The Best Platform Bed Frames Under $600

Gregory Han is a writer at Design Milk. Since 2006 Gregory has been writing about home decor for a multitude of design-focused outlets, including Apartment Therapy, where he helped everyday people turn houses into homes. Before that he worked as an industrial designer for children’s toys and furniture. For Wirecutter, he has tested and recommended everything from bedside lamps and floor lamps to clothing hangers, alarm clocks, and sofas.

Dorie Chevlen is a staff writer covering all things home and decor. She has written across the website, reporting on topics as varied as pubic hair trimmers, Hanukkah gifts, and black tights.

Who it’s for: People who need a sturdy bed frame and DIY enthusiasts who want the option of personalizing the raw wood to match any style will like this frame.

It’s especially sturdy. The popular hardwood KD Frames Nomad Platform Bed is one of the strongest wood bed frames we found—it can hold up to 600 pounds. That’s likely a conservative figure considering that the Nomad  features two sets of slats that form something like a rib cage. None of the other frames we tested offered this weight-bearing design, although the wooden Zinus bed frame we recommend below is rated for up to 500 pounds.

It won’t wiggle or wobble when you settle into bed. The KD Frames bed has two more slats than most other frames, for a total of 16 beefy, 2-by-1-inch hardwood planks. Between each piece there’s just a small, 2.8-inch gap, which contributes to the bed’s strength. Add up those specifications, and you have a 68-pound platform bed frame that one tester, Wirecutter’s Kevin Purdy, said could withstand “energetic jump-ons and 190-pound body slams” with confident indifference.

You can customize it by staining the wood. The Nomad is a great choice for DIY enthusiasts who want a customized look. The blond wood is nice on its own, but it also takes stain or paint well, giving you the option of personalizing your frame. The straightforward silhouette also lends itself to whatever creative design you may come up with. Without any treatment, the frame over time will patina slightly in direct sunlight.

It has plenty of room for storage underneath. This bed frame is taller than any other frame we recommend: It’s 15 inches high, with 11.5 inches of clearance. This means you’ll have a little more storage space underneath it than with other beds we recommend here, and KD Frames also sells a replacement set of 18-inch legs ($30), which raise the clearance to 14.5 inches. At either height, you get plenty of room for storage bins, which is a perk for anyone looking to take advantage of space under the bed.

For matching under-bed storage, KD Frames sells rolling drawers that are outfitted with wheels for smooth and easy access (and they work with the Nomad). If you regularly host guests and sometimes need room for one more, a Roll-Away Trundle Bed twin frame adds a hideaway bed underneath.

One of our long-term testers reports that the bed is holding up perfectly after several years of use, and she especially appreciates that because it has only four legs, sliding the under-bed storage in and out is easy.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The bare wood of this model is susceptible to nicks, cuts, pen marks, cat claws, and other household agents of destruction.
• We’ve found this frame’s availability to be somewhat inconsistent, but the company has always been communicative and honest about timing, which is why we’ll continue to recommend this bed.
• The Nomad is made of heavier hardwood, so it requires more effort to assemble than some lighter-weight softwood or veneer beds we tried in this price category. It also ships with a lot of pieces, so although the instructions were clearly laid out and assembly was straightforward, there were dozens more slats, sides, and pieces of hardware to keep track of in comparison with our other picks.

Who it’s for: This bed frame is great for anyone on a budget and those who have to move their furniture along steep stairs, long hallways, or narrow doorways.

It’s easy to assemble and disassemble. The Zinus Moiz Wood Platform Bed Frame is a good-looking and practical choice for a person who is moving into their first apartment or anyone who is apt to change addresses often. Zinus engineered this frame with easy assembly in mind: Although the Moiz frame has more parts to piece together than other models we tested, it comes with the most straightforward, step-by-step instructions of any bed we recommend, a rarity with most DIY furniture. In addition, identifying stickers are affixed to each of the major parts. Unpacking and assembling the Moiz bed took us 40 minutes, and we were pleasantly surprised by several small details not always found at this price, such as individually sealed packaging for the hardware, the inclusion of extra parts, a ratchet wrench, and predrilled parts.

It comes in two different looks. Zinus makes two versions of this bed: standard and deluxe. They’re nearly identical in design, but the standard model has narrower rails (3.5 inches, versus the deluxe’s 5.75 inches) and is slightly cheaper. We opted to test the deluxe version, but we think most people will be just as happy with the standard model. Either frame is light enough for one person to move (the queen-size standard Moiz weighs 58 pounds, and the deluxe version weighs 65 pounds).

It’s lightweight and sturdy. Despite its light weight, the Moiz bed frame is plenty sturdy. It sits atop thick, 8-inch-long legs, which lift the bed frame to a height of 14 inches (an inch shorter than the Nomad bed), and it includes a steel center rail with three legs to add stability in the middle. The support slats are laid out with 3 inches between pieces, which is within the range we like to see. Velcro strips keep the slats securely attached to the frame’s side rails.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• One of the Velcro strips designed to hold the slats in place arrived twisted and stapled incorrectly. This didn’t hinder performance, but our testers, when leaping into bed, heard a small crinkling sound caused by the strips of Velcro shifting.
• At this price it’s not surprising that the frame is veneer, rather than made from solid wood. Although the veneer grain is consistent, smooth, and matte, the Moiz bed is susceptible to dings and scratches over time.
• Another observation we’ve heard is that when you’re making the bed, the mattress can slide over the frame.

