This post covers bed frame options for the chemically sensitive. Metal and metal finishes, solid wood and laminated wood.
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Metal Bed Frames
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 Bed Frames
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 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.
Hailee Goehring
Hi! I ordered a pottery barn Greenguard gold certified bed frame as I thought it would be safe. After reading your posts, you say not to do MDF. The pottery barn bed frame is made of “ Expertly crafted of kiln-dried solid pine wood, poplar wood, engineered hard wood/pine veneers and MDF. MDF is an engineered wood that lends exceptional strength and ensures the product’s structural integrity over time.”
Is this safe/non toxic? Or should I return? It is greenguard gold certified.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
Chemically sensitive folks usually can’t go with MDF due to the offgassing, and if there is an option between that and a lower offgassing option I would choose the lower offgassing option.
Geneen Nevens
Hi Corinne,
I just purchased a Thuma Bed frame. I felt this was a good choice for my chemical Sensitivities because they stated they don’t use MDF or Veneers and use only repurposed Solid wood. Well, I just received the bed frame and on the outside of the boxes they have a California P65 Warning due to Wood Dust and a statement on Formaldehyde Compliant. What is your feeling on the Wood Dust and Off gassing from the Formaldehyde? Have you researched the Thuma Bed frame or had any experience with it?
Corinne Segura
Wood dust warning is silly, as you are not going to be sawing a new bed frame. Slats might be plywood, and if so likely made with formaldehyde but very fast to offgas so not much worry for most people, though if very sensitive could be an issue. I would be more concerned about their darker stain colors.
Geneen
Hi Corinne,
I believe they are being very strict when it comes to making sure they label all their products incase it ships to California regarding the P65 Warning sticker on the box of my bed frame. I guess if its a wood product, there is a chance some wood dust could be in the box? You are right, I’m not sawing or building a Bed frame.
A person on the Thuma website asked about VOC’s, here is their response.
For a GREENGUARD Gold certification, our VOC levels needed to be ≤ 0.25 mg/m³. We tested at <0.004 mg/m³, which is 30 plus times under the VOC level criteria.
I will be putting together the bed frame soon, and if I have any issues with off gassing I'll let you know.
Thanks for your feedback,
Geneen
Nunya
I just ordered the linked Amazon pine frame and I must say I’m extremely disappointed. Not only is it made in vietnam, it has a giant warning sign on it that it contains DEHP. I would definitely remove this from your clean recommendations asap so no one else succumbs to this false advertising from that company.
Corinne
Thank you. This one contains phthalates? https://www.amazon.com/eLuxurySupply-Wood-Bed-Frame-Foundation/dp/B01IFP2J9Q how bizarre. I don’t even know where phthalates would be on something wooden. Does it have any plastic parts?
Erin
Do you have recommendations for other brands of metal bed frames? The one listed is no longer available unfortunately. I’ve had poor luck trying to order a metal frame. The one I bought from Wayfair arrived and had different materials than the technical specifications listed and I was never able to tolerate it after trying to off gas it outside for two years. It’s back to the drawing board.