The journal: Buying

18 articles · Written by the Sanctum Domina team

Guides to buying, placing and caring for BDSM furniture, and longer reads on the archetypes and dynamics behind it.

Latest articles

Buying What should you ask a furniture maker before you buy? 
Insights · 4 min

The questions to ask any maker before you buy, and our own answers to each.

Buying Why is restraint furniture sent flat-pack? 
Insights · 4 min

A steel four-poster is hard to get up a staircase in one piece. In parts, it's a different proposition.

Buying What do S235, 80 × 80 mm and 3 mm mean on a spec sheet? 
Insights · 4 min

The letters and numbers on our spec sheet, in plain English, and why none of them is a load rating.

Buying What does made to order mean, and why 8–14 weeks? 
Insights · 4 min

Nothing in our collection exists until someone orders it. What that means for you, and how to plan around the lead time.

Buying How discreet is delivery? 
Insights · 3 min

Discreet packaging, a neutral name on your statement, and a few choices of your own.

Care Steel or wood: which suits restraint furniture? 
Insights · 5 min

Each material does some things better than the other. What steel does well, what wood does well, and how to choose for your room.

BDSM tests

Find your archetype, then read about it.

Three private quizzes: a readiness profile, and dominant and submissive archetype tests. Each result opens onto a long read in the journal.

See the tests

About the journal

The Sanctum Domina journal is where we write about everything around the furniture: how to choose a BDSM bed, cross or cage, how to fix and place it, how to clean powder-coated steel, and how to plan a room that works for the people using it.

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Alongside the practical guides are longer reads on power exchange itself. The archetype series looks at five dominant styles, from the Architect to the Sensation Dominant, and six submissive ones, from service to the brat, and each piece links to the quizzes that point you towards it. The femdom guide covers rituals, rooms and the furniture that suits a female-led dynamic.

Everything here is written to be read carefully. We keep safety advice general and point you to experienced educators for anything hands-on, and every guide puts consent and conversation first. New articles go out to the mailing list, and the most useful ones are linked from the beds, crosses and cages pages.