Bed Frames for the Chemically Sensitive

This post covers bed frame options for the chemically sensitive. Metal and metal finishes, solid wood and laminated wood.

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Metal Bedframes

A metal bed frame that is powder-coated is a very safe option. 

This metal bed is inexpensive for a twin (Amazon).

Chrome is another benign metal as it has no coating on it.

Sometimes metal has a paint and not a powder-coated finish. Those are fairly safe as well, but for the extremely sensitive powder coated metal and chrome are safer.

You can paint metal with certain brands of safe paints or even seal it with shellac.

Solid Wood Bedframes

If you do well with wood, the purest option is a solid wood bed frame, with solid slats (not laminated slats), finished with a natural finish.

Many people who are chemically sensitive do best with low odor woods like poplar and maple.

Woods like pine are less well tolerated. My post on low odor woods looks at more species options.

You can seal in the odor of the wood as well as any possible contaminants with shellac.

Solid Wood Slats

For solid wood frames, check out Organic Grace which has simple frames for $780 (queen, ships from the US).

Savvy Rest makes a simple wood bed frame that can be finished in natural oils or 0-VOC water-based polyurethanes or can be left unfinished. It’s $800 for a queen.

Plywood Slats

Most solid wood beds are made with plywood (laminated wood) slats as it gives them stability with flex.

Amazon has a few options like this pine bed with plywood slats.

IKEA sells solid wood frames (pine) but the slats are laminated. They claim the glues are “non-volatile and non-polluting”.

If you want to stain or paint natural raw pine, know that this is a tricky wood to stain. Painting pine also requires more steps than other woods. You can also seal in the odor of the wood. My post on staining, painting and sealing pine goes into detail.

The post on furniture contains a longer list of companies making solid wood furniture with non-toxic finishes.