function in mind, but using natural materials and providing a durable product are equally important. We’ve covered all the bases with our Afton and Esmont platform beds.

The root of these products starts with literal roots—trees. We source two different types of wood: maple and poplar. Learn why we chose to use maple and poplar in our designs, and how they result in superior furniture frames.

The Best Wood for Bed Frames & Platform Beds

We have two favorites…

Poplar

Poplar is found in our natural platform beds and platform bed insert. It’s sourced from Virginia as well as West Virginia and grows straight up like a telephone pole. Poplar is used for the ledger and slats, so the internal parts of the furniture piece.

We like the fact that it’s local and one of the lightest hardwoods.

Maple Hardwood

The hard maple wood we use is sourced from Pennsylvania and further north. When you place your mattress on top of the platform bed or insert, every visible part of the furniture piece is maple.

Maple holds our zero-VOC stains beautifully. If we were to only use poplar in our beds, it wouldn’t have that same vibrant, pristine finish. But other furniture companies, unfortunately, don’t seem to mind.

“Some companies use poplar wood strictly for their furniture,” Judd, our Product Developer and Woodshop Manager explains. “However, then they have to use some pretty nasty dyes to make it look like other wood.”

We use maple for the center support beam of our platform beds, as well, because it is an overall sturdier wood than poplar.

You can also find maple in our solid hardwood coffee tables and benches. These gorgeous furniture pieces come with the same zero-VOC stain options as our platform beds and are available with or without a shelf.

Leah inspecting her work
Leah inspects her routing of an Esmont platform bed post.

Sustainability

The maple and poplar wood we use in our furniture is responsibly sourced and certified sustainable by Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers, Inc.

Why opt for a natural wood platform bed?

There are a lot of different platform beds on the market, so it can become overwhelming quite quickly. When you buy something, you’re essentially voting for what types of products and what type of company values you appreciate.

If natural products and healthy practices are something you strive for, then our platform beds, and Savvy Rest in general, meets those requirements.

“Our finishes are zero-VOC, which is a very important thing for people, especially those concerned about the air quality in their house,” Judd says.

However, not all zero-VOC finishes are created equal.

“It has to do with the makeup of the raw material. There are zero-VOC finishes out there that when set are zero-VOC. However, their raw form is different. There was one in particular I was excited about because it was water-based and sounded pretty nice. The customer would end up with a nice, clean finish that was durable and zero-VOC. Then I read the MSDS on it. The people applying it would have to wear a bunch of safety gear, and it had a lot of warnings. That’s why I use what we use. It’s safe for our people in its raw form, and it’s good for the customer in it’s finished state.”

How a stain is created in the first place is also worth looking into.

“The finish we use is flax-based, so it’s an agricultural product as opposed to something from petrochemical processes. In that way, the whole chain of it is better for the planet.” 

Graham is creating a frame for one of our organic sofas
Graham in our Central Virginia woodshop.

Simple Setup

Our customers love that no tools are required when setting up our platform bed and platform bed inserts. You don’t have to worry about a bunch of bolts and screws. Instead, the posts fit together seamlessly. 

zero-VOC furniture stains options from Savvy Rest

Finishes

As previously mentioned, we only use zero-VOC finishes for our furniture. There are a few options to choose from:

Unfinished: the ultimate natural look (not pictured above)
Linseed Oil: bright minimalism at its best
Cedar: a classic, light brown color
Mahogany: a bold finish with hints of red
Walnut: a dark and dramatic finish

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