A platform bed frame should be compatible with most foam, hybrid, and innerspring mattresses. But even a cursory search online produces a dizzying number of lookalike options, many constructed with cheap softwoods or insufficiently spaced slats prone to squeaking and creaking or even letting the mattress sag over time.

We looked for platform bed frames that hit the sweet spot between affordability and durability—with a dash of good looks thrown in—and that we could assemble ourselves with only the tools included in the box. With that in mind, here are features that every buyer should look for in a platform bed frame:

• priced at $600 and under
• supportive slats, spaced no more than 3 inches apart
• a good return policy and warranty (favoring hassle-free, no-fee returns and warranties beyond a standard 30- or 90-day “substantial defect” policy)
• adaptable, modern design

After assembling each bed, we favored models that had these features:

• easy enough for one person to assemble, disassemble, and move
• arrived in boxes that one person could handle comfortably up stairs and through narrow halls and doorways
• easy-to-follow instructions
• all necessary tools included

The “no more than 3 inches apart” slats guideline is particularly important because many mattress manufacturers, including Leesa, Casper, and Purple, won’t honor a warranty claim if your frame doesn’t provide sufficient support. According to Jeff Chapin, co-founder and head of product design at Casper, the 3-inch spec isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, since the dimensions of the slats themselves—particularly their thickness—matter more to the overall stiffness of the base and support for the mattress. Chapin notes, though, that “3 inches apart” is easier for shoppers to remember than more complex thickness specifications. (Why have slats at all? They permit airflow and help keep mold from growing underneath the mattress—something we discovered firsthand in an unplanned science experiment in college.)

If you like IKEA’s aesthetic and convenience:

• IKEA’s Hemnes bed frame is made with solid wood instead of veneer and has a traditional look. The build experience is a familiar IKEA afternoon of screws, bolts, and dowels—and reading the instructions multiple times. This frame doesn’t come with an included slat base, but IKEA lets you add one easily during checkout. We tested the Lönset slat base, the priciest option, and it felt a bit too flexible—the slats are just over 0.25-inch thick, and though they’re tightly placed, at 1.25 inches apart, the net effect was a less firm, flat support for a mattress. Wirecutter staffers who have IKEA bed frames have noted broken or slipped slats in the past.
• The popular IKEA Malm bed is made of veneer and particle board, so it’s more prone to chipping, but we like that it comes in several colors and has a streamlined, neutral look that fits in lots of homes. Several people on staff own (or have owned) this frame and say that its an excellent option for the price. We also recommend the Malm Storage Bed in our small-bedroom guide if you’re tight on space.
• The upholstered IKEA Tufjord bed is a bit more expensive, at around $650, but it comes with the slatted base. Like a lot of IKEA furniture, it is also a bit of a pain to put together. In our tests, the polyester fabric felt somewhat cheap, and it didn’t sit quite right along the curves of the frame. But overall, this bed looks nice and feels solid, with no shakiness or squeakiness.

The Mellow 9" Metal Platform Bed Frame was a previous pick, but after months of testing our experience did not match the thousands of positive reviews this frame received from buyers. Our testers found it to be excessively noisy, despite their making several adjustments and retightening the hardware many times (something we don’t think should be necessary to begin with). Testers said that no matter how many times they adjusted it, a loud crack could be heard anytime they moved around or sat on the frame. It also scratched their hardwood floors.

We ordered the Andover Mills Maxen Wood Platform Bed Frame from Wayfair and discovered that it’s a rebranded carbon copy of the Zinus Moiz (the only difference upon inspection was slightly different packaging, but the two beds were clearly marked as Zinus models). It seems to have since been discontinued.

The Zinus Justina Quick Snap Standing Mattress Foundation was quite easy to piece together into a handsome-looking upholstered foundation. No tools or hardware are required because each of the frame’s 16 pieces snap into place with the help of a rubber mallet (which is included). But we had to cross this option off our list because of the 6-inch gaps between the 11 support beams. We didn’t notice those wide gaps when our test mattress was on the frame, but Leesa representatives warned us that the wide gaps would void a Leesa warranty because over time the mattress could sink through the gaps and deform.

The metal Ollie Bed Frame from LexMod is affordable, claims to offer good support (with a 1,300-pound weight limit), and has slats that (according to a posted company response to a customer question) measure 3 inches wide and are spaced 3.5 inches apart. But it seemed to be frequently out of stock for online ordering, as did other models we considered from this brand.

The Handy Living Platform Bed Frame is a common type you’ll find at many retailers and sites, with curved wooden slats nested in rubber holders hammered into the metal frame. In our tests it was easily the most annoying frame to assemble, with instructions that seemed poorly proofread or translated. In assembling, disassembling, and then trying to reassemble this frame, we managed to break two rubber holders by bending the plastic pegs that sink into the frame. Ultimately it held a mattress, but with a feeling of sinking under pressure. The Amazon reviews tell the tale: “not horrible,” “not a long-term solution,” and “okay,” along with quite a few mentions of busted slats.

The CB2 Simple Black Metal Bed Base and the CB2 Alchemy Matte Black Bed were both previous picks, but they have been discontinued.

This article was edited by Daniela Gorny and Christine Ryan.