Both hide things under the mattress. They do it differently, and the difference decides which one suits your room.
How an ottoman bed works
The mattress platform is hinged at the head or the foot and rises on gas struts, so the whole base becomes one open box. You get the full footprint of the bed as storage, with no drawer runners or dividers, and nothing needs clear space beside the bed to open. Our front-lift storage base lifts from the foot, which suits a bed with bedside tables either side.
How a divan bed works
A divan is a solid upholstered base on castors or legs, with drawers built into the sides. Drawers are easy to reach every day, but each one needs space beside the bed to slide out, and they hold less than an ottoman because the runners and framework take up the volume.
Which holds more?
The ottoman, by a distance. A king-size ottoman base holds spare duvets, pillows and out-of-season clothes for two people; a divan with two drawers holds roughly a third of that.
Which is easier to use?
The divan, if you open it daily: a drawer is a drawer. The ottoman, if you open it monthly: everything is visible at once and nothing needs pulling out. Gas struts hold a mattress up on their own, so the lift is light even with a heavy mattress.
Mattresses and height
Any standard UK mattress works on either. The dimensions table on each of our bed pages shows the base height; add your mattress depth to see how high the bed will sit.
Price
On our beds the front-lift storage base adds £160 for a single, £220 for a small double or double, £260 for a king and £300 for a super king. It is made with the bed, in the same fabric, so the finish matches.
Our view
For a main bedroom, an ottoman. For a guest room where the bed sits against a wall, a divan with drawers on the open side. Every bed we make can have the ottoman base; choose it under Storage on the product page, or ask the workshop.