Simba Ludlow Ottoman Bed using EMFIT Smart Bed Sensor
Someone else in my household always wanted a smart bed and when their bed frame finally broke (don’t ask). It was time for Project Attic-Smartbed. I’ve used the Eight Sleep smart bed for over a year, it’s fairly expensive and, let’s face it, as generous as I sometimes am; I’m not that generous. I’m keeping my 8Sleep for me. However, Eight Sleep POD 4 replaced the EMFIT I used for about 10 years, and the EMFIT was still going strong at the end of my time with it.
I was intrigued to see if EMFIT would work on my new bed which is an OTTOMON-style bed. In this case, the whole mattress hinges up from the headboard end to reveal a larger under-mattress storage space than you’d normally get with 4 drawers. Accessing the entire storage when the side of the bed is pushed against a wall is also a significant advantage. With Project Attic-Smartbed, access to storage was a key criterion for a relatively small room with a relatively large double bed.
More: Eight Sleep
About EMFIT
EMFIT QS uses BCG technology which detects the tiniest of bodily movements and can accurately infer HRV as well as larger bodily movements like a bed exit..
More: EMFIT
About Simba
Simba is a regular bed company offering everything bed-related, ranging from entire beds to pillows and bedding.
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Simba gifted the Ludlow Ottoman bed frame for this review. Thank you!
Choosing, Ordering & Delivery
Simba Ludlow is available with a good variety of options. I’ll list them and highlight my choice in bold for each
- Size
- Single Bed:Height: 137 cm, Width: 90 cm, Length: 190 cm
- Double Bed: Height: 137 cm, Width: 137 cm, Length: 190 cm
- King Bed:Height: 137 cm, Width: 152 cm, Length: 200 cm
- Super King Bed: Height: 137 cm, Width: 182 cm, Length: 200 cm
- Optional, Floor-Standing Headboard: Height 137cm and width to match your bed size.
- Colour – Cloud Grey, Pebble, Graphite, Midnight Blue, Vanilla, Peacock
- Base – No Drawers, 2 drawers, 4 drawers, Ottoman
- Price – From £799 (Ottoman £999). Includes delivery & headboard, excludes mattresses and old bed collection/disposal.
The online order process is clean and works as expected.
Delivery
The total delivery time was about 10 days from the order, which was longer than I expected. The delivery company, Thaneus did NOT have a good tracking service. For example, sending me links to pages where I could choose my delivery date but no options were available. But on the day they were fine. The bed was assembled in the room and all rubbish was removed. The old bed was taken away.
Assembly Issues
The new bed was intended for a loft room with a narrower than standard stairwell width to the top floor. The headboard would not go up.
It was also challenging to get the bed up but we managed it in the end. The issue is the length. This ottoman-style bed base is divided lengthways, almost like two single beds, which is unusual, a divan-style bed is divided the other way and we had no issues getting the previous one into the room.
The point of mentioning this is that you should measure the width of your stairwell before ordering, Simba doesn’t ask for that information but will accept a return or exchange.
The other thing to be aware of is the hydraulic pistons which raise and lower the mattress. They are powerful. If you try lowering the lid without the mattress you have to press VERY hard, almost to the point where you think you will break the mechanism. With the extra weight of the matters, it is much easier. Without the mattress, the lid will flip open quite quickly…mind your head!
Sleep Quality
There was zero difference in sleep quality. It’s the mattress which made the difference and we have a quality mattress and topper so the same quality of sleep was experienced
Storage
The storage area is large. 4 regular-sized people could just about get in!
Access to the storage is much easier than you might think. There is a clever, hydraulic-powered pivoting mechanism at the headboard end.
We don’t plan to access the storage regularly but it’s probably suitable for daily access. You have to raise both sides together if you only have one mattress (think about it!).
Aesthetics and Manufacture
It looks nice.
The structural bits of the base that you don’t see are fairly rudimentary and normal by modern furniture standards. If you stood on the base (inside the storage area) it would probably break as it’s quite a thin piece of wood covering a large area
EMFIT QS
EMFIT worked as normal, I put it on top of the mattress and underneath the topper. The only issue came when raising the Ottoman. We had to ensure the power cable to the EMFIT didn’t snag in the Ottoman mechanism.
Other Notes
It’s a standard-sized UK double bed but in a relatively small room. It was tricky to take photos. You can see from one of the images above that I put a baseball cap in the storage area to give you a sense of size. The storage space is IMMENSE. until recently I never knew this ottoman-style bed existed, had I known before I would have always bought one just for storage.
Take out
A solidly made modern bed with acres of storage space making it especially suitable for smaller rooms but also larger rooms of any size. At £999 for the Ludlow Ottoman, it’s not cheap but it gives you the extra storage space when the bed is next to a wall – few other solutions will achieve that in such an elegantly designed way.
