A bed frame or bedstead is the part of a bed

Bed

A bed is a large piece of furniture used as a place to sleep, relax, or engage in sexual relations.Most modern beds consist of a mattress on a bed frame, with the mattress resting either on a solid base, often wooden slats, or a sprung base...

 used to position a mattress

Mattress

A mattress is a manufactured product to sleep or lie on, consisting of resilient materials and covered with an outer fabric or ticking. In the developed world it is typically part of a bed set and is placed upon a foundation....

 or foundation set off the floor. Bed frames are typically made of wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 or metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

. A bed frame is made up of head, foot, and side rails. Most double (full) sized beds, along with all queen and king size beds require some type of center support rail, typically also with extra feet extending down to the floor.

Brass beds

Brass beds are beds in which the headboard

Headboard

Headboard may refer to:* Headboard * Headboard , a board attached to the front of trains, especially named trains* a plastic or wooden reinforcement for the head of a sail, providing the halyard cringle...

 and footboard are made of brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

; the frame rails are usually made of steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

. Brass beds can be made of 100 per cent brass or of metals that have been brass plated. The brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

 used in making brass beds is usually 70 per cent copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 and 30 per cent zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

. The ratio of metals may vary between manufacturers.

Brass beds were originally simple and plain. Throughout the centuries, designs have become increasingly elaborate and can contain extensive ornamentation such as porcelain finials. Some brass bed styles include traditional, Art deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

, Victorian

Victorian decorative arts

Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. The Victorian era is known for its eclectic revival and interpretation of historic styles and the introduction of cross-cultural influences from the middle east and Asia in furniture, fittings, and Interior...

, transitional, Edwardian and contemporary.

Iron beds

Iron beds are beds in which the headboard and footboard are made of iron; the frame rails are usually made of steel. Iron beds were first made in the 1850s. From the start of their production in the 1850s until World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, iron beds were hand-made. The manufacturing process included hand pouring and polishing intricately detailed casting and hand applying finishes. In the many small foundries of the time that employed only a handful of employees, it could take days to produce a single bed.

After the end of World War I, the mass-production methods used for war time affected the iron industry as well. The hand-made quality gave way to cost-effective mass production.

Today’s iron beds are constructed of cold roll, heavy-gauge steel tubing and solid bar stock

Bar stock

Bar stock, also colloquially known as billet, is a common form of raw purified metal, used by industry to manufacture metal parts and products....

.

Almost all iron beds now have a beech wood sprung slatted base in a steel framework which gives support to all types of mattress.